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Turns out that the “Friends” had lots of special friends.

After surveying all 236 episodes of the NBC sitcom, humor Web site splitsider.com has found that the six characters had a total of 85 sexual partners — counting only those that appeared on-screen — throughout the series’ 10-season run.

The most promiscuous one was Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), who racked up 17 partners, 23.5 percent of whom accounted for relatively long lasting relationships.

Tied for second place in the sleeping-around category were Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) and Ross Gellar (David Schwimmer), who each had 16 partners, although 37.5 percent of Phoebe’s relationships were serious, while half of Ross’ relationships wound up being long-term.

HOT SHOTS: Jennifer Aniston

Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) had 14 partners — including baby daddy Ross — with 71.4 percent being serious relationships. BFF Monica Gellar (Courteney Cox) had 13 partners, two famously played by Tom Selleck and Jon Favreau, and went steady with 38.5 percent of them.

The prude of the bunch was, unsurprisingly, Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry). He had a paltry nine partners, 33.3 percent of whom were serious relationships, before he married Monica.

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NEW ORLEANS — Colorful former Gov. Edwin Edwards, who turns 84 next month, on Friday married a 32-year-old woman who befriended him during his federal prison sentence for bribery and extortion.

Edwards, a Democrat who served four terms as governor in the 1970s, `80s and `90s, did most of the talking after he and bride Trina Grimes Scott emerged from an elevator at the Monteleone Hotel in the French Quarter.

“People who don’t know me don’t know what a wonderful, pleasant, modest fellow I am,” Edwards said when asked how a man his age managed to land a much-younger wife.

He also told reporters how Grimes, who started writing him letters while he was in prison, visited him there regularly on weekends and holidays in recent years.

“The prison was in love with her — they used to watch her walk across the parking lot,” Edwards said, laughing. “They made me the camp hero.”

The two have not talked about what prompted her to choose him as a pen pal.

Edwards spent eight years in federal prison for his role in a bribery and extortion scheme to rig riverboat casino licenses during his fourth term in the early 1990s. In July, he completed six months of home detention and regular reporting to a Baton Rouge halfway house.

Grimes became Edwards’ third wife in what the governor said was a small, private ceremony earlier Friday at the hotel, with a few friends and family in attendance.

“It’s great, I’m very happy,” the bride told reporters. She has posted wedding updates on her Facebook page, which does not list an occupation.

Edwards wore a blue suit, while his new wife wore a cream-colored, knee-length, strapless dress.

A reporter asked what the dress was made of and she said she didn’t know. Edwards, born and raised in Louisiana’s Cajun country, quipped: “It’s Italian silk, with a Cajun twist.”

After posing for pictures, the couple walked around the block to Galatoire’s Restaurant on Bourbon Street, to smatterings of applause from tourists and workers in taxi cabs and delivery trucks.

They were followed by a small parade of reporters, photographers, and an entourage that included state Supreme Court Justice Catherine Kimball, who performed the wedding ceremony, and her husband, former state Rep. Clyde Kimball.

Edwards, who also served in Congress, brought charisma and power to state politics that rivaled that of Louisiana’s other favorite populist sons, Huey and Earl Long.

Though frequently criticized in the press for his link to a Korean rice scandal early in his congressional career, his strong hand in deal-making with legislators as governor and his leadership in the push to legalize gambling in the `90s, Edwards built a reputation for being able to broker coalitions of urban and rural constituencies.

He was last elected governor in 1991, when he faced former Ku Klux Klan wizard David Duke, who ran as a Republican. Business leaders feared Duke’s election would be devastating for the state’s convention business because of his extremist views.

Around New Orleans, bumper stickers began popping up on vehicles, stop signs and park benches that forever immortalized Louisiana’s often stormy romance with Edwards. The stickers read, “Vote for the Crook: It’s Important.”

