These days, Vanilla Ice spends less time rockin’ a mic like a vandal and more time flipping houses on his DIY Network show, The Vanilla Ice Project.

(Everything about that sentence is weird.)

Anyway, back when he was rockin’ mics, Vanilla Ice (pictured right with MC Hammer), the pop icon dealt with his fair share of celebrity stalkers.

Ice recently stopped by the Rolling Stone studio and talked about the time one girl followed him around the globe, flashing him at concerts and sharing Satanic literature in an attempt to get him to convert to her religion.

Guess the girlies were on standby to do more than just say hi.

OKAY! No more “Ice, Ice Baby” references, I swear. Head over to Rolling Stone’s “Vanilla Ice On Being Stalked By A Satanist” for the story, and don’t forget to check out Celebrity Or Not: Resources For Dealing With Stalkers.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Perhaps best known for hits like “Rhinestone Cowboy” and his role in the 1969 version of True Grit, Campbell recently went public with his Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis and announced one last tour before retiring from the country music business.

The Country Music Hall of Fame inductee’s final album, Ghost On The Canvas, features artists like Chris Isaak, Billy Corgan, The Dandy Warhols and is available for purchase now. Head over to Campbell’s official website for more information.

Karen Gravano’s long-anticipated memoir, Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, and Me! is to the bookshelf what “Mob Wives” is to television: A scandalous, voyeuristic glimpse into a notorious lifestyle so guarded, it may as well be fiction to most of us.

The thing is, it’s not fiction, and Karen Gravano – along with her mother and brother – certainly have paid the consequences for Sammy’s actions. They lost homes, friends, and even family members over the lifestyle that Sammy chose to lead…

…and eventually turn his back on.

Throughout Mob Daughter, Karen describes her life-long struggle to find a balance between her father’s criminal lifestyle and her own healthy, happy existence.

How do you find that balance?

Growing up Gravano wasn’t easy, but it had its perks. Wealth, power, and most of all, respect, overshadowed suspicions, doubts, and even murder.

Yet when Sammy did the one thing he taught his children never to do – when he cooperated with the government and helped the FBI finally bring down Gambino crime family boss John Gotti and essentially became a “rat” – Karen’s reality took a hit from which it never recovered.

She finally knew for sure that the father who placed so much emphasis on family meal times was also the man who made his living tearing other families apart, and that realization meant creating a new life.

Her own life.

Mob Daughter is not a literary masterpiece, by any means; then again, Gravano isn’t an award-winning authoress, is she? She’s the child who found a gun under her father’s mattress, the teenager who saw the names and faces of her father’s murder victims splashed across newspapers, and the woman who, after spending more than a decade on the other side of the country trying to put her life back on track, moves back to the heart of it all to finally face her past.

She’s the daughter of Sammy the Bull, and she’s simply telling us how she created her own life after the life her father created for her fell apart.

Mob Daughter hits shelves this Valentine’s Day. Visit St. Martin’s Press to learn more.

Image Source: St. Martin’s Press

Well, it’s here, sweet readers!

First, Otis has written a guest post, Healing Sexual Intimacy, for Michele Rosenthal‘s Your Life After Trauma. The aptly titled article discusses Otis’s experiences with sexual dysfunction and provides five steps or methods Otis has used to overcome her intimacy issues and become more present and comfortable with her sexuality.

The post went live this morning and you can head over there right now to check it out.

Second – that’s right, there’s two! – Otis will appear on Rosenthal’s radio show, Your Life After Trauma, tomorrow, February 9. 2012.

Your Life After Trauma is part of Seaview Radio in Florida. Local stations are 95.9FM, 106.9FM, and 960AM, but if you aren’t in Florida you can listen online! Just head over to the show’s radio page and click to listen live.

Third – oh my goodness, I’m too good to y’all – if you need something to tide you over until tomorrow, you can listen to Otis’s December radio interview with Rosenthal! The two talk domestic violence, eating disorders like anorexia, trauma, overcoming fear, learning to let go of control, and freeing your past.

If you’re thinking, “So, she had some rough times and wrote a book about it. How’s that make her any different from any other celebrity?,” just check out what award-winning website owner and radio host says about her first show with Otis:

Carre Otis really surprised me: as a supermodel with great celebrity status and a slew of successful modeling and film projects under her belt, I didn’t expect to feel an enormous connection to this guest. And then, Carre came on the show with such grace, humility, humor, consciousness and connection I was stunned – and happily surprised. What a phenomenal, real and genuine soul.

There’s definitely something for everyone dealing with these issues to learn.

Whoa, talk about big weekend for Daniel Radcliffe and fans.

