Elton John Feels Like ‘Second-Class Citizen’

Sir Elton John is “fed up” with being a treated like a “second-class citizen” in the U.S.

That’s why the 63-year-old gay singer said he took a stand last week during a performance at a private Beverly Hills fundraiser for the ongoing legal challenge to California’s gay marriage ban. The outspoken British piano man, who became a parent to a baby boy on Christmas Day with partner David Furnish, added that “as I get older, I get more angry about it.”

“In this country, we need more dialogue,” he said during an interview Friday. “We don’t need any more stone throwing. We don’t need any more vitriol. We need people to say, ‘OK. I’m straight. You’re gay. Let’s get along. I’m Republican. You’re Democratic. Let’s work together.’ I’m sick and tired of people being hateful to each other in this country.”

John disappointed some gay rights activists after California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage passed in 2008 when he said he had no desire to get married and was satisfied with his civil partnership in England. He sang a different tune Wednesday when he praised the effort to overturn Proposition 8 and promised to do everything he could to support it, even though he is British.

The couple’s son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, was born in California through a surrogate mother. John said he was disappointed that members of the Church of England questioned his parenthood in the days following his son’s birth. He insisted that he’s not against religion and that “Jesus was a wonderful, compassionate man, who forgave on the cross.”

“Everyone is entitled to have their own beliefs and their own spirituality,” said John. “The big difference is that the dogma of the church can be so hateful and divisive. It’s stuck in the stone age. We don’t live in the stone age anymore. The church is losing people left, right and center because people are fed up with the rhetoric that they’re giving them.”

Cincinnati Bearcats: Are They Built Ford Tough or Soft Like Charmin?

This is a memo directly to the Cincinnati Bearcats, from top to bottom:

You want to get to the NCAA Tournament this season, right? You don't want to be studying film on College of Charleston for your first round NIT home game, do you?

Then get tough. Get mean. These other Big East teams are trying to keep you out of the NCAA Tournament.

Don't f***in' let 'em!

This fadeaway, shy-away-from-contact stuff ain't gonna cut it. This is the Big East. This is a grown ass man's league. You get the ball five feet from the rim, you take a power dribble and you go up like you are trying to shatter the g**damn backboard! Make the defender have to foul you to hold you down.

Floaters and fadeaways take the pressure off the defender. When you don't go up strong, you just made his job easier than Tara Reid after one Natty Light.

I hate to single out one player, but I have a quick message for 6'9", 265-pound Yancy Gates: Dunks are legal, ya know. And I'm not talkin' about the wide open, nobody-within-10-feet slams you get against Georgia Southern. I'm talkin' about the facials you provide when a smaller guy saddled with two fouls (Notre Dame's Tyrone Nash last night) tries to check you without a double-team.

Turn, face, fake right, and then take a power dribble, go right through his left shoulder and go up and thunder that sh*t! Yes, this is legal. And, if the guy draws a charge on you, make it hurt! Dunk on him anyway.

The bottom line is this, guys: Nobody is going to hand you that tournament bid on a silver platter with a side of Elisha Cuthbert in The Girl Next Door. You want that bid? You've gotta TAKE that bid. Snatch that bid. Grab that bid, growl, and then bite a giant piece out of it!

Get tough! Get pissed off. That's your bid!

Not sure how to elevate into "Mean Mug Bearcat Mode?" Ask your coach to show you tape of Eric Hicks, Jason Maxiell, Kenyon Martin, and then more Eric Hicks. That's how you intimidate. That's how you take it strong to the rack with no regard for human life.

That's how you get to the NCAA Tournament.

Jim Nantz Doesn't Like 'Absurdity Of All The Self-Aggrandizing,' Phil Simms Begs To Differ

It's not quite "That is a DISGUSTING act," but Jim Nantz made his contribution to the storied tradition of joyless fuddy-duddies announcing sporting events today in the Jets' 28-21 win over the Patriots.

"I've never understood the absurdity of all the self-aggrandizing. Now you've cost your team 15 yards on the kick."
That's what Nantz said, ragging on a celebration started by Shonn Greene after his fourth quarter touchdown gave the Jets a two-touchdown lead. My eyes rolled, and I wasn't the only one.

"I've got to say this: there's a time to celebrate ... that was it."
Well said, Phil Simms. Well said.

No words praising propriety from Nantz would be particularly surprising — Nantz loves The Masters and its airtight atmosphere more than anything. But it's not easy to take at face value, either: Nantz' divorce from his ex-wife was notable for her claim that he wanted to hang an oil panting of himself, which is as humble as humble gets, no?

I tend to think that all athletes should be able to celebrate however they want, so long as no one gets hurt. And given the situation — the Jets had just scored a dagger touchdown to all but seal a huge upset of their hated rivals — it's hard to begrudge Greene rolling around a bit.

In any case, though, it's nice to hear someone sticking up for fun, even if it defies logic that that person would be Phil Simms. Nantz can have the so-vanilla-it's-alabaster Masters; the rest of us will continue to enjoy livelier forms of entertainment as they are.

After all, Rex Ryan can't run down to pat his player on the head at The Masters.

Charlie Sheen on the Set -- Like Nothing Happened

TMZ has learned Charlie Sheen is back on the set of "Two and a Half Men" and is showing absolutely no sign he went on a major bender this weekend.

One source connected with the show tells TMZ, "He has the constitution of an ox," adding, "He's figured out a way of shutting down [the substance abuse] long enough so he can function normally when he has to. He's a complete functioning addict."

As TMZ first reported, Charlie was on a bender in Las Vegas over the weekend, partying with 3 porn stars. As one source involved in the situation tells TMZ, Charlie doesn't believe he has a problem: "He's having a good time. On the surface it's the opposite of hitting rock bottom."