Edwards won in a landslide.

www.telegraph.co.uk

The Democrat-controlled US Senate has blocked a Republican debt-ceiling bill, just two hours after it was narrowly passed in the House of Representatives.

cnn.com

(CNN) — Will Nevin had been dreading the doctor for years.

Nevin knew he was obese, maybe even a likely target for diabetes. At 5 feet 10, Nevin estimates he weighed 350 pounds.

“When I was that size, I (thought), what do I need a scale for?” he said.

An Internet search added to the 25-year-old’s suspicions. He had symptoms such as a tingling in his feet, which he thought was probably a symptom of pre-diabetes at the very least. But it was easier to ignore his size than face the possibility of a complicated diagnosis.

For Nevin, the ultimate evidence of his denial came on a road trip from Alabama to California in January 2010 with a few friends. At the wheel, Nevin abruptly began to feel a tightening in his chest, and his heart started racing.

“What is this? Am I having a heart attack?” he thought, assuming the worst.

Now, Nevin believes he was foolish not to stop or alert his friends, but the feeling passed, the trip continued and he remained determined to not have his fears confirmed by a doctor. He hadn’t seen one since April 2006.

View Will Nevin’s iReport

When he returned to school in Alabama, Nevin kept mentally reliving his scare and wallowing in self-pity; shortly after coming back, he had lost his job, which had consumed all his time.

Now, his evenings consisted of eating and watching TV until bed.

After about a month, Nevin realized that something had to change. He’s still not sure where the spark came from, but he headed to his university’s gym.

“I was 24. That was supposed to be the peak of my health, my energy — really everything,” he said. “If I’m not going to be fit, strong and healthy at 24, then when am I going to be?”

300-plus pound student exercised in secret

The idea to go to the gym was strange, but Nevin says he wasn’t scared, because he didn’t know what he was getting into. The intimidating part came when he actually got to the gym — even the layout was unfamiliar, with the exception of the smoothie counter.

Despite his misgivings, he hopped on the treadmill and walked for three miles that night.

Besides committing to the gym every single day, he did his own research and changed his diet to exclude red meat and fried food, but added in fruits and vegetables.

“I will be the first to admit I did not do this ideally,” he said. “If I had to do it over again, I would have seen a doctor and a nutritionist from the start, at the very beginning. But it just happened to work out for me.”

The gym sometimes proved to be a lonely experience as he dragged himself on the treadmill and observed the chiseled and ripped bodies surrounding him, knowing how unlikely it was that he could ever look like that.

“The toughest moments were when you stepped on the scale and you weren’t satisfied for whatever reason,” he said.

With family life as goal, man drops 177 pounds

But eventually, his hard work paid off. People’s comments of, “You look different,” turned into, “I don’t even recognize you anymore.” There were small victories in tightening his belt to the next hole and getting rid of the 4-XL T-shirts.

“(The result) doesn’t happen the first day, but the clothes start to fit a little better, then they start to fit a little worse — when they fall off.”

For Nevin, one of the biggest benefits of exercising and losing weight was being able to walk up the flight of stairs to his law class and reach the top without feeling winded.

“I can run up a flight of stairs now, and it doesn’t bother me,” he said.

About 11 months later, in January 2011, Nevin sprinted across the finish line — he had met his goal of 175 pounds, half his starting weight. He said there was a relief at finally seeing that number he had been imagining on the scale.

“You look in the mirror at yourself sometimes. Who is that staring back at you?” he said. “It’s almost a sort of disconnected feeling. Your mind is picturing one thing, but you look in the mirror and it’s something completely different.”

Foodie struggles every day to keep pounds off

Nevin also finally faced his doctor, confident that he could handle the truth.

“(The anxiety) went away as soon as the blood tests came back — my sugars were fine, my blood pressure was fine,” he said.

Dr. Melina Jampolis, CNNHealth’s Diet and Fitness expert who is a physician nutrition specialist in California, said research shows losing even 5-10% of one’s body weight can lower blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol

“I see it regularly, and certainly for that dramatic of a weight loss in somebody so young, I would be surprised if he didn’t normalize,” she said.

