Kate Upton attends a Super Bowl party in New Orleans earlier this month. Photo credit: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images
***Kate Upton, the model from Melbourne, talked to NBC’s “Today” about shooting the cover for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit cover in Antarctica. “It was freezing. I’m from Florida, so it wasn’t great for me,” she told Matt Lauer. “Obviously, the picture now, it’s incredible. I can’t believe we were all able to accomplish that.”
Al Roker wanted to know if they airbrushed the goosebumps. “I was thinking warm thoughts,” Upton said. She added that the penguins kept her going. ”They’re adorable,” she told Roker.
SI has promised a warm destination for the next swimsuit shoot, said Upton, who has been the model on the last two swimsuit covers.
***Dr. Phil McGraw’s foundation is making a financial contribution to help support Ethan Gilman, the boy who was held hostage in an Alabama bunker. Ethan and his mother will be guests on Wednesday’s edition of “Dr. Phil.” The program airs locally at 3 p.m. weekdays on WOFL-Channel 35. McGraw also made a $600,000 contribution to a charity set up by George and Cindy Anthony, parents of Casey Anthony, when they were guests on “Dr. Phil.”
***If you find the Jodi Arias murder trial too tedious, ABC’s “Good Morning America” provides concise next-day wrap-ups. It’s been especially hard listening to Arias on the witness stand offering detailed allegations that the victim, Travis Alexander, sexually abused her.
On Tuesday, ABC’s Ryan Owens noted that Arias is “a serial liar” who “never accused him [Alexander] of anything until she was facing the death penalty” and that she angered Alexander’s siblings because her testimony “seemed to turn her trial into one of the victim.” Look for the trial to turn a lot more dramatic when the prosecution cross examines Arias.
***Former Vice President Dick Cheney talked to “CBS This Morning” in an interview called “Cheney Unchained.” He defended waterboarding, which had been dropped as an interrogation technique because of controversy, and argued that the United States should still be able to use it. “The question, I think you’ve got to answer … is how many people are you wanting to let die so you don’t offend your values,” Cheney told Charlie Rose.
Cheney also ripped the Obama administration for wanting to do “serious, serious damage to our military capabilities.” Some might say that’s chutzpah after the Bush administration’s record on Iraq and Afghanistan. But an unchained Cheney is bound to make the discussion more interesting.