A teenage girl is suing her teacher for calling her ugly. According to reports, the freshman was called ugly by her teacher and kicked in the rear end by her choir teacher .

The alleged altercation took place in front of Jade Ray's classmates. Ray says she was humiliated and is seeking $75,000 to make things right. Ray wanted to be a part of a group singing Valentine grams and asked for permission of her teacher to do so.

Teacher Heather Hargett 's response? Calling her ugly, a brat, and then kicking her in the rear and ordering her to leave the room. That doesn't sound like any of the teachers I ever had in school! The fourteen-year-old's claims are being taken seriously by school officials.

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Actor Ethan Hawke welcomed a baby girl into the world July 18th, according to his representative. Hawke and his wife, former nanny (to his kids with Uma Thurman) Ryan Shawhughes, are proud parents to Clementine Jane Hawke. Clementine is the first child for the newlyweds and joins siblings Maya Rae and Levan Roan, Ethan's kids with Uma Thurman.

Mara Buxbaum confirmed the happy news. Hawke and Shawhughes married a month ago. Hawke split from Thurman in 2004, and it is alleged that she may be pregnant as well.

Congratulations to the couple!

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Hugh Jackman is no stranger to parenthood. The X-Men star is dad to two children and remembers what it was like to be a new parent. One thing he didn't care for was all the advice lopped at him. As a result, Jackman has endeavored to decline from offering parenting advice to other new parents. He is refusing to offer advice to new mom Nicole Kidman (and new dad Keith Urban). Nicole and Keith recently welcomed daughter Sunday Rose into the world. No word on whether or not they actually sought advice from Jackman, but if they did or do, they ain't gonna get any.

Jackman did go on to say that he received one bit of useful advice from the man who helped deliver his son--never to rock the baby. According to Jackman, if one does this one will spend one's life doing it. He declined to offer this information to his Australian compatriots.

What do you think? Did you appreciate advice when you were a new parent or did it annoy you like it did Hugh Jackman? New parents, regardless of whether or not they're celebrities, have a lot to learn about raising a baby. Ultimately, there's only one way to do it, and that is to go through it and learn from experience.

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Former supermodel Christy Turlington is campaigning for maternal health. The mother of two (with husband actor Ed Burns) is attempting to get the U.S. government to provide more resources to women during childbirth.

According to Turlington, a woman dies every minute of complications from childbirth. She believes that women around the world do not have access to the same medical care she had when she gave birth to her children. I would wager she is right. I couldn't believe the amount of care I received during the birth of my son and after in recovery--and I'm just a regular gal! Women the world over deserve the same amount of care, so I am right there behind Christie in her endeavor.

Joining Turlington on her campaign is former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, who is mom to daughter Bluebell Madonna Halliwell. Turlington is ambassador for Care, an organization dedicated to fighting global poverty.

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Bullying, unfortunately, is a fact of life for many kids. Even funny man and former Saturday Night Live star Will Ferrell had to deal with bullies. The star of the soon-to-be-released Step Brothers says when he was a kid he was taunted by a neighborhood bully.

This teenage bully was unique in that he threatened to shrink Ferrell and even carried around a vial of some sort of powder to prove he was capable of doing so. Ferrell claims he was so traumatized he had nightmares about being shrunk. Hopefully he didn't watch the televised presentation of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. That would have pushed him over the edge!

Who came to the rescue? Says Ferrell, his mom eventually made the kid come clean that the powder would not, in fact, shrink anyone. Ferrell grew up to be a major star. The bully? Who knows. But I wonder who's feeling small NOW! Moral of the story? We all deal with bullies and we all get past it. If we're lucky our moms will set things straight and, if we're really lucky, we'll grow up to be household names. Take that, bullies!

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File this in the list of the stupidest things people do, you know, that list that makes you wonder how it's possible for some loser to be a parent when there are so many great people out there who can't have kids? Some jerk decided it was a good idea to leave his son in the parking lot in the car while he went in and saw The Dark Knight, the latest Batman installment.

