'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Alex's Entertainment Report
'Season/Series Finales'
Marty,
Good link for info on upcoming
Season/Series Finales.
Once I have the photos, I'll email them to you...I also met Patti LaBelle
at a book signing that same day, and next Tuesday going to see a play with
Helen Hunt and John Turturro, hopefully will get them too....I love NYC!
Alex
Thanks, Alex! Jeez, with a schedule like that I'd love New York, too!
Reader Comment
Re: The 'Curtis'
Thank you so much for mentioning one of the joys of Philadelphia.
There's nothing like walking by the Curtis on a Spring or Summer day,
when its windows are open. No squeaking clarinet1s at those music
lessons - just gorgeous music pouring out into Rittenhouse Square, free
as the sunshine. A really wonderful institution.
Also LOVED the polar bear picture.
Pattie O
Thanks, Pattie!
The Curtis family was also an influence up in the northwestern portion of PA.
Way back when, Curtis Publishing owned 'The Saturday Evening Post' and 'Jack & Jill' magazines, among others.
My little backwood hometown's main employer is a paper mill - which, way back then, was also owned by Curtis Publishing, and provided the
paper for Curtis' magazines.
Reader Comment
Re: Slavercise
Marty,
"Keep up or you'll be punished"? Um, that can't be right - shouldn't
that be "if you don't keep up, you *won't* be punished"?
Masochist: beat me! beat me!
Sadist: No.
mark
--
Why the Libertarian idea of a privatized courts won't work,
from a slogan from Kenya: why bother hiring a lawyer, when
you can buy a judge?
Read funny to me, too, so I pulled the up the story (as opposed to just the photo caption). Just scroll down a bit to read the whole thing. Thanks, Mark!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly overcast and cool, but no rain.
If I were back in PA, dinner would be cheese ravioli at Aunt Vivian & Uncle Butch's. One of my favorite meals of the year.
The PTA is selling Krispy Kreme donuts. Wonder how many dozen will be sold on guilt alone.
Tonight, Friday, CBS is supposed to offer a FRESH 'Star Search', followed by a FRESH
'Hack', and then a RERUN 'CSI: Miami'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Dave are Kevin Spacey and Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller.
On a RERUN Craiggers are Andy Dick, Rick Schroeder, and Jordan Rubin.
NBC is supposed to open the evening with a FRESH 'America's Most Talented Kid', followed by 'Dateline', and then a
FRESH 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are John Cusack and Ziggy Marley.
On a RERUN Conan are Martin Lawrence, Michael Rosenbaum, and Thievery Corporation.
On a RERUN Carson Daly (from 2/14/03), are Stuart Scott, Kevin Brennan, 50 Cent.
ABC is supposed to start the night with a RERUN 'America's Funniest Home Videos', followed by a RERUN '8 Simple Rules', then a
FRESH 'Regular Joe', followed by '20/20'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Buzz Aldrin and this week's guest co-host Deion Sanders.
The WB has a RERUN 'What I Like About You', followed by a FRESH 'Greetings From Tucson', then a
RERUN 'Reba', followed by a RERUN 'Grounded For Life'.
Faux has a FRESH 'Fastlane', and a FRESH 'John Doe'.
UPN here has baseball - the San Francisco Giants visit Rupert's Doggers.
Check local PBS listings for 'NOW With Bill Moyers'.
Scheduled on HBO's FRESH 'Real Time With Bill Maher' are Ann Coulter, Michael Eric Dyson, and Dennis Miller. Guest performer: Earthquake.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Boxes of Marshmallow Peeps are lined up at the Just Born factory in Bethlehem, Pa., on April 2, 2003. Just Born Inc. is celebrating its 50th year of adorning Easter baskets and satisfying sweet tooths with the colorful confections.
Photo by Rick Smith
Quit Over Iraq Looting
Art Advisers
Three members of the White House Cultural Property Advisory Committee have resigned to protest the looting of Baghdad's National Museum of Antiquities.
Martin E. Sullivan, Richard S. Lanier and Gary Vikan, each appointed by former President Clinton, said they were disappointed by the U.S. military's failure to protect Iraq's historical artifacts.
"The tragedy was not prevented, due to our nation's inaction," Sullivan, the committee's chairman, wrote in his letter of resignation.
Noting that American scholars had told the State Department about the location of Iraqi museums and historic sites in Iraq, he said the president "is burdened by a compelling moral obligation to plan for and try to prevent indiscriminate looting and destruction."
