Justin Bieber went to visit the Anne Frank house and he left a message in the guest book that has some in a kerfuffle and others claiming the message was innocent and reflective.

This is what Bieber actually wrote in the guest book:

 “Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.”

The folks at The Anne Frank House said this:

“The Anne Frank House was pleased to welcome Justin Bieber to the Anne Frank House last Friday. We think it is very positive that he took the time and effort to visit our museum. He was very interested in the story of Anne Frank and stayed for over an hour. We hope that his visit will inspire his fans to learn more about her life and hopefully read the diary.”

Those in a snit thought this:

That brief message drew many angry comments from people who said Mr. Bieber did not respect the sanctity of the house and was using Anne Frank to reflect on his own celebrity. ” Glad he went,” one commenter wrote on the Facebook post, “but, the last sentence is VERY self serving. he missed the lessons of Anne totally.”

The all knowing Perez Hilton pitched an online fit went into triple snit mode:

the Biebs either missed it entirely or just couldn’t be bothered to think outside the realm of himself for two minutes,

And Diana Reese of the Washington Post pulled out daggers and knives, put another stick up her ass, and took it a step beyond the actual comment and zoomed in on Bieber’s common usage of the word hopefully:

Of course, I found his grammar painful, but since the venerated AP Stylebook has accepted the use of hopefully for “it is hoped” at the beginning of a sentence, I’m alone in that agony.

You know, I have always believed that intent is one of the most important things in life. And I don’t think for a moment that Justin Bieber went to the Anne Frank House with bad intentions. But more important, whenever someone young who has the ability to influence so many other young people takes the time to actually do something positive like visit the Anne Frank house, I’m in his corner. And if Justin Bieber can inspire other young people to learn more about Anne Frank, he’s doing something right.

I’m also glad the Anne Frank House commented. They were actually there and they saw what transpired, unlike grammar cop Diana Reese and silly Perez Hilton.

For those who don’t know about the way Anne Frank suffered, and the way she herself influenced and changed the world, you can check it out here in digital format.

I’ve read Anne Frank more than once, and thanks to Justin Bieber I’ll be re-reading again very soon.

Mr. Selfridge on PBS

As a huge Edwardian Era fan, I started watching the new Masterpiece Theater show, “Mr. Selfridge,” and I’m as hooked on this one as I am with “Downton Abbey.” I’ve been a fan of the star of “Mr. Selfrdige,” Jeremy Piven, for years…since he was on the Ellen sitcom in the 90’s…and it’s fascinating to watch how he’s grown as an actor since that time.

If you are a fan of “Downton Abbey” and you haven’t checked out “Mr. Selfridge,” you can read more here at wiki. It’s based on the real life of businessman, Harry Gordon Selfridge, and among other things it seems to be focusing on the changes women faced during that period.

Mr Selfridge is a British period television drama series about Harry Gordon Selfridge and his London department store Selfridge & Co, produced by ITV Studios for ITV and PBS. It began airing on 6 January 2013 in the United Kingdom and March 31, 2013 in the United States.

Review for Fangsters: Clan of the Jersey Boys

I rarely solicit book reviews from anyone, much to the frustration of my publishers. I like getting them the hard way, unsolicited and from readers. I don’t usually mention my own reviews here on the blog either because I don’t like to rant about bad reviews or wallow in ecstasy over good reviews. But sometimes I get an unsolicited review that touches my heart as a writer (not an author) in ways I’m sure the reviewer didn’t anticipate. And that’s what happened when I read this review for Fangsters on the M/M Good Book Reviews web site this past weekend.

This was written about “Digger” a character who features prominently in Fangsters.

I will be honest in my dislike of Digger. He is the type of man who if you met him once, then you would go out of your way to avoid him. He was spoiled, self-centered and prone to violence at the slightest thing.

That’s exactly what I was going for with Digger, and I couldn’t ask for more as a writer than the comment above. Because I write a lot of romances and focus more on the hero character sometimes, I often feel as if I’m falling short when it comes to those really bad characters we all love to hate. I was actually worried that Digger wasn’t evil enough, and thanks to this review I can rest much easier now.

You can read the entire review here, at the M/M Good Book Review web site.