'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Weather is still quite pleasant.
The kid & I picked up all the 'stuff' he'll need for science camp.
Today is my birthday.
Tonight, Friday, CBS starts the evening with a FRESH 'Big Brother 4', followed by a RERUN
'JAG', then a RERUN 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'.
On a RERUN Dave are Brittany Murphy, motocross star Carey Hart, and Dashboard Confessional.
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers are Robert Duvall and Seal.
NBC begins the night with a 2-hour 'Dateline', followed by a RERUN 'Boomtown'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are Seann William Scott, Kate Bosworth, and the Bangles.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Kelsey Grammer and Ken Burns.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Kate Beckinsale, Rich Eisen, Carmelo Anthony, John Diresta, Kings of Leon, and Los Lonely Boys.
ABC opens the night with a 2-hour RERUN 'America's Funniest Home Videos', followed by '20/20'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are David Alan Grier and Bubba Sparxxx, with this week's guest co-host Mick Foley aka "Mankind."
The WB offers a FRESH 'Reba', followed by the Series Premiere of 'Like Family', then a FRESH
'Grounded For Life', followed by a FRESH 'All About The Andersons'.
Faux has the Season Premiere of 'Wanda At Large', followed by the Series Premiere of 'Luis', then the
Season Premiere of 'Boston Pubic'.
UPN here offers baseball with the Giants visiting Rupert's Doggers.
Check local PBS listing for 'NOW With Bill Moyers'.
A&E has 'Biography' (Pat Benatar), another 'Biography' (Janis Joplin), yet another 'Biography' (Cass Elliott - today would have been her birthday), then 'Meet The Royals'.
AMC has the movie 'Castle Keep', followed by the movie 'Earthquake', then the 'special' - 'Fang Vs. Fiction'.
BBC -
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'Parkinson' - David Bowie;
[7pm] 'Ground Force' - Southampton;
[7:30pm] 'Changing Rooms' - Cheltenham;
[8pm] 'At Home With The Braithwaites' - Episode 3;
[9pm] 'Coupling' - Flushed;
[9:40pm] 'Coupling' - Size Matters;
[10:20pm] 'Coupling' - Sex, Death and Nudity;
[11pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Chris Klein/Freddie Prinze Jr.;
[11:30pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Bryan Adams;
[12am] 'Coupling' - Flushed;
[12:40am] 'Coupling' - Size Matters;
[1:20am] 'Coupling' - Sex, Death and Nudity;
[2am] 'At Home With The Braithwaites' - Episode 3;
[3am] 'So Graham Norton' - Chris Klein/Freddie Prinze Jr.;
[3:30am] 'So Graham Norton' - Bryan Adams;
[4am] 'Coupling' - Flushed;
[4:40am] 'Coupling' - Size Matters;
[5:20am] 'Coupling' - Sex, Death and Nudity; and
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has a 5-hankie night with the movie 'Life Is Beautiful', followed by the movie 'Boys Don't Cry'.
HBO has 'Real Time With Bill Maher'.
History has 'Perfect Crimes?', 'Miracles & Medicine', 'Dead Men's Secrets', and 'Modern Marvels'.
SciFi has 'Tremors: The Series', 'Stargate SG-1', 'Scare Tactic', and another 'Scare Tactic'.
TCM -
[6am] 'Five Star Final' (1931);
[7:30am] 'Front Page Woman' (1935);
[9am] 'Back In Circulation' (1937);
[10:30am] 'The Front Page' (1931);
[12:30pm] 'Libeled Lady' (1936);
[2:30pm] 'Nothing Sacred' (1937);
[3:45pm] 'Meet John Doe' (1941);
[6pm] 'The Philadelphia Story' (1940);
[8pm] 'The Cheap Detective' (1978);
[9:45pm] 'Murder by Death' (1976);
[11:30pm] 'What's Up, Tiger Lily?' (1966);
[1am] 'Sleeper' (1973);
[2:30am] 'The Seventh Seal' [Det Sjunde inseglet] (1957); and
[4:30am] 'Night Must Fall' (1937). (ALL TIMES EDT)
Actor, writer and director Robert Duvall and his girfriend, actress Luciana Pedraza, and actor Billy Bob Thornton, left, pose Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, where Duvall was honored with a star on the famed walkway.
Photo by Damian Dovarganes
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Fox Series Deal
Mo Rocca
Mo Rocca, the daffy but deadpan correspondent on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," is developing his own Fox reality series.
The comedian is examining opportunities to interact with criminals in a prison setting, most likely a minimum-security facility or halfway house. Potential formats could range from Rocca organizing a musical number for a select group of felons or making them employees at a diner, a la NBC's "The Restaurant."