Lanier criticized "the administration's total lack of sensitivity and forethought regarding the Iraq invasion and the loss of cultural treasures."
Vikan said in a separate interview that he saw "a failure on the part of the United States to interdict what is now an open floodgate."
Art Advisers
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Not Happy With CNN
Michael Moore
Michael Moore is using sophisticated wave-form analysis technology to argue that CNN amplified the booing in its re-broadcast of his George Bush-bashing Oscar speech.
According to a posting on Moore's Web site, "CNN and CNN Headline News aired a significantly different audio response to Moore's speech than was originally broadcast
on ABC. It seems that someone has manipulated the audio to give the impression there was constant loud 'booing' throughout Moore's speech, when in reality, there was
only marginal booing often overridden with cheers and applause. This needs to be fully investigated . . . [H]ere we have a clear and shocking example of unethical behavior
through manipulation of an historic event." Moore has posted a digitized version of the ABC and CNN footage along with MP3s of the audio, as well as a wave form analysis
of both clips. A CNN rep snorts, "It's ridiculous. That's our response."
Michael Moore
A bust of famous French chemist Louis Pasteur, donning a surgical mask, is displayed at the entrance of the Vietnam-France Hospital in Hanoi April 17, 2003. Pasteur is credited with discovering rabies vaccinations and the method of killing microorganisms by heating, termed pasteurization. The hospital, the epicenter of Vietnam's outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), is the only international standard facility of its kind in the capital and is preparing to reopen in June. The virus has infected 68 people in the country and killed five.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plans Final Live Appearance
TLC
The two surviving members of R&B outfit TLC will stage their farewell live performance June 1 at New York radio station Z100's annual Zootopia concert.
The event will be held at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and will also feature performances by Ashanti, Ja Rule, 'N Sync's JC Chasez, Ginuwine, Daniel Bedingfield, Simple Plan, Bowling For Soup, and Wayne Wonder.
Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas have made sporadic public appearances but have yet to perform together in the wake of group member Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes' April 2002 death in a car accident. The trio was working on a new album before Lopes passed away and ultimately released the set, "3D," in November via Arista.
"It'll be a night that we all remember," Thomas told Z100 Thursday morning of the Zootopia concert. "This will be me and T's first performance without her." The pair's set is also expected to include a tribute to other fallen R&B stars Aaliyah and Run-D.M.C.'s Jam Master Jay.
TLC
Talent Agent Hits Back
Osbourne Brawl
A Hollywood talent agent, accused of socking Sharon Osbourne on the chin, hit back on Wednesday with her own version of a catfight in a posh Los Angeles restaurant that has sent jaws dropping in Tinseltown.
Osbourne, 50, paraded her black-and-blue chin on television this week, claiming that Renee Tab had "viciously attacked" her while she was eating out with her family at the Koi sushi restaurant last week.
"I honestly thought my jaw was broken ... I've got a bruise on my chin. It hurts. My ears hurt. My neck hurts. My teeth have to be redone," Osbourne told the syndicated TV show "Celebrity Justice."
Tab, who works for top agency International Creative Management, retorted on Wednesday that Osbourne spat at her after "terrorizing and harassing" her for three months before the April 10 restaurant incident.
"It is Mrs. Osbourne who viciously, verbally and physically attacked and spat upon Renee Tab and her sister," said a statement issued by Tab's lawyer.
"In the past three months, Sharon Osbourne has harassed, threatened, terrorized and made vulgar ethnic slurs ... against Renee Tab," the statement said.
Police said each of the women had filed complaints of battery against the other over the restaurant brawl. The reports have been forwarded to the Los Angeles City Attorney's office, which is considering whether to press charges against one or both women that carry a maximum 12 month's jail sentence.
Osbourne Brawl
No Pain, No Gain Has New Meaning
Slavercise
Students at "Slavercise," a class in New York combining sadomasochism and exercise, get a physical workout by "submitting" to the orders and whims of a dominatrix named Mistress Victoria.
She orders the class around with a riding crop, dangerously pointed stiletto heels and, naturally, a dominating manner.
"If you don't keep up, you get punished," she warned her students at a recent class, which she oversaw with a nonstop string of insults and orders. "I don't want to hear any whimpering. You're here to suffer.
"I expect complete obedience, or I'll give you a good spanking," she said. "Do what I tell you to do. I don't care if it hurts."
Suffer and obey they do, and they do so happily.
Clad in face masks, dog collars, rubber suits and other sartorial S&M paraphernalia, Mistress Victoria's students run through the exercise regimen, knowing any slacking off will bring her wrath down upon them.
