However unintentional she says it has all been when it comes to the sultry and seductive persona that oozes sexuality through the television screen during her cooking shows, How to be a Domestic Goddess author Nigella Lawson has made a career out of making food sexy and the act of food consumption sensual. It is part of her not-always-so-subtle coy kitchen charm.

But if we believe her life to be as silky smooth and decadent as warm cream flowing over a morning bowl of juicy plump strawberries, and equally as charmed as she is charming, we would be mistaken. Yes, she is remarried to multi-millionaire, ad man and art dealer Charles Saatchi, but she is also the widow of journalist and writer John Diamond, who died of tongue cancer five years ago, leaving her suddenly mother and father to their two children, Cosima and Bruno.

A decade earlier, Lawson's mother had died of liver cancer. Her sister Thomasina died in her 30s of breast cancer. Cancer changes people. It is unavoidable, and the change can take many forms. For Nigella, who in the public eye has taken criticism for her ample figure and lack of concern for the fat content of food, has an almost unreasonable fear about thinness. After watching three family members waste away and die from cancer, she sees thin as a sign of illness.

"So even though I mind it when I put on weight I have a visual memory of seeing those people become skin and bone, and that gives me a slight reality check," explains Lawson. In watching her cooking show Nigella Bites, she came through as warm, down-to-earth, without a care for pretentious protocol or rules for the sake of rules. It is the way she cooks, and I get the feeling it is the way she lives. Cancer changes every person it touches and shapes perspectives about what is truly important in life. Being comfortable and enjoying yourself, including the food you eat, is a good recipe for life. A recipe Nigella seems to dish up with ease.

Nigella Lawson is Food Network's newest host in Nigella Feasts. On January 7, the theme of the show will be Feel Good Food featuring Smoked Salmon, Avocado and Pumpkin Seed Salad, a Vietnamese Prawn and Glass Noodle Salad, a colorful Antioxidant Fruit Salad, and a Syllabubbed Yogurt. Yum.

In the land down under tongues are wagging over the new Naked Rugby League calendar being sold to raise money for breast cancer charity. Seems the boys are baring it all and one of the players left little to the imagination in the position of hand to -- well -- private parts.

The NRL has gone very public over the fact they do not want to be associated with the nude shenanigans of players Johnathan Thurston, Justin Hodges, Paul Whatuira, Brent Webb, Ben Ross, Amos Roberts, Ashley Harrison, Riley Brown, Stuart Webb, Greg Bird, Michael Witt, Liam Fulton and Nick Youngquest.

Although all the players are nude, Youngquest has stirred the pot and is taking most of the heat, as he draped his hand in such a way as to reveal more than some consider good taste in nudity. The calendar's photographer Pedro Virgil insists the shots are provocative but tastefully done.

The Naked Rugby League calendar went on sale yesterday. The spokeswoman for the breast cancer foundation that the calendar will benefit has said they had nothing to do with the making of the calendar. I visited the online store, where many pink products are featured, and the Naked Rugby League calendar is not one of the featured items. If the charity does include the calendar in its online store, I will retract and update that last observation. In my opinion, seems they could have come out a wee bit stronger in their support for the calendar if they are the primary -- and only -- benefactors.

This story almost reminds me of another story earlier this year, when a woman died from breast cancer and her coworkers got together to honor her memory by raising money for breast cancer charity. Because they worked as exotic dancers, the first year they held a fundraiser they could not find a breast cancer charity who would accept the donation unless the dancers agreed to donate anonymously. The women had enough self-respect to decline the conditions for donation. The second year, a national breast cancer organization told the dancers they would proudly accept the donation from the fundraiser, and publicly announce affiliation with this group of women wanting to help with breast cancer research.

From Blabbermouth: Eddie Van Halen has developed a cure for cancer. Yep. Is he telling anyone what the cure is? Nope. Did smoking cause his two bouts of oral cancer? According to Eddie Van Halen, smoking did not cause his cancer, and he still smokes. What caused his cancer? He speculates it might have been the metal guitar pick he used.