Oh, yes he did. David Farnham, candidate for father of the year, left his two-year-old son alone in a locked car while he took in the more than two hour movie. Naturally people who were actually concerned about the boy's wellbeing noticed him crying and sent for help from the police. When the boy was retrieved he was dehydrated and scared but otherwise in relatively good condition.

7 Signs You Should Call Child Protective Services(click thumbnails to view gallery)

The cops noted it was 87 degrees and the windows of the car were rolled up. I think about this kind of thing all the time living in New York where the temperatures get surprisingly hot. Aside from the basic, common sense fact that no child should be left alone in a car, it was too hot for him to be out there. Did I mention it was in the middle of the night? Oh, yeah, the father went to see the 1:00 AM screening of the movie. I know an R-rated movie is no place for a child, certainly not a two-year-old, but isn't it better than being left alone in a hot car? Or, wait--I know the answer: GET A SITTER. If you can shell out the ten bucks to see the movie you can certainly afford a few dollars more to get someone to watch your kid.

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Welsh actor Sean Connery has left his son out of his will. According to his ex-wife, the reasoning behind this is that his son, Jason, should provide for himself.

Jason is now forty-five years old, so one would hope he indeed is able to provide for himself. And, in fact he is. According to reports, the father and son fell out after Jason threatened to drop the family name--the reason behind the fight in the first place. Jason works as an actor and director, gigs his father claims he got only because of his name.

According to Connery's ex-wife Diane Cilento, the relationship became strained after Connery cut off the money to his son. What would you do? If you were in a position of power or influence, would you open doors for your children, or would you make them work for it all? Or, would you do something in between?

Worst Celebrity Dads(click thumbnails to view gallery)

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Many of us will face the multitude of pregnancy ups and downs. During our first trimester we may be nauseous day and night, leading us to wonder why they call it morning sickness. We may swell in places we never dreamed could get any bigger. Our boobs--well, let's not even get into those. As for diet, there may be some things we can't be near and some things we can't live without. And then there's the heartburn.

My mother had heartburn the entire time she was pregnant with me. I got it--bad--in the third trimester of my first pregnancy. This go around, I've had it nearly the entire time. What causes it? Well, there's a baby in there vying for space with everything else. That could be it. It could also be hormones. Progesterone, a hormone that pumps up during pregnancy, relaxes the muscles in the uterus and allows gastric acid to seep up. According to one pal--who turned out to be right, at least in one instance with the birth of my son--heartburn means the unborn baby has a full head of hair.

How to treat heartburn while pregnant? That, luckily, is not so tough. Some of us had better be prepared to buy stock in Tums, which are recommended by OBGYNs. The modern version comes in a variety of fruit flavors and tastes less chalky than its predecessor and even offers a bit of calcium, which is extremely important for pregnant women to get. Another pal suggested apple cider vinegar as perhaps a healthier alternative to the Tums. While this method could work fine for non-preggies, pregnant women are advised against consuming cider. It has also been recommended to drink plenty of water and to imbibe milk when heartburn strikes. The other remedy? Have the baby!

Pic by pixthree.

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Say what you will about a smoker's right to light up in his car or her own home, but I think we can all agree that underage smoking is wrong, wrong, wrong. a new study suggests that menthol cigarettes are specifically formulated to attract and snag young smokers (and the keep the adult smokers hooked for life).

Menthol cigarettes are the minty ones, you know, the ones most like candy. they're also easier for a young system to tolerate than regular cigarettes. According to a new study out of Harvard, manufacturers of menthol cigarettes are using this information to nab the "vulnerable population." As smokers get used to menthol, like with pretty much anything else, they naturally prefer a stronger flavor or sensation.

The research also indicated that nearly fifty percent of smokers between the ages of twelve (yes, you read that right, TWELVE) and seventeen prefer menthol cigarettes. Menthol cigarettes make up about 28% of overall cigarette sales per year. There's no need to do the math here to realize that a big group of kids is smoking these cigarettes. Those who participated in the study are urging for stronger legislation. Phillip Morris, the company who owns Marlboro Milds, a milder form of menthol cigarette, deny such allegations, as does its parent company, Atria. Lorillard, owner of the best-selling Newport brand of menthol cigarettes, also denied they lure young smokers.

Cig pic by wetwebwork.

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