We had a Kardashian ban on this site for a couple years. It’s eroded over the past year, as new writers have come and gone and I found myself too busy to send email reprimands when they ran Kardashian pieces. I never really talked about why, but now seems as appropriate a time as any.

In October 2007, I ran this piece. It contained a photo of Kendall and Kylie Jenner posing on the red carpet for the viewing party for Keeping Up with the Kardashians. There was some veiled reference to how I looked forward to the days they behaved like their older sisters, but there was nothing especially inflammatory about the piece. It was a photo of two girls on a red carpet. At a press event. I said they were “cute.”

Someone left a comment on the piece containing Kylie and Kendall’s actual phone number. I didn’t know this — I don’t read all the comments on this site, as there are many, many comments left daily, on pieces spanning the 4+ years of its existence. Kylie and Kendall began receiving phone calls in the middle of the night, and the Kardashian family traced it back to the comment left on this blog. I had no idea any of this was going on.

One morning, I received a phone call from a blocked number. Stupidly, I answered. It was the Kardashian’s rep — or perhaps a lawyer, I can’t remember at this point — calling to tell me about the comment with the phone number. Also, he didn’t like the piece I’d written and he said something about how I was exploiting young girls. (Young girls who were posing on a red carpet.) I told him I didn’t want to cause the girls any trouble, and I removed the comment containing the phone number.

He called again, an hour later. There were other comments on the post (the post contained hundreds of comments at that point — they’ve all been deleted since) where people were discussing their overtly sexual fantasies about these young girls. Their mother, he explained, was very upset. Again, I was unaware these comments were present, and I removed all comments of a sexual nature from that post.

I will note that the Digital Millenium Copyright Act makes clear that the owner of a website is not legally responsible for comments left on it. I was under no obligation to remove these comments, and I knew that, but it was clearly the right thing to do under the circumstances.

Then he called again, a couple of hours later. There were other comments on the post, comments that spoke ill of the adult Kardashians, and Kris Jenner was upset about those, too. He wanted those removed. I told him that, while I didn’t mind removing the sexual comments about the little girls, I felt that the comments about the older Kardashians could stay. At this point he became very upset. He called again and again. He was calling every fifteen minutes. I didn’t answer. He left long-winded, angry messages. He went through every post on my site that contained any mention of any Kardashian and left detailed instructions as to how it needed to be changed. I did not comply.

I finally answered one of his calls. His voice was full of condescension. He asked how old I was. I was 25 at the time and I told him that.

“Oh, you’re very young.”

“Sasha,” he said — but he may as well have said ‘Little Girl’ — “you don’t understand what you’re dealing with here. We will destroy you in court. We are currently in the process of taking down BuddyTV for what they said about the Kardashians. Their site will be off the Internet forever tomorrow. They’ll be bankrupt. Do you want that to happen to you?” (BuddyTV, for the record, is still very much alive, kicking and successful.)

I told him that I didn’t, but that I understood my rights, and I was under no obligation to remove the posts about the adult Kardashians. He listed all the laws I was violating. (These were lies.) He referred back to the post about Kylie and Kendall, and threatened to take me to court on some federal charge of exploiting young girls. Then, at one point, he offered to give me rights to the photos from the Kim Kardashian Playboy shoot in exchange for making the “corrections” to all my blog posts about the Kardashians.

He called hourly. He did this for days. It was insanity. These were obviously public figures — people who had willingly agreed to participate in a television show about their lives, including the lives of their underage daughters — and they still planned to control every facet of the way they were portrayed in the media? And they planned to do this by hurling baseless threats at young women running blogs? It was completely insane.

Eventually the phone calls dropped off, and — surprise! — no one ever took me to court. I decided we didn’t need to cover the Kardashians at all, and we didn’t for a long time.

Today, I received an email from a producer at BuzzMedia imploring me to cover Kim Kardashian’s recent blog post about these bikini photos taken of the now-14-year-old Kendall, who’s apparently an aspiring model.

So, ya know, HERE YA GO. Enjoy the heavy eye makeup, the near-exposed breasts, and the sexual poses of an eighth grader. But let’s be very, very careful not to exploit any young women in the process, okay?

