The 16-year-old singer from Chula Vista, California (who is also half-Filipino) spoke to The Huffington Post about her Latin roots, the Latino singers she most admires, and her plans to record a Spanish-language album!

First of all, congratulations on all of your Idol success!
Thank you!

We know you're half-Mexican and half-Filipino. Can you break down your Latin roots?
I'm Mexican and my dad is Mexican, but I didn't grow up with him speaking Spanish to me, so I don't really know much. {But} I'm proud to be Mexican. I'm proud of both my ethnicities.

Did you grow up with any Latino traditions?
I'm not really sure because I have both (Mexican and Filipino), so there was a bunch of stuff thrown at me, and I live in the States, so it wasn't just one thing...

The Latino community really rallied behind you and wanted you to become the first Latina to win "American Idol." Were you aware of the community's support during the competition?
Yeah, and that was...it kind of pushed me even more because I wanted to make them proud and I'm glad that I did. I made it this far and I'm glad I could do that for the Latin community!

Would you ever release a Spanish-language album?
I would, yeah. I think the language is beautiful and I have {sung in Spanish} in the past. I don't know how to speak it, but definitely in the future, I would love to do that. I have a really good ear.

Are there any Latin singers like Selena Gomez or Demi Lovato that you look up to?
I love Selena - not Selena Gomez, but Selena Selena...Selena Quintanilla.

When Phillip Phillips was named this year's "American Idol," a lot of people took to Twitter to tweet that you were robbed. How do you feel about the reaction that many fans had?
I'm happy for him. The last couple of days, we were hanging out because we were the last two. I couldn't have been with anybody better. He is an amazing artist, he's original and I can't find anybody else like Phillip Phillips. He really fought for this and I think he deserved to win 100 percent.

How hard was it to compete on a show like "American Idol?"
It was life-changing. I used to be home-schooled and I had my own hours - I could sleep whenever I wanted, wake up whenever I wanted and now I'm on this busy schedule and everything has to happen in order for the show to go {well} and in order to prove yourself as an artist. This show is perfect for people that are really serious about this. I fought through and I made top two, so I'm happy about that.

What's next for you?
Well, next there's a lot of stuff. I'm going to do a couple of events here and there and then go on tour. And then hopefully when I'm on tour, or as soon as possible, I'm going to try and work on some songs for my album.

JESSICA SANCHEZ ON STAGE:

Although the "Birther" movement has lost some steam since President Obama publicly revealed his birth certificate, Republican Congressman Mike Coffman recently said that he "doesn't know" if Obama was born in the U.S., but believes that "in his heart, he's not an American."

To show how much he thought of Coffman's theory (and to get in a few more Mormon jokes at Romney's expense) Maher introduced the concept of "Wiferism," the belief that Romney is a secret polygamist. Using classic "Birther" rhetoric, he showed just how easy it is to create a controversy out of nothing:

"I mean, Mitt Romney comes from a Mormon background. I don't know how many wives he has. I'm not saying that I believe in that, I'm just saying he was born on a Mormon compound. I'm not a 'Wifer' but for some reason he's never shown his original marriage certificate."

Using images of Romney's day to day life altered to show the effect of his "unholy harem of obedient sister wives," Maher elaborated on his "Wifer" theory (which he really hopes he's wrong about). Watch the video above.

Not only was Hader impressed with Jagger's comedic skills as the "SNL" finale host, but in the interview he dishes on what it was like to watch him perform a Stones song with The Foo Fighters at the after-party (and yes, he has the best job ever). He also talked about how sad he became upon realizing that he was acting in his last "SNL" sketch with Kristen Wiig as a cast member, and how they both almost starting cracking up during the "Californians" sketch (if you watch the video you can definitely tell).

And, of course, Hader can't do a TV interview without discussing Stefon, his beloved New York Correspondent character on "Weekend Update." You might have heard that "SNL" writer John Mulaney purposefully changes Hader's cue cards when he's playing Stefon so that his break-ups are genuine. During the finale, it was the addition of "Draggers" (dogs with short legs but long penises) to the script that caught Hader off guard and cracked him up.