Got your own weight loss story to share? Visit iReport

However, Jampolis said that if a person is pre-diabetic, that genetic predisposition never goes away and will likely come back if the person regains weight. This is why it’s crucial for the changes to turn into a lifestyle.

“Type 2 diabetes is clearly associated with being overweight and (is) responsive in most cases to weight loss,” she said. “If you are concerned that you have symptoms of diabetes, you should absolutely see a doctor and not try to self-treat yourself. It worked out for him, but it might not work out for everybody.”

The most difficult part of Nevin’s journey was powering through the mental setbacks and persevering even when the scale wasn’t showing him the results he wanted to see. He had been overweight since kindergarten, always opting for TV and computer games rather than the outdoors and athletics.

“You have to find a reason you want to do this. It can’t be to please other people and it can’t be purely for cosmetic reasons,” he said. “It has to be because you want to make a serious long-lasting change in your life. … You have to find that inner motivation.”

Now that he knows he’s pursuing a healthy lifestyle, his constant nervousness has turned to peace. His calorie-conscious eating hasn’t ruled out fast food, but while a typical order used to include at least three cheeseburgers and a large order of fries, now it’s a low-fat chicken salad. He still uses the treadmill daily, but his speed and resistance levels have increased.

One unconventional reminder of Nevin’s journey is his wedding band, which is too wide for his finger. To keep it from falling off, he wrapped layers of duct tape around the ring in what he describes as an “inelegant solution.”

It’s also what inspired the name of his blog, Duct Tape Wedding Ring, where he writes about his continuing journey.

“It’s about finding the little solutions that work for you,” he said. “(Even though) they might not be what other people would do. … If I can change my entire life in 11 months, what can’t I accomplish?”

cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Despite a pick-up in growth at the end of last year, the economy has taken a hard turn for the worse in the last few months.

On Friday, the government will report how much the economy expanded in the second quarter — but don’t expect much good news.

A CNNMoney survey of economists forecasts the economy grew only 1.8% in the second quarter, which would be a slight slowdown from the first quarter, when it grew an already lethargic 1.9%.

That sluggishness comes after some encouraging growth of 3.1% in the last quarter of 2010. Things seemed to be moving in the right direction.

But then in 2011, the recovery was hit by a series of events, including a precipitous rise in gas prices, natural disasters that disrupted major world economies and a worsening sovereign debt crisis in Europe. And lawmakers’ bickering about the debt ceiling here at home certainly hasn’t helped either.

All of those factors are rattling consumers, whose spending habits alone account for roughly 70% of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Debt ceiling made easy

Spending takes a hit: Just when spending was finally starting to pick up, consumers pulled back in February, and growth began to slow for the next three months.

Can you blame them? During that time, gas prices rose to a national average of $3.98 a gallon, its highest level since 2008, and hit Americans’ wallets hard.

“Higher gas prices were robbing other areas of spending, and that — first and foremost — shows up in GDP,” said Ellen Zentner, senior U.S. economist for Nomura.

In June, consumer confidence — as measured by the Conference Board — hit its lowest level since November.

Zentner predicts Friday’s report will show consumer spending only picked up 0.6% in the quarter — less than half the 2.2% rate it grew in the first three months of the year.

“That kind of growth represents households that are spending only on necessities,” Zentner said. “We don’t have households reaching for credit. They’re still very much mired in that mind set of paying down debt, rather than taking on debt. And that, on top of a weak labor market, is keeping consumers from spending.”

Where the jobs are

Job market slumps: The year began on strong footing, with job growth picking up and layoffs tapering off.

But then hiring hit a snag in the second quarter, and employers began to tap on the breaks. After adding 497,000 jobs in the first three months of the year, growth started to slow in April. By June, the job market barely showed a pulse.

