Octover 11 - Where Are They Now? Wednesday - This Just In

This week’s WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WEDNESDAY is an update on some people I have highlighted in past blogs.

The first is Jennifer Wilbanks, the Runaway Bride. I originally posted about here on May 19, 2006. Well, you can’t keep a good woman down on the farm too long. Her and her piecing eyes are back.

From the AP newswire: “The runaway bride is taking her former fiancé to court, claiming he took advantage of her hospitalization to defraud her of her share of the proceeds from a book deal about their adventure.

Jennifer Wilbanks' lawsuit follows a dispute in recent months over personal items -- such as a new vacuum cleaner, a ladder, a gold-colored sofa and various wedding shower gifts,
She claims ex-boyfriend John C. Mason never returned the items.

Wilbanks, then 32, ran off four days before she was to be married in a lavish wedding in 2005. She turned up in New Mexico, claiming she had been abducted and sexually assaulted. She later recanted, saying she fled because of personal issues, and pleaded no contest to telling police a phony story.

She was sentenced to two years' probation and performed community service that included mowing the lawns at public buildings.

In a lawsuit filed September 13, she and her lawyer said that while she was hospitalized and under medication, she granted Mason power of attorney to negotiate the sale of the couple's story to a publisher in New York, and Mason struck a deal for $500,000.

But she said Mason used the money to buy a house in his name only, and later evicted Wilbanks from the home. She is seeking $250,000 as her share of the home, and $250,000 in punitive damages for alleged abuse of the power of attorney.”

I have many problems with this woman.

1. How do you keep wedding shower gifts if you didn’t get married? I personally wait six months to give a wedding gift just to make sure it takes.

2. How can you profit from a crime? I thought there were laws to prevent this from happening.

3. How did she get out the hospital?

My next update is on Katie Couric. I blogged on Katie when she announced she was leaving the Today show last April 5th. I predicted that the Today show rating would go up upon her departure. They have.

I blogged on Katie a second time on September 5th. I had been asked by the local paper to critique her first newscast. I predicted she would start in first and be in last by the elections.

Five weeks into her tenure at the "CBS Evening News," Katie Couric's broadcast was third place last week for the second week in a row.

With an average of 7.04 million viewers, Couric's audience last week was the smallest she'd had since taking over the evening news anchor desk, and it's lower than the number that tuned in for her predecessor Bob Schieffer's last week on the air in late August, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Finally, I wanted to provide an update on Star Jones. I had blogged on Star on May 2nd and again on June 28th when she was fired from The View. I predicted that she would not be heard from again. So far, so good.

She did release a book, Shine: A Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey to Finding Love. It originally cost $24.95, but is now selling for $7.99 on Amazon. It ranks #509,825 on the Amazon “Hot Seller” list. Makes you wonder what crap is at #509,826. I’m betting it’s a book on poetry.