Sources tell us people on his team talked to him on Friday about getting help for substance abuse, but Charlie would have none of it. By the way, we're told the show Charlie taped on Friday is "great, and Charlie nailed it."

Charlie arrived at 10:30 AM and is now on the set, rehearsing with Jon Cryer.

'Hannah Montana' Coming to an End -- We Review Episodes We'd Like to Have Seen

If you hear the chokey echoes of a tortured mass sob reverberating around the world this Sunday, don't worry -- it's just the sound of tweens everywhere mourning the loss of small-screen icon 'Hannah Montana.'

After four years on TV, two movies, eight albums and an incalculable amount of glittery pink merchandise, the Disney Channel hit is ending its run.

Like many of her Disney contemporaries, the show's star, Miley Cyrus, has arguably become more famous in recent years for her behavior off-screen than for her on-camera parts, but she, too, was once a bright-eyed, buck-toothed young starlet making family-friendly fare with all of her clothes on.

So how will it end?

The New York Daily News reports that Hannah/Miley's big finale will center on her character's decision to either attend college or pursue a movie career. Only time will tell which choice she will make, but in the meantime, we review the episodes that should have made it to air.

1. "Look-Alike"
After many years spent skirting the issue, neighbors and acquaintances come clean about knowing that Miley and Hannah are the same person. "You put on a blonde wig and you expect us to forget what the rest of you looks like?" asks neighbor Mrs. Alvarez. "That stuff may have worked for Superman, but we're not idiots, Miley."

2. "Miley Gets a Cell Phone"
"Come on, let's just take a few photos, it'll be fun!" says her ex, Jake Ryan. "It's not like anybody's going to see them."

3. "Robby Ray Admits to Loving Miley More Than Jackson"
While Miley and her brother have previously debated the issue in the jocular way that siblings often do, dad Robby Ray admits Miley is the favorite when Jackson leaves the house a mess after a party. "I'm sorry, that's just the way it is," Robby tells Jackson. "She's been paying our bills since she was 14 and you're a 33-year-old who still lives at home. What did you expect?"

4. "Miley Seeks Treatment For Disturbing Dreams About Her Dead Mother"
Healthy grief takes many forms, but believing that you're talking to your long-deceased mother while caught in a time warp isn't one of them.

5. "Miley's Friends Procure Hallucinogens"
After trying some of an unknown substance obtained by her friends, Miley awakes to find her reality permanently altered. "Where's all my Hannah stuff? Where are my gold records?" she asks her father, quizzically. "Who's Hannah?" he replies.

Party Like It's 1996: Yankees Taking Hard Look at Andruw Jones

If you asked me three years ago where Andruw Jones would be in 2011, I would rattle off a thousand different answers before settling on "A Major League baseball field."

Literally, 1,000 different answers. Gas station attendant. Universal Studios tour guide. Dave & Buster's skee ball maintenance man. Grifter. Anything but a big-league ballplayer.

It was three years ago that I last saw him play in person. I was at Dodger Stadium, sitting in the upper deck for an early May matchup between the Dodgers and Astros.

I lived through Carl Pavano. I survived Kenny Rogers. I battled through Danny Tartabull. And I can tell you, I've never seen a fanbase emit vitriol toward a home player that came close to the way Dodger fans went after Jones.

Maybe it was his close ties to NL rival Braves. Maybe it was all those violent gangbangers in the Dodger Stadium crowd. Maybe it was his physical appearance (Jones was visibly overweight, sporting an XXXL-baggy uniform to hide a physique that had gone from John Basedow to Jonah Hill).

Ultimately, it was probably a combination of all those things...plus the collective realization their team had dropped $36 million on a flabby has-been who seemed intent on setting the record for most three-pitch strikeouts. It was that bad.

Jones lost his starting job shortly thereafter, in route to batting an almost unthinkable .158 for the season. Rather than own up to his failures, Jones hit out, complaining that Dodger fans "never gave him a chance." After attempting to trade him for a Super Nintendo and bag of beef jerky, Los Angeles admitted defeat the following January, releasing Jones with a year to go on his misbegotten contract.

That's the Andruw Jones I remember. But that's not the way most Yankee fans recall the pride of Curacao.

The majority of Yankee fans hear Jones' name and think back to 1996, when a then 19-year-old rail-thin unknown stole the show in Game 1 of the World Series. He homered twice that game, unseating Mickey Mantle as the youngest player to go deep in the Fall Classic. It was a coming out party for Jones, a night that set the stage for a decade of superstar-level production.

At 33, we know Jones will never be the All-Star he once was with Atlanta. And we can only hope for his sake that he left behind his demons (and KFC Double Down fetish) in Los Angeles.

What you're probably going to get at this point is something in between. That may be good enough for Brian Cashman and the Yankees, who are reportedly interested in bringing Jones aboard as the fourth outfielder.

Jones would essentially fill the role vacated by the deposed Marcus Thames. He'd start against lefties and serve as a pinch-hitter in close-and-late situations. Although Jones isn't half the defensive player he once was—he won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves in center field while with the Braves—he's still light years ahead of Thames, who plays the corner outfield positions like a Kardashian sister.

Still, I wonder how Jones would do in New York. It's clear the Dodger fans got to him—though in fairness, those fans would've gotten to a T-1000 the way they carried on. Still, you have to wonder if he has the mindset to survive a slump in the Bronx.

Then again, Jones is only being asked to fill a part-time role. If he struggles, they'll simply replace him. But you wonder if taking a risk on a fading player is a better idea than simply retaining Thames, who thrived in the role last year.

The Yankees no doubt liked what Thames did with the bat, but they seem to be on the hunt for a more well-rounded player. The question is whether Jones actually fits that mold at this stage in his career.