First, Radcliffe’s new film, The Lady In Black, debuted to overall rave reviews this weekend.

I couldn’t get on Twitter or Facebook without seeing a post about how great it was, and although the majority of print reviews claim the film adaptation of the 1983 thriller fiction novel of the same name uses some tried-and-true techniques for scaring us silly, Los Angeles Times calls it “a good, old-fashioned ghost yarn of the Victorian Gothic persuasion,” The Hollywood Reporter says it’s a “nifty old-school horror film,” and NPR reminds us there’s a reason these techniques are “time-honored”:

[...] keep you on edge, they definitely do.

Oh, and The Boston Globe says Radcliffe is now “in for the long haul.”

Then, Radcliffe admits that he used to show up on the Harry Potter set drunk.

Yes, you read that correctly. Drunk.

Just so we’re clear, we’re not talking about butterbeer here, and we’re not talking the kind of drunk involving partying a little too hard the night before and getting up a little to early the next morning; nope, according to his interview with British celebrity news magazine Heat, we’re talking about the kind of drunk that’s a problem:

I have a very addictive personality. It was a problem. People with problems like that are very adept at hiding it. It was bad. I don’t want to go into details, but I drank a lot and it was daily – I mean nightly.

Shocked (which I’m assuming is the general reaction to hearing that), the interviewer asks Radcliffe if Harry Potter was hungover – and the answer is much more disturbing than “yes”:

I can point to many scenes where I’m just gone. Dead behind the eyes.

Admirably, Radcliffe immediately takes ownership of his problems, claiming he doesn’t believe he’s the victim of any kind of child star syndrome:

I think it would have happened anyway. I think it’s just in me.

Fortunately, Radcliffe seems to have it under control now. How, I don’t know (you have to purchase the actual magazine for the full interview, and I’m guessing it’d be old news by the time it traveled over the pond), but Reuters and Yahoo! Movies does note Radcliffe sings the praises of his production-assistant girlfriend, who he claims is:

[...] a wonderful, wonderful girl, who’s far too good for me. I can also be quite insecure. A lot of actors have self-doubt. I live under that the whole time, and it’s how I function best. I think she puts up with a lot; she says she doesn’t.

Despite the fact that Radcliffe’s a human and, just like all of us, has to deal with human issues, I’m guessing that – given the beloved and iconic role he played for so many years – reactions to this news will be varied, to say the least.

How does this news change your perception of the actor who grew up before our eyes? Does he appear more “human” to you now? Or do you feel let down?

Image Source: Wikipedia

This week’s “Weekend Reading” comes to us from Michele Rosenthal, creator of the award-winning Heal My PTSD and host of Seaview Radio’s Your Life After Trauma.

You might remember Michele from the fantastic interview she gave Celebrity Psychings a few years ago regarding PTSD in entertainment media – including Kevin McKidd‘s role as Owen Hunt on “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Aaaaand, you might remember Carre Otis from Guess and Calvin Klein ads –

- or Playboy and Sports Illustrated, depending on what you’re into.

After battling a troubled marriage to Mickey Rourke, drug abuse, and an eating disorder, the super model and actress spent some time regaining balance and serenity. She chronicles it all in her tell-all Beauty, Disrupted: A Memoir, which she released back in October 2011.

So, why does Michele think we should give it a shot?

In BEAUTY, DISRUPTED Carre Otis gives us an inside look at many different kinds of traumas. From sexual assault to domestic violence to an eating disorder she unflinchingly allows us to see what happens when a person finds herself into places that are destructive and harmful. She also equally shows us a beautiful path to healing, from a spiritual journey to falling in love to starting a family Carre shares with us a journey that shows courage, creativity, compassion and above all, a life-affirming purpose of being and becoming the change you wish to see in the world.

Visit Carre Otis’s website, www.beautydisrupted.com, to learn more about and get your own copy of Beauty, Disrupted, and stay tuned next week for some more Carre Otis goodness!

Image Source: Barnes & Noble

Guess who’s going behind the mic for mental health again?

Greg Montgomery, of course!

This morning, the former NFL All-Pro punter’s talking football with The People’s Morning Show hosts Nipsey, Earl, and Jen Shade (it is Super Bowl week, you guys!), but Montgomery will also cover his mental health advocacy work, no doubt including his recent placement on the DBSA Celebrity Honorary Advisory Board with Patty Duke, Jessie Close, and several award-winning authors.

The show airs Friday, February 3 at 7:30 a.m. EST, and you can stream it live via 1057thex.com.