In part two, below, Hader details his experience playing Andy Warhol in "Men In Black 3," including his daily four-and-a-half-hour makeup sessions with legendary makeup artist Rick Baker, the man behind the "Thriller" video, the cantina scene in "Star Wars" and other iconic films. Watch part one above.

WATCH: Part two

But as with anything on the controversial HBO series, his role comes with a lot of awkward sex scenes. And while some of his lines make him cringe, Abbott is more than willing to give in to them in the name of his character.

"When me and Marnie just start to kind of get back together, and they're having sex and he asks her to 'make sure you treat me with respect' or something. And you want to be like, 'Dude, just be in the moment!' Abbott said in a recent interview with Vulture. "But he's just trying to be good, and I get that."

"The initial instinct people get about Charlie is that he can be way too passive, way too chill," he continues. "You want him to stand up for himself. But when we were filming it, the important thing we'd always talk about — me and Lena and Allison — is why is he doing this, where does it come from, instead of just doing something cringe-worthy for the sake of it. It comes from a place of having a lot of love for this person and not really being able to handle it."

For more on Abbott and Charlie, click over to Vulture.

Ric Swartzlander (Gary Unmarried) has signed on as an executive producer and will oversee the cul-de-sac comedy in its fourth season — and first on TBS. The news comes on the heels of series co-creator/exec producer Bill Lawrence's confirmation that he and co-creator Kevin Biegel were no longer planning to run the series, which aired for three seasons on ABC. Lawrence, who's married to Cougar Town star Christa Miller, assured fans on Twitter last week that he and Biegel weren't fully letting go of their Big Carls, quipping: “My wife is on the show — you think she'll let me disappear? Please.” Lawrence will serve as an executive producer and executive consultant on Cougar Town while developing new projects for Warner Bros. TV, with whom he signed a deal last year. Biegel will act as consulting producer. Swartzlander's other credits include Samantha Who? and 8 Simple Rules.

But before they can produce the new episodes (which they're hoping to premiere during Hispanic Heritage Month), the co-creators of the hit web series will have to raise $50,000, and they're hoping a new KickStarter campaign will help them reach that goal more quickly.

Julia and Yamin spoke to The Huffington Post about raising money for the series' first official season, the Latino celebs who have signed on to star on the popular web series, and why they hope to create the first community-funded Latino sitcom!

There's so much buzz surrounding your web series "East Willy B," but for those who aren't familiar with it, can you tell us what it's about?
GROB: We like to affectionately call it a Latino "Cheers" set in gentrified Brooklyn. It's an online series about a Puerto Rican sports bar owner, Willy Jr. (Flaco Navaja), who is working hard to keep his bar alive in the face of the hipster invasion of his neighborhood.

How did you come up with the idea for "East Willy B?"
GROB: My co-creator Yamin {Segal} and I have known each other since high school, and we sat down one day at a coffee shop because we wanted to work on a project together. We shared the feeling of a lack of content reflecting the new generation of Latinos. So instead of waiting around for someone else to do it, we were like, 'we can create a series that can speak directly to an audience that we know is out there,' and that's new generation, English-dominant Latinos, which now make up like 50 million for the Latino population.

Who do you play in "East Willy B?"
GROB: I play Ceci Rivera, a sassy bartneder who holds down the bar when Willy's still hung up on his love. She's a wise-cracking, no-nonsense kind of chick.

What Latino celebrities are involved with "East Willy B?"
GROB: We have a new cast member joining and that's Rick Gonzalez ("Old School," "Reaper"), who is everyone's favorite Brooklyn-ite! April Hernandez-Castillo has worked with us and Danny Hock, who's an amazing solo performer. It's something that people have gravitated towards for the love of the project and because they were getting roles on "East Willy B" that they could never play in TV and film.

