Style and Focus News Bites

** Actor, Larenz Tate is continuing his role as national spokesman for Sickle Cell Disease Awareness in the campaign "Be Sickle Smart: Ask About Iron". Tate will also be joined by his two brothers, screenwriter Larron and actor, Lahmard to help promote more awareness. For more information about the campaign visit, AskLarenzAboutIron.com.

** Atoosa Rubenstein, former editor-in-chief of Seventeen Magazine has created Alpha Kitty, an empowering video network. Alpha Kitty is described as a combination of girl power and Oprah Winfrey meets the digital video revolution. For more information, visit youtube.com/AlphaKitty.

** NBC Universal to buy Oxygen Media. Oxygen Media is a popular female focused cable television network. NBC is speculated to purchase the television network for about $925 million.

** In the LA Times.com article, "The trouble with rehab, Malibu-style" there are lawsuits pending against luxury rehabilitation centers and the lawsuits are alleging that the facilities are "scamming clients".

** Barack Obama Proposes Capping Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Making Polluters Pay. Senator Barack Obama presented a plan on Monday, Oct. 8th to decrease the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and fight global warming (New York Times).

** The Avon sales force has seen a change, there are more men selling Avon products. The company has also introduced more products geared towards men such as the Derek Jeter line which includes cleansers, cologne, after-shave and deodorant. His cologne became Avon's bestselling men's fragrance of all time, and its second bestselling fragrance overall.

** Hearst Magazine has acquired RealAge Inc., a consumer health Web site. The site will receive a few upgrades with the addition of a recipe-finder service. It will allow users to search for different recipes and to make the recipes easier to find they will also be sorted by health factors such as fiber and total calories.

** Holly Robinson Peete is among many stars who are participating in Lifetime Network's "Be My Strength, Be My Support, Be My Bra" campaign, an on-air, online and print PSA initiative created by breast cancer survivors for the month of October. Peete is also campaigning for Autism in support of her son who has the condition.

** Sugar Inc. has acquired Coutorture Media, the leading network of independent style publishers online. Coutorture Media will continue to operate independently at Coutorture.com.

** Similar to a post I wrote back in Feb. "Why do we accept negative behavior?", actress Julia Stiles slams the media for encouraging bad behavior among young stars. She says that extensive press coverage of the antics of Hollywood's party-loving elite only encourages young celebrities to misbehave.

In a quote from the World Entertainment News Network, Stiles says "I think a lot of it has to do with being very young and having a lot of opportunity and money. As for the attention, I feel we reward bad behavior. They get a lot of attention for misbehaving, and it reinforces the idea this is who they're supposed to be."

"It may also be about them being young, experimenting and partying. They just get more attention than the average kid who does that. And they're surrounded by people who won't stop them, because they're making so much money for everybody."