Oh, damn. Look at this friendship.

Nas and Amy Winehouse were photographed leaving a Japanese restaurant in London last night. I wonder what their conversation was all about. I be he was like, “Imagine smoking weed in the streets without cops harassing/Imagine going to court with no trial/Lifestyle cruising blue behind my waters/No welfare supporters more conscious of the way we raise our daughters” and she was all, “BLLLAAAAAAAKKKKKEEEEEEE.” I bet it was something like that. I hope they’re working together.

One of the only shows I consistently watch is Weeds on Showtime. OK, I technically quit for half of season four and all of season five, but I saw this preview for season six and you know what? I’m back in. I’m going to start watching again because it looks like Nancy’s done messing around with the hard drug selling Mexican dudes who brought all that violence into the show. And like, sure, last season supposedly ended with Shane murdering a woman, but that’s not scary drug violence. That’s angry teenager stuff, and that’s what I’m emotionally equipped to deal with (I love you, Taylor Momsen.) But yo, how much does it suck that Elizabeth Perkins left? She’s the best.

Only watch the above video if you’re down to have the plot of the first episode (and the general tone of the season) spoiled for you. They basically say where the show’s headed, and while it was good enough to make me want to start watching the again, I don’t wanna hear shit from nobody about ruining it for you! Holla!

OK, I don’t think Bryan Abrams is hot for real, but I think he did when I was seven and Color Me Badd was popular. Anyway, the scoop from PopCrunch:

Abrams, 40, was taken into custody on suspicion of harassment after his wife told authorities that the enraged singer tossed her across a hotel room during a heated spat. He appeared in a Hawaiian court on Wednesday and later released on his own recognizance.

Abrams has a history of battery. In 2008, he was jailed after being charged with domestic abuse and assault and battery after attacking and threatening to kill his then-girlfriend.

Wow! What a month for washed-up nobodies to abuse women, right? If last summer was the Summer Of Death, then this summer is the Summer of Domestic Abuse. I’m calling it now…. and then I’m going to weep for humanity.

OK, so people always call Kristen Stewart a bitch, right? They say she’s aloof and too cool for school and rude in her awkwardness. I don’t think that’s true, you guys. This is what I think it is: Kristen Stewart sucks at talking.

Technically, there’s many worse problems the girl could have. She’s an actress. She doesn’t need to know how to engage people in conversation because when she’s working, someone else is writing the dialogue. But when it comes to press tours and all that, it shows when someone’s not eloquent, and that was the case with this interview I stumbled upon.

Kristen, when asked why she’s not involved with more social networks, says, “I can’t be online because, I have to be online! I’d love to please the fans because of the way they support us, but time is not enough. It wouldn’t be enough the ammount of time I spent online with them.” Those are not the words of a well-spoken woman. It reads as super bitchy (“I don’t have time for that because anything I’d give would never be enough for my rabid fans.”), when I think/hope she means something much more sincere (“I can’t get involved with that stuff because I would never be able to respond to everyone and I don’t want anyone’s feelings to get hurt or be a disappointment.”)

But I’m not saying that she’s dumb, either. In the same interview she refers to music as one of the most “sensitive elements” in her life and has a pretty solid perspective on what fame and success has granted her (“Now people ask me “what’s next? what project are you choosing?”. It’s a privilege having the opportunity to have those questions, even if it’s hard to answer them sometimes. I owe it to Twilight. Fame looks more spectacular from the outside than it does from the inside.”) So what’s her deal? It’s weed. It’s all that weed. Chick’s a total stoner.

This is Christina Aguilera’s new video, “You Lost Me,” and it’s kind of wonderful.  Everybody’s talking about how she’s really softened up a lot for this video, and that’s because she really, really has.  Personally, I think Christina’s always been a classy lady who likes to play around with different styles and genres – this is a long cry from “Candyman” – but she’s always amazingly talented and incredibly poised.  This video is no exception.

All right, that’s my sickening praise on Christina.  What about you guys?  Is this video a hit or a miss for you (please be proud of me that I am refraining from declaring that Christina is beautiful, no matter what you say)?