Meanwhile, at least 400,000 Americans file fresh unemployment claims each week and about 14 million people are currently unemployed.

Housing double dips: Making matters worse for Main Street, home prices plunged to their lowest level since 2002 earlier this year.

While some signs show the housing market has hit bottom, low home prices continue to impact both consumers’ spending patterns, and their ability to relocate for jobs, Zentner said.

Because of this effect, economists predict residential investment — which accounts for about 2% of the country’s GDP — slowed in the second quarter.

What entrepreneurs want from Obama

Manufacturing slows down: After a solid eight months of accelerating, growth in the manufacturing sector started to slow in March, according to the ISM Manufacturing Index.

Recently, several regional reports have also pointed to a manufacturing slowdown and on Wednesday, a government report showed orders for durable goods like aircraft, autos and computers fell in June.

Part of the recent weakness could still be due to the impact of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami on the global supply chain, but economists also say it appears lower demand is also taking its toll.

Fed to the rescue? Not so fast

The few bright spots: Second quarter GDP is basically riding on two key strengths — a ramp up in business investment and stronger exports, said Jim O’Sullivan, chief economist for MF Global.

“Corporate profits are growing even more, and companies have been piling up cash,” he said, pointing to reports that show businesses have recently boosted their spending on items like equipment and software.

While those strong corporate balance sheets have yet to translate into meaningful job growth for average Americans, business spending accounts for about 10% of GDP — so it will help the growth numbers look better.

Meanwhile, rapid growth in emerging markets like China has also helped U.S. exports pick up. Exports grew rapidly in the second quarter, whereas imports barely changed due to fewer shipments from Japan. That effect is expected to add to the GDP figures, even if it is only temporary

cnn.com

cnn.com

(CNN) — Make-up advertisements featuring actor Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington have been banned in the UK because of their controversial use of ‘airbrushing’.

Britain’s Advertising Standards Agency issued the ban after politician Jo Swinson complained about the two ads, for foundation products made by L’Oreal’s Maybelline and Lancôme brands.

L’Oreal admitted the photographs it used had been digitally manipulated and retouched.

But the cosmetics giant claimed they “accurately illustrated” the effects their make-up — Maybelline‘s The Eraser anti-ageing foundation and Lancôme‘s Teint Miracle –could achieve.

The company described the Roberts image — taken by celebrity photographer Mario Testino — as an “aspirational picture.”

However, the watchdog ruled that the magazine ads were misleading, and exaggerated the ability of the products they were promoting to cover lines, wrinkles and blemishes.

“On the basis of the evidence we had received we could not conclude that the ad image accurately illustrated what effect the product could achieve, and that the image had not been exaggerated by digital post production techniques,” the ASA said.

Swinson, who has waged a long-running campaign against the use of “unrealistic” images in fashion and advertising, said it was “shocking” that the ASA had not been allowed to see the original version of the Roberts photograph.

“It shows just how ridiculous things have become when there is such fear over an un-airbrushed photo that even the advertising regulator isn’t permitted to see it.”

The Scottish MP welcomed the ban, and said it should act as a wake-up call to advertisers, urging them to “get back to reality.”

“Pictures of flawless skin and super-slim bodies are all around, but they don’t reflect reality,” she said. “With one in four people feeling depressed about their body, it’s time to consider how these idealised images are distorting our idea of beauty.

“Excessive airbrushing and digital manipulation techniques have become the norm, but both Christy Turlington and Julia Roberts are naturally beautiful women who don’t need retouching to look great.”

Both Maybelline and Lancôme said they were “disappointed” at the ASA’s ruling, insisting that The Eraser and Teint Miracle were scientifically proven, and pointing to consumer tests which showed users were satisfied with their results.

It is not the first time their parent company L’Oreal has fallen foul of Britain’s advertising authorities. In 2007, a TV advertisement for its Telescopic mascara — featuring actor Penelope Cruz — was criticized for failing to make clear she had been wearing false eyelashes.

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