In the meantime, check out these Greg Montgomery posts:

• DBSA Hosts Telechat With All-Pro NFL Punter Greg Montgomery
• Former NFL Players Sign On For MHA 2011 Annual Conference.
• NFL Films Presents: The Kicking Game
• Greg Montgomery Becomes President, National Spokesperson For everyminute.org

Also, learn more about Montgomery at his personal blog, Zen In The Art Of Living Bipolar.

Not only did she lose both of her parents (pretty much back-to-back), but also her brother Steve, who lost his battle with brain cancer in 2009.

The bluesy singer-songwriter, perhaps best known (commercially, at least) for her hits “Something To Talk About” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” decided it was time to “get off that treadmill” once producer Joe Henry invited her to start recording in his basement studio.

The sessions were so inspiring that I fell back in love with music and got my appetite for it back again. It was healing. (Rolling Stone)

Ultimately, those sessions gave birth to Slipstream, Raitt’s first album in seven years, and if you’re wondering how Raitt’s signature voice has held up during all that time, Henry reassures us all is well:

Her voice has lost none of its power. But it has extra smoke and nuance and life experience in there.

Slipstream is due out in April and includes Bob Dylan and Gerry Rafferty covers.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Several of the board members are award-winning authors, and while I haven’t had the chance to check out any of their books yet, fellow Psych Central blogger Margarita Tartakovsky of Weightless has read Kay Redfield Jamison’s and Marya Hornbacher’s memoirs and enjoyed them both.

So, I thought now would be a great time to get to know these DBSA celebrity authors a little better and maybe check out their works!

Marya Hornbacher

Marya Hornbacher is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author who’s written about addition, bipolar disorder, and the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, and the book has been translated into 14 languages. She wrote her New York Times best-seller Madness: A Bipolar Life after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Learn more about Hornbacher and her books at www.maryahornbacher.com.

Kay Redfield Jamison, PhD

Kay Redfield Jamison teaches psychiatry at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, is the co-director of the John Hopkins Mood Disorders Center, and is an honorary English professor at Scotland’s St. Andrews. Some of her words include the best-selling An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, as well as Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, Exuberance, Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, and her latest, Nothing Was the Same: A Memoir.

Visit her faculty profile to learn more about Jamison.

Andrew Solomon

Andrew Solomon has the kind of resume all advocates should work toward. He sits on more boards than I care to type out (a few include the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign, the Larry Kramer Initiative for Gay and Lesbian Studies at Yale University, and the Depression Center of the University of Michigan), and his New York Times best-selling memoir, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, has won 14 national awards, and been published in 22 languages, and been a bestseller in seven countries.

Check out his biography to learn more about Solomon.

There you have it, folks! Find some free time on your hands this weekend, head to your local bookstore (or log on to Amazon or Barnes and Noble) and pick up any of these fantastic-sounding books!

(Yes, I carefully chose each word in that sentence.)

For whatever reason, people loathe Nickelback.

Really, it doesn’t make any sense to me. The band manages to rack up tons of award nominations and wins (the guys have even won “World’s Best Selling Rock Artist,” for pete’s sake), but I guess there are more people out there who despise the group than there are fans, and those who despise Nickelback make no secret about it.

Well, Nickelback finally lashed back.

Within the last few days, the band has taken to its Twitter account (@Nickelback) to respond to numerous jokes, insults, and overall mean-spirited tweets. Whomever tweets for the band went so far as to ask one girl whether she’d cut her ear off yet and telling another user that the aneurism, defecation, and dog death that he claimed happened when he listened to their music was “the best day [he's] had in a while.”

Of course, for Nickelback (and any other celebrity), lashing back can be good for visibility, or their image, or popularity. It drums up interest and gets people talking (hey, I learned about this story through Rolling Stone).

For the rest of us, giving in to cyber bullying isn’t the best move. As do most kinds of bullies, cyber bullies see responses as reinforcement and often they’ll keep on and keep on and keep on as long as the victim feeds them the responses they want.

So, instead of taking a page from Nickelback’s How To Respond To Cyber Bullies In 140 Characters Or Less book (actually, that’s a pretty decent title), check out the following articles for legit information on cyber bullying, including the dangers of virtual harassment and tips for handling cyber bullies:

• Coping With Cyberbullying: The Use Of Technology To Terrify
• Cyber Bullying: Parents Try To Fight Back
• Insights And Tips On Cyber-Bullying
• Depression High In Cyber Bully Victims
• Virtual Harassment Worse Than Face-To-Face
• Cyberbullying And Teen Suicide
• Find Advocates To Deal With Bullying

How about YOU, readers? Do you have any advice for cyber bully victims? Any firsthand stories about how cyber bullying affected you?

Image Credit: cj_slim per these Creative Commons License Attributions