I’m not a huge fan of anything Palin. But politics aside, I’m FASCINATED by Bristol Palin. I feel the same way about her constant drama that I do about People magazine and Facebook stalking… so pointless and SO addictive.  Between the famous mother, public teen pregnancy, love/not love story with Levi Johnston, her life is like a telenovela. Her latest misadventure is just icing on the Alaskan cupcake; she has made a video with Mike “the Situation” Sorrentino for the Candies Foundation – promoting their “Pause Before Play” campaign. The idea is to warn teens of the “devastating consequences” of teen pregnancy, and encourage everyone to pause – for a condom, some life direction pondering, or even a long pause ‘til marriage – before having sex.

This brings up an interesting question. Is Bristol Palin – a teen mom at 17 – really the right person to be spreading messages of safe sex or abstinence? Does the “Do as I say, not as I do” message really work? Some people in the internet world are offended by Bristol’s “hypocrisy” - saying that she really can’t expect anyone to take her seriously. My reaction is more mixed – if she was ONLY promoting abstinence, I’d be all hot and bothered, but hearing the whole safe sex message coming from Sarah Palin’s daughter is just deliciousLike, whoa – are we really hearing a former abstinence-only poster child admit that there might be a teeny, tiny possibility that teens are going to have sex anyway, and that we might as well put our energy into making it SAFER and more ENJOYABLE? Personally, I *LOVE* hearing celebs encourage condom use – for a while there, young pregnancies were being way over glamorized; it seemed like babies were the hottest new accessory, with everyone from Jamie Lynn Spears to Ashlee Simpson sporting one on their hip.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t in charge of directing that video. If I were, it would have featured regular size condoms, some KY jelly, and B-Palin would have mentioned the fact that condoms ALSO prevent many STIs. But hey, at least there is a glimmer of hope that we might be moving out of the abstinence only dark ages and into the enlightenment era of teen clinics on every corner and comprehensive sex ed for everyone!