Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Could 2010 be the year when texting while driving is finally banned?
An absolutist will tell you that a phallic symbol is anything that is longer than it is wide. Similarly, an absolutist civil libertarian will claim that you can walk up behind somebody, place the barrel of a gun a millimeter from the victim's head, and pull the trigger-and in that split second before the bullet penetrates the victim's skin, you still haven't committed a crime.
Garrison Keillor: Renouncing evil powers and anonymity
I went to church in San Francisco on Sunday, the big stone church on Nob Hill, whose name is an old slang term for a rich person, where a gaggle of railroad tycoons built their palaces high above the squalid tenements of the poor back in the Gilded Age, and there with considerable pomp we baptized a dozen infants into the fellowship of faith and we renounced the evil powers of this world, which all in all is a good day's work.
Richard Roeper: Life can be short -- don't throw it away (suntimes.com)
Within the same hour last Thursday morning, I received text messages about a man who had passed away -- and a man who had tried to take his own life.
Nicholas Kristof: The Happiest People (nytimes.com)
Hmmm. You think it's a coincidence? Costa Rica is one of the very few countries to have abolished its army, and it's also arguably the happiest nation on earth.
Amanda Hess: "Touch And Go: How Groping Happens" (washingtoncitypaper.com)
It starts with an insignificant touch. The accidental brush on the Metro. The hug that lasts a few seconds too long. The hand that dips down past the small of your back to settle just below the waist.
Brian Duffy: 'Photography was dead by 1972' (guardian.co.uk)
Brian Duffy's photographs chronicled the fun and fashion of swinging London. Then, one day in 1979, he decided to burn the lot. He tells Leo Benedictus why.
FISUN GüNER: An End to the Myth of the Tortured Soul (standpointmag.co.uk)
In a career lasting no more than ten years, Vincent Van Gogh produced about 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches. He often painted quickly, almost feverishly, once writing that "the emotions are so strong that one works without knowing one works".
Stephen Moss: "Jane Goodall: 'My job is to give people hope'" (guardian.co.uk)
It is half a century since she began her seminal work studying chimpanzees in Africa. But Jane Goodall says her work is far from finished.
Stephen Metcalf: Eric Rohmer, RIP (slate.com)
The casual, moral genius of the New Wave filmmaker.
Eric Rohmer: Let's talk about - everything (guardian.co.uk)
He made poignant, sensual films about first love and chance encounters. But it was the dialogue that made the late Eric Rohmer's movies magical, says Gilbert Adair.
KENNETH TURAN: "Review: 'The Bicycle Thief'" (latimes.com)
More than 60 years later, the Italian film hasn't lost its dramatic pull.
Colin Covert: 'Gilliam Curse' continues with 'Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' (Star Tribune)
His 2000 Depp film, "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote," crashed and burned among freak storms, budget woes and on-set calamities. Gilliam's 2006 fantasy "Tideland," starring Jeff Bridges as a decomposing corpse, fell into oblivion, opening in nine U.S. theaters, earning just $66,453. During that debacle, Gilliam walked the streets of New York holding a cardboard sign that read "Studio-Less Film Maker. Family to Support. Will Direct For Food."
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The 'What ever happened to... Where are they now?' Edition
Every now and again, an article appears about what a former 'Celebrity', e.g. an actor/actress, politician, author, musician or sports star, is now doing in their present state of obscurity and where they're doing it.
Is there a former 'Celebrity' that you'd be interested in knowing where they are and what they're doing?
Send your response to
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George Clooney Hosting Telethon
Haiti Aid
Hollywood actor George Clooney will host a telethon on MTV next week to raise funds for victims of the earthquake in Haiti, the music network said on Thursday.
The event will be broadcast on all MTV Network channels on Friday, January 22, when Clooney is expected to be joined by as yet unnamed pop music and movie stars.
Haiti-born musician Wyclef Jean has already raised over $1 million for the aid effort via the Twitter network, and is in the country "giving aid and assessing the situation", according to his website.
Haiti Aid
'Show Of Peace'
Jimmy Page
Legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, Aerosmith, and the Black Eyed Peas will headline a free April concert on Beijing's Olympic Green, promoters said Wednesday.
The "Show of Peace," is scheduled for April 17 to mark Earth Day, which is celebrated each year to promote awareness of environmental issues, promoter Rick Garson said.
Sponsors include the Chinese People?s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the China-based non-profit Joint-US China Collaboration on Clean Energy, the United Nations' NGO Pathways to Peace, and Ted Turner's Captain Planet Foundation.
Jimmy Page
Set Back 1 Minute
Doomsday Clock
The Doomsday Clock has been set back 1 minute for the first time in its 63-year history. In moving the clock from 5 minutes before midnight to 6 minutes before midnight, scientists expressed optimism for humanity's future.
This end-of-the-world clock, set up in 1947, is meant to convey how close we are to the end of the world via catastrophe caused by nuclear weapons or climate change, among other factors.
