Michael J. Fox to Taylor Swift: Please don't kiss and tell, the parenting roundup

Michael J. Fox told Taylor Swift he didn't want his son, Sam Fox, to be inspiration for her break up songs. Michael J. Fox told Taylor Swift to "back off." Shakira is holding a virtual baby shower.

It’s Friday, which means time for our (celebrity-heavy) parenting news roundup. Without further ado, we bring you....

Dad’s dating advice

Sam Fox, you heard it from your dad first. Taylor Swift is no good for you.

That’s right. Continuing a Tina Fey joke from the Golden Globes last weekend, Michael J. Fox at a book party Wednesday told the singer to “back off” from his 23-year-old son. (Not that there’s any rumor of interest, anyhow.)

“I don’t keep up with it all,” Michael J. Fox told reporters at Vulture.com, who actually asked him about this. “But Taylor Swift writes songs about everybody she goes out with, right?”

Indeed, the 23-year-old Swift is getting a bit of a reputation as a serial dater. Which in and of itself is no great surprise for a young celeb. The difference is that Swift’s exes tend to find themselves the focus of popular tween ballads. (Talk about never ever getting back together.)

The Vulture interviewer asked Fox what he would think if Sam brought home Taylor for a family dinner. His reply: He wouldn't know who she was, but he’d figure it out when he heard the hit breakup song on the radio. “‘Sam, You Piece of ... ’  Oh, that was the girl you brought home!”

And does this father-son dating advice apply to all singer-songwriters – or just Grammy winners who go out with Harry Styles?

New York v. Los Angeles

A new nugget to add to that “which is better, Los Angeles or New York” debate that you have with your West Coast friends: In a study released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control this week, researchers found that New York appears to be more effective than its Pacific Coast counterpart at reducing childhood obesity for low-income preschoolers.

The researchers compared obesity rates among poor children from 2003 to 2011. In New York the rates dipped from about 19 percent to 16 percent, while in LA they rose from 17 percent to 21 percent, before dropping to 20 percent.

Public health officials came up with a few explanations for the difference: In New York people usually walk or take mass transit, while LA tends to be car-based. New York started early promoting exercise as part of its government program for low income women and infants. And in the Los Angeles study there were more Mexican-American children, for whom obesity is more common than for black and white children.

Let the monarch rule

So, we just couldn’t resist this. 

If you haven’t yet put two and two together (and really, why would you), you might not realize that Kim Kardashian, princess of reality television land, and Kate Middleton, the real live Duchess of Cambridge, are both due to have their babies in July.

And Kardashian, because she’s classy like this, has magnanimously said that Middleton can have all the attention. For her part, Kardashian says, she’d like a little privacy.

Right... 

So, lessons this week from Kim: Reality stars don’t always love the paparazzi. And the future King or Queen of England should be of more public interest than the future Kimye child.

Awesome. I’ll keep that advice in mind.

Forget the booties...

And to balance out the pregnant celebrity news, this week expectant singer Shakira and soccer star Gerard Pique held their baby shower. Their virtual baby shower, that is, with all the gifts going to UNICEF and underprivileged kids worldwide. 

Shakira is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nation’s children’s agency, and said in a message on the virtual shower site that she and Pique wanted to celebrate the arrival of their first child by helping others. Web users can join the virtual shower and buy gifts like a $5 mosquito net, a $10 polio vaccine or a $37 baby scale.

"To celebrate the arrival of our first child, we hope that, in his name, other less privileged children in the world can have their basic needs covered through gifts and donations," the couple writes on the site.