August 09

Estella Marie Thompson's Birthday

		When Estelle Thompson (aka "Divine Brown") and her baby daddy Alvin C. "Gangsta" Brown of their two girls could not pay a $133 electricity bill, she turned to prostitution. When she went to San Francisco's Union Square one night, and earned $1,000 in five hours, she recalled, "I just wanted the best for my children and I didn't want them to struggle as hard as I had, so I did what I had to do. I wanted to make money, you know, do the right thing ... go home and raise my children and just have a good life, a good quiet positive life" On June 27, 1995, Estelle and actor Hugh Grant were arrested together in Los Angeles. Thompson was performing oral sex on Hugh in his car at the time, Thompson's charge for going to her hotel room was $100. Hugh offered her $50.00, so she agreed she would provide Grant's little Oscar with lip service in his car.
Estella Marie Thompson's Mug shot

In an interview published in the UK's Daily Mail, Estelle remembered how Grant repeatedly called her "Cherry Red" during the incident 15 years ago. She said "I know he loved it. He kept calling me Cherry Red because my lips were red, my shoes and clothes were red. Even my underwear was red. He kept complimenting me on my lips and my feet. I guess he has a foot fetish, too."

According to Estelle, the attention of a policeman was caused by Hugh repeatedly pressing the brake pedal of his BMW with his foot, causing the brake lights to flash. Charged with lewd conduct, she pled no contest on September 6, 1995, and was fined $1350 for parole violations and sentenced to 180 days in jail.

Estelle remembers that $50 trick as ‘God’s work.’ She has been reported to have earned a total of $1.6 million from publicity related to her arrest with Grant.As a result, she and Brown bought a four-bedroom home in Beverly Hills. Estelle has said the money she earned from interviews and endorsements after the infamous 1995 interrupted oral pole dancing has allowed her to put her daughters through private school and college. "Everything worked out for the better," she said in 2007: "It helped me turn it into something positive … I was blessed that it could get me out of that lifestyle." She subsequently separated from Brown and, according to The Reliable Source on August 30, 2010, is running a record company with a new boyfriend in Atlanta, and was quoted in stating that "Hugh Grant was my Richard Gere." (in reference to Gere's film, Pretty Women).

So to celebrate Estelle's divine birthday, we suggest watching Pretty Women (1990) while enjoying some Sausage Stuffed Dates .A caveat. Don't eat these while driving.

Sausage Stuffed Dates

Ingredients

24 pitted dates
1/4 lb chorizo

8 slices bacon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F.
2. Slice each date along one side using a paring knife.
3. Taking a pinch of chorizo, press into the pocket formed by opening the date.
4. Stretch each slice of bacon out on a cutting board. The bacon should be about 1/3 larger
    then when pulled from he rest of the slices.
5. Roll the date until date is covered and the bacon comes around about 1&1/2 times.
    Cut from the slice. You should get 3 to 4 dates per slice of bacon. Skewer with a toothpick
6. Place on baking sheet with lip on all sides a( there will be a pool of fat on the bottom of the
    sheet, Bake for 30 min or until the bacon is golden and fat rendered. Rotate halfway
    through cooking.
7. Serve warm.

Serves 6-8