A news conference announcing the change took place this morning at the New York Academy of Sciences Building in New York City. The actual clock is housed at the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences (BAS) office in Chicago, Ill., and so a representation of the clock was shown at Thursday's news conference.
The last time the Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2007, when it was pushed forward by two minutes, from seven to five minutes before midnight. The change was meant to reflect two major sources of potential catastrophe that could bring us closer to "doomsday," according to the board of "The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists," a magazine focused on warning the world of the dangers that the invention of the atomic bomb helped to unleash.
Doomsday Clock
Harvard's Hasty Pudding Award
Anne Hathaway
Oscar-nominated actress Anne Hathaway can add another honor to her list: a Hasty Pudding award.
She will receive the award at a roast scheduled for Jan. 28 by Hasty Pudding Theatricals at Harvard University. It's the nation's oldest undergraduate drama troupe.
The roast features the Harvard men in drag and takes place after a parade down Massachusetts Avenue near the university in Cambridge, Mass.
Anne Hathaway
New Owner
Editor & Publisher
Editor & Publisher, chronicler of the U.S. newspaper business for more than a century, will live again after being shut down two weeks ago.
E&P, as journalists often call it, will resume publication after being sold to boating magazine publisher Duncan McIntosh, it confirmed on its website after Reuters reported the news.
The announcement came two weeks after Nielsen Co shut down the "bible of the newspaper industry" -- as it called itself on its website -- because of financial difficulties.
Current owner Nielsen Co closed the magazine and related website two weeks ago after agreeing to sell its Nielsen Business Media unit to a new company called e5 Global Media, formed by private equity company Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners.
Editor & Publisher
Announces Post-Leno Lineup
NBC
New and veteran NBC dramas and a comedy produced by Jerry Seinfeld will take over the bulk of the prime-time slots soon to be vacated by Jay Leno.
NBC announced Thursday that the freshman drama "Parenthood" and the relocated "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Special Victim Units" will fill three slots. Another will go to the comedy panel series "The Marriage Ref" from Seinfeld.
"Dateline NBC" will fill another 10 p.m. EST slot.
The new lineup will debut after NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics from Feb. 12-28.
NBC
Series Renewed
Ray Romano
Halfway through its first season, TNT's Ray Romano show "Men of a Certain Age" has been renewed for a second season with a 10-episode order.
Through its first five episodes, "Men" has averaged 4.4 million viewers. It started off big, drawing 5.4 million viewers for its December 7 launch. The show's ratings dropped off after the premiere until stabilizing around the 3 million-viewer mark with the most recent episodes.
The wry drama, starring Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula, explores male friendship among three men approaching mid-life. It was created by Romano and Mike Royce.
Ray Romano
Pat & Pigboy
Conservative radio host Republican spokesmodel Rush Limbaugh and televangelist-charlatan Pat Robertson are being scolded for their comments in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake in Haiti that has killed tens of thousands, according to early estimates.
Critics from both the left and right are denouncing their remarks as insensitive to the disaster and attempts to score political points off human tragedy.
Speaking Oinking on his radio show Wednesday, Limbaugh said the earthquake has played into Obama's hands, allowing the president to look "compassionate" and "humanitarian" while at the same time bolstering his standing in both the "light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country."
While Limbaugh received a modicum of support, nobody of note has stepped up to defend Robertson's claim that Haiti got hit by an earthquake because it is "cursed."
Pat & Pigboy
Ex-NY Newsman/Wife-Beater Gets Jail
Dominic Carter
Former cable TV newsman Dominic Carter was sentenced Thursday to 30 days in jail for an attempted assault on his wife and was ordered to stay away from her for up to two years.
An angry suburban judge called Carter "a classic case of a domestic violence abuser" and ordered him to undergo psychiatric treatment for violent tendencies. He also imposed 52 weeks of domestic violence classes and told Carter's wife, Marilyn, "Mrs. Carter, your life is at stake."
Carter, who was an influential reporter at New York City's NY1 until the domestic violence charge was made public, was led away in handcuffs and appeared to be on the verge of tears.
Marilyn Carter acknowledged on the witness stand that she made the 911 call but said the real assailant was a day laborer whose name she couldn't remember. She said she told police her husband had beat her because she was angry about an argument involving their son's medical treatment.
Dominic Carter
Angry Creep Claims Self-Defense
David Moses Jassy
A Swedish hip-hop artist accused of killing a jazz pianist at a Hollywood crosswalk was acting in self-defense after the victim slapped his rented SUV, an attorney said Wednesday.
David Moses Jassy, a 35-year-old songwriter and producer also known as Dave Monopoly, pleaded not guilty to murder, assault and other charges in the November 2008 death of John Osnes, a Los Angeles musician.
Prosecutors said Osnes, 55, slapped Jassy's rented sport utility vehicle when it crept into his crosswalk.
Jassy then got out of his car and punched Osnes in the face, prosecutors said. When Osnes bent over to pick up his glasses, Jassy kicked him in the head, they alleged.
Prosecutors said several people tried to restrain Jassy but he broke free, got back behind the wheel of the SUV and ran over Osnes as he tried to flee.