You're currently in the process of raising money for "East Willy B." Can you tell us about that?
GROB: Yes! We're in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign. We've been raising 50K in 50 days. We're over the 50 percent mark, but we have a week left to go and the campaign ends on June 1st. And we decided to do the Kickstarter campaign because we had a lot of meetings with different networks and executives and producers—and while we've made a lot of friends and fans and people who love the content—we haven't found someone who would fund it.

Why do you think that's been a challenge?
GROB: I think part of it is, the content is a little edgy. It's a Brooklyn based story, the heart of it is a Puerto Rican story, and it also has a socially conscious kind of content because it's a comedy about gentrification. I think between the content and having an all-Latino cast, people don't know how to monetize it and they get a little scared. And we really felt that the audience is out there, people want content like us—that's what we learned from our pilot season—and we're not going to wait around for anyone to tell us we can do it, if we can go out and raise the money ourselves.

What plans do you have for the show if you do manage to raise 50K?
SEGAL: What is up on the web right now is what we're calling a pilot season. What we're trying to do now is really expand the scope of the show. Right now episodes online are under three minutes long and what we're going to do now is to create six to nine minute long episodes, and we're going to create 12 of them. So you're looking at 90 minutes of content and that's huge. We're going to launch around mid-September.

Do you have a message you'd like to share with the series' fans?
GROB: The big message to the fans is to please support the Kickstarter campaign. What we're trying to do is create the first community-funded Latino sitcom. If you feel like you're not seeing media that represents you, you're not seeing TV shows that represent you—I think that's just more of a reason to support "East Willy B." Put $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 dollars down and say this is the type of content you want to see. And if you do that, and we reach 50K, we'll have really great programming coming to you soon!

Are you a fan of "Easy Willy B?" Let us know in the comments!

WHICH OF THE 'EAST WILLY B' ACTORS JOIN THESE LATINOS ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME?

"But wait!" you're saying. "How can I watch an entire episode of a show that won't be broadcast on television for upwards of two weeks?! I'm never trusting The Huffington Post's coverage of politics or sideboob again after they led me astray with such flagrant lies about cable scheduling!"

It's simple, dear reader! IFC seems to be doing fans of "Comedy Bang! Bang!" a favor by allowing this to stream online before it airs. It only makes sense: The show is adapted from a podcast (also hosted by Aukerman), so devotees are used to checking out "Bang! Bang!" on their own schedule anyhow.

So start off your long weekend correctly by watching this episode where you can see a be-wigged Poehler. And please, continue to support our sideboob coverage.

Surely not every pixie-haired chick out there is hiding steamy Sapphic fantasies inside her carefully pomaded head, and I've met plenty of lesbians with hair that looks straight in more ways than just texture, but any lady with a shaved side, faux-hawk or asymmetrical 'do gets at least a second glance from me.

When I came out in college, I was lucky enough to do so in the company of three highly experienced lesbian roommates, all of whom advised that I reconsider the long, shapeless locks I'd carried over from my high-school days. One of the gang, as odds would have it, owned all six seasons of The L Word on DVD -- 24 discs of the kind of soft-core, girl-on-girl action that only Showtime could get away with -- and we scoured each episode for hair inspiration.

I eventually settled on Shane's cut, the only style on the femme-heavy show that looked queer enough to help me land a date. I printed out a photo and brought it to a hairdresser in Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.'s original gayborhood, to take my first physical step toward assimilation into the all-welcoming queer community I imagined was waiting for me.

Even though I emerged from the salon looking more like Florence Henderson than a hip L.A. scenester, that day remains one of my most cherished memories of a confusing, thrilling, inelegant time in my life when my sense of self was in flux and all seemed possible -- if only I could figure out just how a "real" lesbian was supposed to look, dress, walk, stand, talk, flirt, and interact in a world that still saw her as a straight woman.

Finding community as a gay person requires a certain amount of proficiency in the codes we use to build affinity and offer discretion to those who need it. In the absence of gay role models, queer youth and residents of towns or countries that stifle gay culture often turn to popular media like television shows for guidance. The lack of queer representation in international media makes those few American examples even more salient: A friend who recently wrote an ethnography of lesbians in Beirut found that The L Word was an important common reference for queer Lebanese women, even in spite of a steep language and culture barrier.