This story comes from Launch Radio Networks, who reported on the Sirius Satellite Radio conversation Eddie Van Halen had with Howard Stern last Friday. I didn't hear the radio program, as my tolerance for Stern is low, but I do regret I missed this conversation.

I feel as if some significant portion of the conversation got left out in the retelling of the event -- but if not -- what do you mean you have a cure for cancer but you are not telling anyone? Metal guitar pick? Eddie, please stop talking about cancer. I am a huge fan but this sounds utterly nonsensical.

Anyone else listen to this call-in from Eddie Van Halen to the Howard Stern Show?

We are all adults here. I am assuming we are all adults here. If not, before you follow the link to this video, you might want to do it when the kids are not in the room. Not because there is anything they should not see, but because knowing kids the way I do, they might ask what the lady in the video is doing with the plum.

There are times when you just don't feel like being creative enough to explain innuendo in a way that prevents the school calling the next day to discuss what your child is discussing in class about daddy watching the lady with the plum video. The translation of double entendre can take interesting detours when repeated during graham crackers and milk time.

After all, as a parent, you are already explaining away the sexual innuendo of children's shows like Cow and Chicken, Dexter's Laboratory, Ed, Edd n Eddy, The Fairly OddParents, Johnny Bravo, The Ren and Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, and SpongeBob SquarePants.

Back to the lady with the plum. It's a bit of genius if you ask me. Rachel Gets Fruity! is part of the Everyman campaign to raise awareness on the ease and simplicity of a testicular self exam. It's short, sweet and to the point. Starring pop star Rachel Stevens, the video is sexual suggestive in a soft porn kind of way. There is no nudity. It's likely to grab attention of the audience it is aimed at and effectively raise awareness. Because awareness needs to be raised.

According to a survey, only 28 percent of men check their testicles regularly for signs of testicular cancer. The Everyman campaign is attempting to change that in innovative and creative ways. Here's the Rachel Gets Fruity! video. To find out more information on the Everyman campaign and other efforts Everyman is involved in to raise awareness, go here.

When Patsy Ramsey passed away from a recurrence of ovarian cancer two months ago, many felt she died under the shadow of suspicion concerning her possible involvement in the murder of her six-year-old daughter JonBenet, whose beaten and strangled body was found by her father John Ramsey in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado.

At the time of Patsy Ramsey's death, the family attorney Lin Wood said, "I think people will remember Patsy as being someone who was falsely accused in connection with the death of her daughter when she should be remembered for being an incredibly loving mother, wonderful wife, and person who showed great courage in fighting a vicious disease over the last many years."

Today, breaking news reveals that a suspect has been arrested in the murder of JonBenet. Confessing to elements of the crime, the 42-year-old American second-grade school teacher John Karr was apprehended in Thailand.

John Ramsey confirmed in a written statement that Patsy was aware of the authorities interest in the suspect and she died knowing that the case was about to be solved and the murderer of her child was about to be brought to justice. She did not leave this world not knowing.

Ralph Ginzburg, American author, editor, publisher, photojournalist and outspoken advocate of free speech, has died after battling multiple myeloma. According to the Washington Post, among his supporters were playwright Arthur Miller, journalist I.F. Stone and attorney Melvin Belli.

While Ginzburg earned a degree in accounting, it was journalism that he pursued as a career, working for Esquire magazine, NBC, Reader's Digest, Collier's, LOOK -- and was known for his unorthodox methods of using disguises including that of a clergyman to gain entrance to news events. Ginzburg's first publication was An Unhurried View of Erotica, which explored the undercurrent of pornography in English literature. He went on to publish Eros, a periodical containing articles and photo-essays on love and sex, and later still The Housewife's Handbook on Selective Promiscuity. Ginzburg, self-described as a brandied fruitcake of a publisher, was convicted in 1963 for violating federal obscenity laws for promotional activities in publishing books and magazines on erotica and art.