David Moses Jassy
Estate Settles Lawsuit
DJ AM
Court filings show DJ AM's estate has settled a lawsuit filed over a South Carolina plane crash that killed four and left the celebrity disc jockey seriously injured.
DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, died in August in New York of an accidental overdose. Attorneys later amended the lawsuit to include a wrongful death claim.
Terms of the settlement were not revealed and Goldstein's attorney, Brian Panish, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The resolution was first reported Thursday by celebrity Web site TMZ.
DJ AM
Settles Lawsuit
Gary Coleman
An attorney says a personal injury lawsuit against actor Gary Coleman and his wife over an incident at a Utah bowling alley has been settled.
Dustin Lance, the attorney for Colt Rushton, says his client's suit against Coleman and Shannon Price was settled within the last 30 days. Court records show the suit was dismissed Tuesday.
Lance says he can't discuss the terms of the settlement.
Rushton sued Coleman over a September 2008 incident in which the actor allegedly hit Rushton with his truck in a Payson bowling alley parking lot after an altercation over photos.
Gary Coleman
Still On List 6 Years Later
Mikey Hicks
Travel is a hassle for an 8-year-old Cub Scout from New Jersey. That's because Mikey Hicks shares the same name of a person who has drawn the suspicion of the Homeland Security Department.
His mother tells The New York Times she sensed trouble when her son was a baby and she couldn't get a seat for him at a Florida airport. She says airline officials explained his name "was on the list."
He was patted down as a 2-year-old at Newark Liberty International Airport, and continues to face extra scrutiny from security every time he flies.
The newspaper says the boy's name appears to be among 13,500 on the "selectee" list, which sets off a high level of security screening.
Mikey Hicks
Donated Bomb Was Live
Kodiak Military History Museum
A World War II relic that was displayed outside an Alaska bar for years turned out not to be a dud.
Soldiers on Wednesday detonated the 1,263-pound aerial bomb. Radio station KMXT reports it lost some of its boom after 60 years, but it did go with a bang.
The ordnance was recently donated to the Kodiak Military History Museum by a local resident, but the museum director determined it was more than just an interesting artifact.
Soldiers from the Fort Richardson Explosive Ordnance detail inspected the bomb and determined it still had Dunnite, a highly explosive material also known as "Explosive D."
Kodiak Military History Museum
In Memory
Bobby Charles
Bobby Charles, the Louisiana singer-songwriter who penned such hits as Fats Domino's "Walking to New Orleans" and "See You Later Alligator" by Bill Haley and the Comets, has died. He was 71.
His longtime publicist Karen Johnson said Charles, whose real name was Robert Charles Guidry, died Thursday morning. She did not know the specific cause of death but said Charles had diabetes and was in remission from kidney cancer.
Johnson said Charles was scheduled to release a new album co-produced by his longtime friend Dr. John next month. She said that in her last conversation with Charles about a week ago, he told her "this is my best record yet."
Charles is survived by four sons. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Bobby Charles
In Memory
Teddy Pendergrass
Legendary singer Teddy Pendergrass, dead after a long illness at age 59, spent his last 28 years in a wheelchair, left to wonder what life might have been like had a car crash not completely altered his destiny.
Before the crash, Pendergrass was one of the most electric and successful figures in music. He established a new era of R&B with an explosive, raw voice that symbolized masculinity, passion and the joys and sorrow of romance in songs such as "Close the Door," "It Don't Hurt Now," "Love T.K.O." and other hits that have since become classics.
He was an international superstar and sex symbol. His career was at its apex - and still climbing.
Pendergrass, who was born in Philadelphia in 1950, suffered a spinal cord injury in a 1982 car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down - still able to sing but without his signature power. The image of the strong, virile lover was replaced with one that drew sympathy.
The singer's son, Teddy Pendergrass II, said his father underwent colon cancer surgery eight months ago and had "a difficult recovery."
But it wasn't Pendergrass' voice that got him his break in the music business - it was his drum playing abilities. He met Harold Melvin, who was looking for replacement members for his group, the Blue Notes, and signed on to be the drummer. Later, he became the lead singer of the group, which became known as Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.
Pendergrass had creative differences with Melvin and soon left for a solo career, according to his Web site. It was then he would become a sex symbol for the R&B genre, working women into a frenzy with hits such as "Only You" and concerts dedicated for ladies only.
Unlike the songs of many of today's male R&B crooners, Pendergrass' music bordered on eroticism without explicit lyrics or coarse language - just through the raw emotion in his voice. "Turn Off the Lights" was a tune that perhaps best represented the many moods of Pendergrass - tender and coaxing yet strong as the song reaches its climax.
Fans were devastated when, at age 31, Pendergrass was critically injured after his Rolls-Royce hit a tree. He spent six months in a hospital and returned to recording the next year with the album "Love Language."
It was 19 years before Pendergrass resumed performing at his own concerts. He made his return on Memorial Day weekend in 2001, with two sold-out shows in Atlantic City, N.J.
Teddy Pendergrass
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