I'm far more comfortable in my identity now, not least because my ill-advised mommy mullet grew into something a shade less frumpy, but also because my years as an avid consumer of all things queer have taught me that there are as many different ways to be a lesbian as there are, well, lesbians.

I realized that, like the characters in most identity-based narratives, the women of The L Word -- my original touchstone for lesbian culture -- were a reductive cross-section of an infinitely diverse population. It might have been queer, but it was still a mainstream television show on a premium cable network that aimed to attract a broad audience.

The L Word's glamorized depiction of an almost entirely femme group of lesbian friends didn't make any pretenses about representing the real world of queer women. It was a heavily fictionalized caricature that glorified West Coast wealth as much as it did particular standards of beauty and drama-laden lesbian behavior -- which certainly made for some entertaining television.

In many ways The Real L Word does the same thing, with one notable distinction: the word "real." The catty insults and drunken fights? "Real." The backstabbing and steamy scenes of adultery? "Real." The hyper-feminine hotties who get all the action? You get the picture. The standard conventions of reality TV -- typecasting, contrived conflict, joyless sexual undertones -- feel malicious when overlaid onto an already marginalized and stereotyped group. With so few examples of queer women in popular culture, The Real L Word has a majority stake in the way "real" lesbians are portrayed to both the straight community and, more importantly, young women looking for a point of entry into the wide, wonderful world of queers, like I was in college.

Whitney Mixter, by far the most well-known Real L Word cast member and, by Showtime's own admission, the "core of the series," spends her off-camera time touring the country's lesbian nightclubs, greeted by a hefty paycheck and a plaid-clad throng of drooling, would-be lovers at each appearance. On the show her shtick is a perennial womanizing streak that leaves a jilted trail of meticulously made-up paramours in her wake.

Mixter's explosive popularity has sparked a new wave of urban queers sporting white-girl dreads -- but will her influence stop there? As a "real" role model for young lesbians, will Mixter, or the hyperbolic playboy character she's been chosen to play, become the new standard for a desirable mate?

The show's third season debuts July 12, and with a cast that includes serial flirt Kiyomi McCloskey, the frontwoman of alt-rock quartet Hunter Valentine, this year's Real L Word antics promise to top -- so to speak -- those of seasons past. I guess it's a mark of successful lesbian assimilation that we've got our own trite, degrading reality show that appeals to the least common denominator of our desire for guilty-pleasure TV. I'm starting to wonder whether poor representation is worse than no representation at all.

Though it's impressive that a mainstream television show centered on queer women has seen such success, the show's distorted depiction of lesbian culture is something to mourn, not celebrate. Young queers deserve positive, nuanced examples of lesbians in mainstream media -- and we owe them more than dubious hair advice.

Barbara Walters complimented Slattery's acting in the tripping scene and coyly asked, “How did you know how to do this?" Slattery was quick to predict where the conversation was going, and replied, “Are you asking me if I have ever done LSD?”

Walters declared, “I wasn't. But you can answer that.” The actor came clean about his own personal history with psychedelics ... sort of. “Nah…I did my share of experimenting when I was a kid, but even if I was told it was LSD, it probably wasn't,” he said.

In a video from AMC, “Mad Men" creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner explained how Sterling's trip was a significant turning point for the character: the trip represented the first time Sterling has been able to experience true empathy.

Slattery also spilled a few "Mad Men" trade secrets. Those cigarettes they're constantly smoking aren't real: they're herbal cigarettes, which they use because it's illegal to smoke inside in Los Angeles, where the show is filmed. Slattery quipped that they smell like a “combination of weed and fertilizer.”

“Mad Men” airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on AMC.

TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.

With the hot sun comes vacation, and our favorite TV characters aren't immune to the need of a little R&R. When you think of the Hamptons, it's hard not to think of "Seinfeld" and George Costanza's shrinkage problem. "I Love Lucy" made the summer road trip a sitcom staple.

