'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Craig Roberts: 'Another grim jobs report' (CounterPunch.org)
Is your job safe? Not if it can be done abroad. The only safe jobs are in domestic services that require a "hands-on" presence, such as barbers, hospital orderlies, and waitresses.
Mikhaela B. Reid: Can't Make a Decision, Ladies? Call Bill Napoli (inthesetimes.com)
Did you call Bill Napoli yourself?
No, I haven't wanted to talk to him. The funniest [question] that someone told me she asked was: "Tampons or pads?" Another one asked him if it mattered that her bra matched her underwear.
Molly Ivins: Election-Year Investigations
There always seemed to be an FBI investigation of some sitting Democrat either announced or leaked to the press. Now it's Rove's turn.
Annalee Newitz: The New 'Mad' Scientists
Scientific studies are increasingly coming straight out of our living rooms and laptops.
Bilge Ebiri: Making the News Funnier (Nerve.com. Posted on Alternet.org)
Rob Corddry, fake journalist on 'The Daily Show,' discusses improv, politics and starring in the hilarious new paintball mockumentary Blackballed.
Fred Kaplan: When will the Pulitzer Prize in music get it right?
It's great news that Thelonious Monk won a Pulitzer Prize. Too bad he's been dead for 24 years.
Erik Deckers: Excuses, Excuses, Excuses! (irascibleprofessor.com)
I wrote my first note to a teacher last week.
Stephanie McMillan: Call Bill (Cartoon)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny & summerish.
No new flags.
The Right To Talk Dirty
Comedy Writers
The California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that writers have the right to talk dirty and make lewd comments while creating a television situation comedy without having to worry about being sued.
The court said the writers of the hit TV series "Friends" did not create a hostile work environment or sexually harass a woman who worked for them by transcribing their raucous work sessions creating programs.
The unanimous ruling by the state's high court upheld a lower-court decision throwing out the sexual harassment claim brought by former "Friends' transcriber Amaani Lyle against the writers and producers of the NBC sitcom.
Comedy Writers
Sponsors New Orleans Design Project
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt announced he's sponsoring an environmentally friendly design competition to rebuild parts of New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
The actor is teaming up with Global Green USA, a national environmental organization, on the design project. Pitt, who's with Angelina Jolie in Namibia where they're expecting a child, will lead a jury of architects and local leaders to choose designs by six finalists who will then work with local neighborhoods on more detailed proposals.
The design competition will focus on the Holy Cross neighborhood in the impoverished Lower 9th Ward. Designs will be submitted in June and the finalists chosen in July.
Brad Pitt
NBC Cancels
'Celebrity Cooking Showdown'
NBC has taken "Celebrity Cooking Showdown" off its primetime menu after three nights of abysmal ratings.
The reality series was originally scheduled to run five consecutive nights beginning April 17, but the network shelved "Showdown" on Thursday with two servings still to go.
The show averaged a measly 1.8 rating among adults 18-49 demographic. Tuesday opposite "American Idol" was particularly pathetic, with NBC bottoming out with a 1.1 rating and 3 share in the 9 p.m. hour. "Idol" did an 11.0/31, by contrast.
'Celebrity Cooking Showdown'
According to NBC's homepage (at 11pm Thursday), the 2 shows remaining are scheduled to be flushed air Saturday night at 8pm & 9pm.
Another Republican With Class
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson
Nobody expects to get a letter from a member of Congress that ends with an expletive.
But that's what happened when Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., recently corresponded with a resident of her southeast Missouri district.
The letter ended with a profane, seven-letter insult beginning with the letter a - "i think you're an. ..."
Emerson says she can't explain how the offensive language made it into the letter, which otherwise reads like a typical response to a citizen's question about last year's testimony of oil executives before the Senate Commerce Committee.
A copy of the letter had made its way to the Missouri Democratic Party, which faxed it to the AP.
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson
Toronto Run Extended
Lord of the Rings
Fans of Frodo Baggins will have a few more months to catch the Lord of the Rings stage play - producers have announced they are extending the show's run until September.
The theatrical version of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved book opened in mid-March at the city's Princess of Wales Theatre to immense international fanfare.
Clocking in at three hours and thirty minutes, the show is a technological wonder with 17 elevators embedded in the 36-tonne, computer-controlled stage floor.
Lord of the Rings
Cancels Paris Shoot
Woody Allen
France's film commission is disappointed: Woody Allen won't shoot his next movie in Paris after all. Allen has been working on a Paris script, but it turned out to be too ambitious for his budget, the commission said Thursday in a statement.
A beloved figure in France, the 70-year-old director appeared in a 2003 promotional video to lure American tourists back to the land of champagne. Tourism had dropped during the diplomatic standoff over U.S. plans to invade Iraq.
"I don't want to have to refer to my French-fried potatoes as freedom fries and I don't want to have to freedom-kiss my wife when what I really want to do is French-kiss her," Allen said in the short film produced by the French government.
