Quotes of the Week: 'Baywatch Babe Goes Hunting for Noah's Ark'

Aug. 18, 2012— -- intro: Check out this week's craziest and most buzzworthy quotes from ABCNews.com

quicklist: 1title: 'If I Didn't Know Me, I Would Think It Was Funny. You Know, 'Baywatch Babe Goes Hunting for Noah's Ark'text: Former Baywatch star Donna D'Errico is determined to continue her search for Noah's Ark, despite suffering injuries and having to cut her trip to Turkey short.

D'Errico, 44, said that journeying to Turkey's Mount Ararat to search for the Ark has been a "lifelong dream" of hers. The Bible says that Noah's Ark came to rest at Mount Ararat and D'Errico has wanted to search for it ever since she saw a movie about the Ark as a child.

"We all have childhood fascinations that sometimes subside over time, but this one never did," D'Errico told ABCNews.com. "The key word is 'search,' not 'find.' I don't have any wild notion that I'll be the one that finds Noah's Ark."

In fact, D'Errico is fully aware of the strangeness of hearing "Baywatch" and "Noah's Ark" in the same sentence.

"If I didn't know me, I would think it was funny. You know, 'Baywatch babe goes hunting for Noah's Ark,'" she said. "I know what the mentality is, what the general consensus is, that everybody thinks it's hilarious. But really and honestly, I don't even care. I know what I'm doing and I know that this is my lifelong dream and I believe in the Bible."

The actress has been planning and preparing for her trip for a long time.

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quicklist: 2title: 'Medicare Was There for Our Family.'text: With his 78-year-old mother by his side, Paul Ryan told a crowd of several thousand retirees that he and Mitt Romney have a plan that will save Medicare from bankruptcy and accused President Obama of "raiding it."

Since the House Budget Committee chairman joined the GOP ticket one week ago today, Medicare has become the signature issue of the presidential campaign.

"Like a lot of Americans, when I think about Medicare it's not just a program, it's not just a bunch of numbers, it's what my mom relies on, it's what my grandma had," Ryan, dressed in a blue polo shirt and khakis, told the crowd.

"Medicare was there for our family, for my grandma, when we needed it then; and Medicare is there for my mom while she needs it now, and we have to keep that guarantee," he said.

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quicklist: 3title: 'Above All, I Just Want Them to See and Know How Happy She Was on This Film.'text: Jordin Sparks makes her big-screen acting debut in "Sparkle," alongside the late Whitney Houston. The movie is a remake of a cult classic from the '70s that starred Irene Cara and featured music from Aretha Franklin.

"Sparkle," set in 1960s Detroit, is the story of the title character, a talented singer/songwriter who struggles to find her own artistic voice while performing in a group with her two sisters. Sparks plays Sparkle, while the late Whitney Houston plays her Bible-thumping mother, a former singer who tries to steer her children away from the evils of the music business.

Sparks said she wants fans to know how proud Houston was of the film.

"Above all, I just want them to see and know how happy she was on this film," Sparks told ABC News Radio. "Every day we walked in and she was just glowing and she's glowing on screen, too. You can just see it exuding from her."

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quicklist: 4title: 'Knowing That I'm a Female in a Man's World, I've Always Put The Most Pressure on Myself.'text: Shannon Eastin made history this week as the first woman to referee a National Football League game. She acknowledges that she is a bit of a pioneer.

"I would say probably most of the way, to some degree, yes. Even in my previous experience in judo, I did a lot of things that were first there," Eastin said in a news conference Tuesday.

Eastin, 42, served as the line judge in Thursday's pre-season game between the San Diego Chargers and the Green Bay Packers.

"Knowing that I'm a female in a man's world, I've always put the most pressure on myself. Pretty much everything I do is going to be magnified. I know what I signed up for," Eastin said. "I have to be bigger, stronger, know that I understand the rules. I have to do things even better than the men that are working. And I'm OK with that."

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quicklist: 5title: 'Juries Give Short Shrift to First Amendment Rights.'text: A former assistant attorney general who refused to apologize to a gay student leader at the University of Michigan whom he defamed and harassed online and on campus must now pay him $4.5 million, a jury decided.

The "Chris Armstrong Watch" blog, created by former Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell, 32, accused openly gay University of Michigan ex-student body president Christopher Armstrong of enticing minors with alcohol and recruiting people to become homosexual.

The U.S. District Court jury Thursday awarded a $4.5 million civil settlement to Armstrong, 22, who said he suffered distress as a result of Shirvell's actions.

"This should have been thrown out," Shirvell said Thursday. "Juries give short shrift to First Amendment rights."Click here to read the full story

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quicklist: 6title: 'We Want Consumers to Be Informed About This Product Because It Can Be Very Complicated.'text: Familiar television spokesmen like Henry Winkler, "The Fonz" from "Happy Days," and Fred Thompson, actor and former Republican senator from Tennessee, were hired to explain to older homeowners that they can access their home equity as a financial resource, but financial experts caution that reverse mortgages are complicated products that are hardly financial elixirs.

"We want consumers to be informed about this product because it can be very complicated," said Heather Allen, Federal Trade Commission staff attorney in the consumer protection bureau's division of financial practices.

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quicklist: 7title: 'It's Probably Better to Distribute Them on The Street And Let People Make Their Own Decision About It.'text: In an effort to create buzz for its line of Vibrations vibrators, condom maker Trojan estimated it would pass out 10,000 of the pleasure devices on the streets of New York City.

Although Trojan advertises on television, giveaway campaigns like this are probably a better way to spread the word, said Brian Steinberg, TV editor at Advertising Age.

"For things you can't talk about in polite circles, you're better off doing a guerrilla campaign so people can get a hold of the product themselves," Steinberg said. "It's probably better to distribute them on the street and let people make their own decision about it."

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