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Whether we like it or not, the more Buddhism gets well-known, the more the well-known will be talking about it. Here are some of the latest examples. Thankfully, the Embarrassment Factor is low. This time.

The “People” section of the Jan 28, 2008 “Mind & Body” issue of TIME includes a short Q&A with John Mellencamp, who proclaims that the Dalai Lama is one of his two current heroes (the other being Bob Dylan). “He held my hand for five minutes, man. It was weird. You’re not supposed to touch him. I thought, ‘Well, I kind of feel like his girlfriend.” And no, he says, he’s not a Buddhist. A video of the interview is here.

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The “What I’ve Learned” section of the February 2008 issue of Esquire features the wisdom of Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who is in fact very much influenced by the Buddhist practices of mindfulness and Zen meditation. Jackson doesn’t talk about his practice in the piece, but shares a saying that he loves: “I’d have it magnetized to my refrigerator, but my refrigerator has a glass front, so I have it tacked to a bulletin board. It says: ‘There are no Zen masters, there’s only Zen.’ ‘Zen master’ is a contradiction in terms. You don’t master Zen.” This is almost surely an exercise in humility (at least in part) for Jackson, as “Zen Master” is one of his nicknames.

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While the blog of Nichiren practitioner Courtney Love hasn’t been updated for a while, her most recent post says:
“Chanting to my Gohonzon is the biggest text [-message] to the universe [that] I can send and as the ad so brilliantly goes: JUST DO IT”

The blog is littered with references to Love’s practice (though they’re not easy to find; all the typos make it a sort of digital alphabet soup):  http://www.courtneylove.com/

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The March 2008 issue of the Shambhala Sun includes a feature-length interview with k.d. lang, who comes out of the closet (sorry) as a “very proud” practitioner of Nyingma Buddhism. She’s considered herself a Buddhist “from a very early age,” she says, and took refuge seven years ago with the Nyingma teacher Lama Chodak Gyatso Nubpa. It’s a very in-depth interview, talking not just about her practice, but also her performing and songcraft, and how the two intersect. Very cool.