In 1962, Ginzburg was granted an exclusive interview with 17-year-old Bobby Fischer, Portrait of a Genius As a Young Chess Master published by Harpers. According to all accounts, the interview of the reclusive chess genius is still a popular read today. Ginzburg was 76.

In a feature published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Julietta Jameson asks the same question many of us have asked -- Is the compassionate celebrity the new public pest? If you are talking about Paris Hilton's insatiable self-promotion in grabbing one more photo-op by making a shallow meaningless promise to a charity for kids with cancer, the answer is a resounding yes. If you are talking about U2's Bono, who regularly meets with world leaders and often knows far more about the subject under discussion than the politicians do, then the answer is an emphatic no.

Then there are all the celebrities who fall between the extremes of Hilton and Bono, who lend their name and some of their time, for noble reasons and then too for the less-admirable ambition of keeping themselves in the news, to causes that need attention for the fundraising needed to keep the charity or cause going.

No one has ever credited millionaire heiress Paris Hilton with being anything but a pro at papazzari primping. Unless you are a Paris Hilton fan -- and if this story is true -- it might not come as a great shock but it is still despicable. The incident being reported involves innocent children.

Seems Ms. Hilton was playing to the cameras and not to the hearts of the children she promised to help at Paradise Kids. While visiting the Gold Coast, she pledged her support to the children battling cancer by staging a benefit concert, stating that "My grandmother died of cancer and I almost lost my cousin to leukemia. It's just something very important to me. I love kids and I just feel it's the right thing to do. It makes me feel good about myself and it helps other people."

According to Paradise Kids co-founder Reverend Dr. Ian Mavor, after the cameras were gone, so was Hilton. Mayor told the news reporter interviewing him that because she made a public vow to raise $250,000 dollars for the charity, it has hurt the Gold Coast Paradise Kids fundraising efforts. He said no one thinks the charity needs money since Hilton is supposedly helping them. This all happened two years ago. Mayor has tried to contact Hilton, but to no avail. Maybe the check is in the mail. Right.

Nigella Lawson has created a gorgeous recipe for lavender-tinted and lavender flavored cupcakes -- aptly named Lavender Trust Cupcakes -- that Lavender Trust at Breast Cancer Care has generously published online. The recipe uses lavender sugar. Lavender sugar can be purchased at specialty shops, or you can make lavender sugar simply by placing a few sprigs of fresh lavender into a jar of sugar for a few days.

According to the recipe introduction, lavender has been used as a flavor in Provencal cuisine for many years, and has recently begun to come back into fashion as an ingredient in the UK in both savory and sweet dishes. To get a copy of the recipe for Nigella Lawson's Lavender Trust Cupcakes, go here.

The Lavender Trust at Breast Cancer Care was founded by Beth Wagstaff and journalist Ruth Picardie, both breast cancer survivors. The Lavender Trust provides support for younger women living with breast cancer. Lawson supports the breast cancer charity in a number of ways, including the design launch of a limited edition set of lavender measuring cups as part of her Living Kitchen line of products.

If Howard Stern isn't talking about it, he will be soon. Bombshell Poker is promoting itself with the tagline: Models by day, professional poker players by night in online poker just got sexy! Here's how it works. Ten models form a poker team, and players who can win against the team are offered cash and prizes, such as Win-a-Date with a Bombshell, Win-a-Trip to a Bombshell photo shoot, and the Bombshell Poker Cruise Package. Of course there is a VIP lounge. Of course there is -- this is the Internet. VIP players can interact with the models through email, have access to photo galleries, behind the scenes video shoots, and special members only tournaments.

My prediction. Online poker is already a thriving online business. Scantily-clad women have been a draw since the public began using the Internet. Bombshell Poker Girls is going to be a wildly popular web destination for those who enjoy both. Why am I talking about it? Because a portion of the proceeds will be going to the American Breast Cancer Society to fight breast cancer. In addition, according to this new enterprise, members of the Bombshell Poker Celebrity Team will be playing in several poker tournaments during the course of the year and donating any winnings to the American Breast Cancer Society.