Woody Allen
Steps Up Radio Payola Probe
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission is stepping up its investigation into alleged payola practices at four of the nation's largest radio corporations after attempts to reach a settlement stalled.
The FCC confirmed Thursday that it had requested documents this week from Clear Channel Communications Inc., CBS Radio Inc., Entercom Communications Corp. and Citadel Broadcasting Corp.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched an investigation in 2004 into alleged wrongdoing by music and radio companies. Earlier this year, Spitzer sued Entercom Communications Corp., accusing its executives of running scams to trade cash for airplay of songs.
FCC
Opie & Anthony Replacing?
David Lee Roth
No surprise: David Lee Roth's run as morning radio host is about done. Big surprise: It appears raunchy satellite radio stars Opie and Anthony will replace him on seven CBS Radio stations.
A deal was in the works to dump the ex-Van Halen singer's ratings-deprived program with shock jocks Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. They spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement of the agreement next week.
Opie and Anthony were banished from terrestrial radio in 2002 - oddly enough by their new boss, CBS Radio - after airing a live account of listeners having sex in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral. CBS Radio was then known as Infinity Broadcasting.
David Lee Roth
Creative Team to Leave
'Gilmore Girls'
The popular WB series "Gilmore Girls" will have to continue without the husband-and-wife team that has been its creative force since the beginning.
Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino said Thursday they will leave as executive producers following the end of this season, its sixth. The show's production company said "Gilmore Girls" will continue next season with Dave Rosenthal, who has been a writer-producer there, running things.
'Gilmore Girls'
Window To The Past
'The Jean London Show'
One man's discovery of a treasure trove of Vietnam War-era memorabilia has spurred the creation of an online museum commemorating one of the longest running variety shows in the history of the armed forces.
The man was Ace Lundon, and he has become the curator of www.VietnamJeanLondonShow.com, a 60-page Web site highlighting in photos and words the days of "The Jean London Show," which entertained 750,000 Vietnam warriors from 1966-72.
The Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based live production featured Lundon as master of ceremonies and showcased a parade of comedy skits, musical performances and pinup girls, a cavalcade that included Yvonne De Carlo, Rhonda Fleming and Lundon's then-wife, Jean London, at center stage.
'The Jean London Show'
HBO Orders Second Season
'Big Love'
HBO has ordered a second season of "Big Love," its drama series about a polygamist family, the network said Wednesday, just halfway into its rookie year.
"Big Love" will go back into production in August in anticipation of returning to the air sometime next year. The number of episodes has yet to be determined; the opening order was 12.
The second-season order was not exactly guaranteed given that "Love" has not been a big ratings draw for HBO. Airing opposite stiff competition like ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," "Love" has averaged fewer than 4 million total viewers for its Sunday 10 p.m. premieres, hanging on to less than half of the audience from its lead-in, "The Sopranos."
Still, a closer examination of "Love's" ratings indicates it is far from a lost cause. An additional 3 million viewers catch "Love" in multiple repeat broadcasts throughout the week.
'Big Love'
`Human Shield' Trying to Avoid Fine
Judith Karpova
Before the bombs fell on Baghdad, Judith Karpova went there to put herself in harm's way, hoping to prevent attacks on a population that was already suffering.
The activist was among dozens of "human shields" who poured into Iraq as the U.S.-led offensive loomed in early 2003, but she left before the war began.
After she returned to the United States, Karpova was fined $6,700 by the Treasury Department for violating U.S. economic sanctions. Fines up to $8,000 were also levied against three other human shields.
None are paying up quietly, and Karpova is disputing in a federal appeals court charges that she illegally exported services to Iraq as a shield.
Judith Karpova
German Lessons
World Cup
England fans are being encouraged to learn the German versions of well known football chants before the World Cup.
In its package of travel tips for fans at the month-long tournament, the Foreign Office is to provide handy singalong translations on its website.
"Those football fans who wish to learn the English songs in German to sing at the World Cup can do so and the Foreign Office will help them do that," a spokesman said.
World Cup
In Memory
Scott Brazil
Emmy-winning producer-director Scott Brazil, whose television shows included "The Shield" and "Hill Street Blues," has died. He was 50.
Brazil died Monday of respiratory failure due to Lou Gehrig's disease and lyme disease complications, FX Networks spokesman John Solberg said Wednesday.
Brazil was executive producer of "The Shield," the first original drama series on FX Networks, and he directed 11 episodes. Brazil and "Shield" creator and executive producer Shawn Ryan won the 2002 Golden Globe for drama series.
Brazil also directed episodes of "Nip/Tuck," "Grey's Anatomy," "CSI: Miami," "Nash Bridges," "JAG," "Baywatch" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." He also directed the pilot of "Playmakers" for ESPN.
As a producer on NBC's "Hill Street Blues," Brazil won two Emmys for drama series in 1983 and 1984, and a Golden Globe in 1983 for TV drama series.
He is survived by his wife, Marie; daughter Lindsay, 15; son Mark, 11; his father David; his mother Barbara; and brother Griff. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the television academy's Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood.
Scott Brazil
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