From the sitcom family vacation ("Modern Family" and "The Brady Bunch" both headed to Hawaii) to the group of friends hanging out, sipping cocktails on the beach ("Sex and the City"), these are our favorite quintessential summer TV episodes to celebrate Memorial Day Weekend.

Tell us: What are your favorite episodes celebrating summer?

Her mother lives!

Eric Bolling, filling in for Neil Cavuto, wasn't the problem: he was setting up his guests unflappably. The guests, however, couldn't be heard. They could hear Bolling just fine, and their mouths opened enthusiastically -- but nothing came out.

It seemed that there was a glitch with the network's remote audio feed, and at least three separate guests launched into their talking points, only for silence to emerge.

After this happened twice in a row, Bolling cut to a commercial. When he came back from break, things seemed to be better, only for another guest to cut out completely, his satellite feed gone.

As the venerable Inside Cable News blog would say, it was a prime example of "The Hazards Of Live TV."

Watch the first fail above, and the second below.

Memorial Day began after the U.S. Civil War to honor the fallen soldiers. The last Monday of every May has been observed ever since to remember the men and women who gave their lives to protect our freedoms. I myself give great thanks to these amazing people who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and I would include in my gratitude the working dogs of the military.

Since ancient Egypt, dogs have been used during times of war and for other military uses. In World War I, they were used to deliver messages between units behind the lines. One of these dogs, Sergeant Stubby, became the first dog to be given a military rank, and received a national medal for his service. Dogs became used more and more in conflicts. Over 5,000 dogs served in Vietnam alone. They had a large presence in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Cairo, a Belgian Malinois, joined Navy SEAL Team Six in the attack which killed Osama bin Laden.

Dogs have been able to provide valuable services to the military. With their powerful noses and compact sizes, they are able to accomplish things humans cannot. Their keen hearing makes them excellent sentries. Our men and women in uniform can sleep soundly knowing that their canine comrades will alert them if danger approaches.

Dogs are able to use the same skills they use at home as police dogs. They are able to track scents, detect bombs, and find bodies. They also can be used as scouts, going ahead of the humans in their unit to look for enemy combatants, explosive devices, or other dangers that might wait for them.

Dogs have become such important parts of the unit, that army psychologists say that when the unit loses a canine member, the grief in the rest of the unit can be as great as when a human member is lost. Dogs and their handlers become so bonded, that often upon discharge they live out their civilian lives together. Other soldier dogs transition to military hospitals upon retirement where they can serve as helpers or companions to the injured.

Many people might pity the dogs, who obviously don't have much choice in the matter. They don't join ROTC or go to a recruiting office. However, I've always believed that dogs who have a purpose thrive. Whether it's herding sheep, leading the blind, or aiding the police, these dogs live fulfilling lives. Dogs have always bonded with humans and the bond that is formed in wartime is very powerful for the dogs and the humans.

This is not to say that these dogs don't face the same issues that their human counterparts face. Many dogs have to deal with the constant stress of being in the field and the workload can burn many of them out. Dogs also experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which has only recently been studied and treated and they often face great obstacles adjusting to a civilian life.

I was honored recently to be asked by the U.S. military to help out an Alaskan National Guard K-9 Unit that was being used to sniff out bombs on the supply route between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Unfortunately that trip had to be canceled due to security concerns, but I hope to have the opportunity to work with military dogs again in the near future.

These dogs have saved countless human lives, sometimes at the expense of their own. They are often the line in front of the front line. And often, they are the first casualties. For every hero like Sergeant Stubby or Cairo, there are thousands of dogs whose names we've forgotten, or never knew, who have given their lives so their human comrades could live.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. It's a great time to be outdoors with your family and your dogs and enjoy the blessings our country has been given. I hope you all take a moment to remember the brave women and men who have given us this gift. And when you play fetch or throw a Frisbee with your dog, I hope you remember all the dogs that gave their lives so that you can.

Stay calm and assertive,

Cesar

For help with your dog, visit CesarsWay.com

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