"Anybody is going to pay more attention to their fitness instructor if she's got a riding crop in her hand and is wearing leather and stilettos," she said.
Slavercise
Cleared in Boy's Drowning
Tommy Lee
A jury on Thursday cleared rocker Tommy Lee of responsibility in the death of a 4-year-old boy who drowned in his pool, rejecting a $10 million wrongful death claim by the child's parents.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours before returning a unanimous verdict in a lawsuit brought against Lee by German actress Ursula Karven-Veres and her Hollywood producer husband, James Veres.
"It was very, very obvious that Tommy Lee was not responsible for the death of that child," jury foreman Howard Pollack said outside court after the verdict. "People are responsible for their own children."
Lee, the ex-husband of former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson, showed no reaction as the verdict was read and left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. His attorney, Jim Baratta, said the 40-year-old former Motley Crue drummer took "no pleasure" in the legal victory.
Jury foreman Pollack, the 62-year-old father of four who completed his service at the trial despite suffering a mild heart attack on Saturday, said jurors did not feel that Lee had been irresponsible.
"There were too many adults there to have worried about hiring a lifeguard," he said. "Does anybody do that? He can't be expected to do that just because he's Tommy Lee."
Tommy Lee
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Postpones Castro Documentary
HBO
Oliver Stone's documentary on Fidel Castro has been postponed indefinitely by HBO, which had planned to broadcast the film next month.
Stone spent three days with Castro in February 2002 in an attempt "to portray the human figure." But HBO, which had promoted "Comandante" as "an unflinching portrait of the famous icon," said Stone's interpretation was undercut by the Cuban leader's recent crackdowns.
"In light of recent alarming events in the country, the film seems somewhat dated or incomplete," said HBO spokeswoman Lana Iny, who characterized the film as "still in the works."
Stone was traveling Thursday from Paris to Los Angeles and had no response to HBO's decision, a spokesman in Los Angeles said.
HBO
An Iguana is seen at a farm prior to being sent off to a market in Managua, April 17, 2003. Thousands of Nicaraguan catholic faithful are fasting ahead Good Friday; not eating any traditional meat products. Locals prefer typical seafood or Iguana meat, which has been consumed in Nicaragua since ancestral times. The reptiles sell for about four U.S. dollars.
Photo by Oswaldo Rivas
Singer Suffers Stroke
Luther Vandross
R&B singer/songwriter Luther Vandross, known as "The Love Doctor" for sultry, romantic hits like "Here and Now," has suffered a stroke, his record label said on Thursday.
J Records, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, issued a statement saying the New York-born Vandross was undergoing medical treatment after suffering a stroke on Wednesday.
"Vandross is under medical care and his family and friends are hopeful for a speedy recovery," Carmen Romano, Luther Vandross' business manager, said in the statement.
Luther Vandross
Proposed Union Merger
Actors Protest
About 50 actors gathered outside the Screen Actors Guild headquarters to oppose SAG's proposed merger with the leading television and radio actors' union, saying screen actors would not be properly represented after the consolidation.
The actors also complained at Wednesday's protest that they had been shut out of discussions that led up to Monday's merger vote by the boards of SAG and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
Elliott Gould, Valerie Harper, Tyne Daly, Kent McCord, Esai Morales and Rob Schneider were among those who opposed allowing the fate of screen actors to be charted by the new umbrella union, which would represent the interests of broadcasters and movie and television actors.
"We can't take back the Screen Actors Guild if this thing doesn't work out in three or five years," said McCord, a SAG board member who voted against the merger. "This is a 'til death do us part marriage."
Supporters dismissed much of the opposition as "fear mongering," adding that they believe an education effort to begin this week will allay many concerns.
Actors Protest
Screen Actors Guild
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
Actors opposed to the merger
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Picks Up 'CSI: Miami' Reruns
A&E
It's the icing on the cake for "CSI: Miami" as the David Caruso crime drama wraps up its wildly successful freshman year on CBS.
A&E Network has snapped up rerun rights to the "CSI: Miami" spinoff for more than $1 million per episode. It's almost unheard of for a show to secure a syndication sale before the end of its first season.
The terms of the complex deal call for A&E to begin airing a weekly rerun of the show outside of primetime starting in the fall. In fall 2005, A&E will have full Monday-Friday rights to the series to run in primetime or any other daypart.
The deal is similar to the off-network sale that King World put together two years ago with TNN for rerun rights to the mother show, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."
However, in a sign of the depressed market for off-network sales, rerun rights to "CSI: Miami" fetched significantly less per episode than the estimated $1.6 million price tag that TNN pays for "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."
A&E
The Jeanie Johnston, a three-masted replica of one of Ireland's most famed famine ships, arrives off the coast of West Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, April 15, 2003. The ship is on a symbolic voyage to commemorate Irish-American heritage.
Photo by Bob Shanley
Artworks Fetch 46 Million Euros
Andre Breton
Thousands of paintings, photographs and other items that belonged to Surrealist master Andre Breton have sold for 46.02 million euros (50.09 million dollars) at a controversial 10-day auction that concluded in Paris late, sale organisers Calmels Cohen said.
The collection, originally valued at 30 million euros (32.6 million dollars), included paintings by Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Joan Miro and Yves Tanguy, drawings by Breton, photographs, books signed by Sigmund Freud and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, letters, primitive art, and an eclectic mix of household items, fossils and coins.
The French state bought 335 of the 4,100 lots, exercising its right of pre-emption to replace the highest bidder and obtain works of art deemed worthy of display in the country's national museums and libraries.
On Thursday, items from Australia, Indonesia, Polynesia, North America, Mexico, Africa, Tibet and China went for a total of 5.01 million euros (5.45 million dollars).
Born in Normandy in 1896, Breton wrote poetry, served in World War I and studied psychoanalysis before writing the "Surrealist manifesto" in 1924, in which he set out his central theory of the pre-eminence of the irrational and the automatic over logic and reason. He died in 1966.
Andre Breton
Stalking Charges Dropped
Britney Spears
A request for a restraining order brought by US singing sensation Britney Spears against an over-zealous Japanese fan has been dropped, a court official said.
It was however not immediately clear what triggered the resolution of the action against the tourist she claims stalked her and tried to break into her Hollywood house.
The dropping of the legal action came after 21-year-old Spears' representatives said in February that she was in "serious discussions" with alleged stalker's Masahiko Shizawa's attorneys to settle the case.
The Yokohama-born tourist's lawyer Simon Hiller said in February that Shizawa was not a stalker and that there had been a cultural snafu.
"He's not a stalker ... he's an intellectual. He's a smart guy," said Hiller, adding that his client was a computer programmer who had made a lucrative living with technology patents.
Britney Spears
Undergoes Metamorphosis
Philly Art School
It may be nearly 200 years old, but the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is painting itself in a brand new light.
Buoyed by the success of two recent exhibits and some multimillion-dollar donations of money and artwork, the nation's first art school and museum is in the midst of a $35 million expansion that includes renovating a shuttered former factory for state-of-the-art studios, enlarging its gallery space and retail store and increasing its student body by 25 percent.
PAFA director Derek Gillman called it the most ambitious project the 198-year-old institution has undertaken since the 1976 renovation of its ornate National Historic Landmark museum, designed by Philadelphia architects Frank Furness and George Hewitt.
The academy developed from a drawing class started in 1791 by scientist and painter Charles Willson Peale, who wanted to establish a gallery and school offering a professional art education — something the new United States did not have. He and about six dozen backers opened the Pennsylvania Academy in 1805.
Artists who have studied or taught there include painters Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins and Maxfield Parrish, architect Louis I. Kahn and filmmaker David Lynch.
For more, Philly Art School
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Additional $250,000 In Bail
R. Kelly
Superstar R. Kelly, who is presently out on bail, appeared in court in Chicago on Monday (April 14) to ask a judge for permission to travel to Barstow, California for 12 days to shoot a new video. The singer was ordered to pay another $250,000 in bail in addition to the $750,000 already posted in order to leave the jurisdiction.
Kelly will leave Chicago on April 27 and is tentatively scheduled to shoot the video for "Snake" from May 1-4. The singer must check in daily with authorities in Chicago while away.
Kelly is currently awaiting trial in Illinois's Cook County on 21 counts of child pornography, with the charges relating to a videotape that allegedly shows the singer engaged in sex acts with a minor. He also faces child-pornography charges pending against him in Florida, stemming from photographs authorities say they found on his digital camera.
R. Kelly
A baby polar bear (Ursus Maritimus), accompanied by her mother 'Funny', during her first time outside at the Hagenbeck zoo in Hamburg on April 16, 2003. The 3-month-old female polar bear 'Victoria' is the first polar bear to be born at the 150-year old private Zoo in 8 years.
Photo by Christian Charisius
'Ark of Darkness'
Chapter 1, Part 2 - Fresh Today!
'The Osbournes'
Freshly Updated - 'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