He will develop the concept under a script deal with producers 20th Century Fox Television and Brad Gray Television, and Fox Broadcasting.
Mo Rocca
Back to Basics
'Let It Be ... Naked'
More than 30 years after they broke up, The Beatles are to go back to basics with a stripped down version of their classic "Let It Be" album.
"It's all exactly as it was in the room. You're right there now," Paul McCartney said on Thursday of the album "Let It Be ... Naked."
A statement from management company Apple Corps said the album will be released worldwide on November 17.
It said the group had originally set out to make the 1969 album with no studio effects and no over-dubbing of voices and instruments.
But the album was caught up in the turmoil of the band's break-up. It was re-produced by Phil Spector and never released as the Beatles had originally intended.
For more, 'Let It Be ... Naked'
Tickets Moving Fast
Simon & Garfunkel
Initial ticket sales for Simon & Garfunkel's Old Friends reunion tour point to a potential blockbuster.
Selling out on Monday were the tour opener at the Palace of Auburn Hills (Mich.) on Oct. 18, along with shows in Chicago; St. Paul, Minn.; and San Jose, Calif. Dates in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, and in Sacramento and Oakland, Calif., were at 90% sellout, according to sources.
Additional dates will be added in Chicago, St. Paul, Detroit and possibly San Jose. Meanwhile, tickets go on sale Monday for dates in Denver; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Las Vegas; Phoenix; Anaheim, Calif. and Los Angeles. The second leg of mostly Northeast and Southern markets will go on sale after Thanksgiving.
Simon & Garfunkel
Former 'Saturday Night Live' stars Kevin Nealon, left, and Dan Aykroyd stand next to a 'Blues Brothers' slot machine at a party held Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2003, in Las Vegas, to promote a new line of ``Saturday Night Live'' slot machines. A party at the Palms hotel-casino introduced five ``SNL''-themed machines: ``Church Lady,'' ``Coneheads,'' ``The Blues Brothers,'' ``Pumping up with Hans and Franz'' and ``Saturday Night Frenzy.''
Photo by Eric Jamison
More Popular Than Bush
Putin
According to the latest global survey by Pew Research Center for People and Press, Russian President Vladimir Putin is more popular than American leader George Bush.
When asked which world leader was the most trustworthy, most respondents named Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are slightly less popular. And only 15 percent of respondents gave their preference to George Bush.
Interestingly, Osama bin Laden was named among world leaders whose activities are approved by Muslim people. The world's most wanted terrorist is particularly popular in Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco and Pakistan.
The survey of 16,000 people was conducted in 20 countries. It shoed that Russia was among the top five countries whose citizens feared attacks from the US the most. In Indonesia, 74 percent of the population fear aggression from Washington, in Nigeria and Pakistan – 72 percent and in Russia and Turkey – 71 percent.
The Washington-based Pew Research Center for People and Press is an independent American research group that studies public opinion on various political and public issues. Its research activities are sponsored by Pew Charitable Trusts, with assets of $4.9bn.
Putin
Thanks, Alex!
Wants U.S. to Focus on Issues
Spike Lee
Spike Lee, whose movies often have a political edge, says Americans need to think more about important issues and lay off the fluff.
"We as a people are more concerned with J.Lo and Ben Affleck than these so-called weapons of mass destruction," he told 750 people who gathered Tuesday night at the University of Redlands.
The director of "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X" also criticized the country's intervention in Iraq.
North Korea poses a greater threat to the United States "but they don't have resources" the country wants, he said. "We've got all the rice we need. We don't have oil."
Spike Lee
Auctioned for Charity
Emmy Fashions
Jennifer Aniston and Edie Falco won't just look good at Sunday's Emmy Awards. They'll be doing good, too.
Gowns worn by the actresses and other TV stars at the ceremony or other awards shows will be auctioned for charity.
This is the second year of the "Clothes Off Our Back" fund-raiser, created by actress Jane Kaczmarek, an Emmy nominee for "Malcolm in the Middle."
Stars participating this year besides Aniston and Falco ("The Sopranos") include Cynthia Nixon, Sean Hayes, Dule Hill, Debra Messing Ellen DeGeneres, Bernie Mac and Jennifer Garner.
The eBay auction is to begin Sunday evening and run for 10 days. Each winning bid will receive the outfit, a photo of the star on the red carpet and a note from Kaczmarek and her husband, Bradley Whitford of "The West Wing."
Emmy Fashions
www.clothesoffourback.org
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Sued for Breaking Contract
Walter Cronkite
Former CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite was sued on Thursday by a Florida film production company for breaking a contract to host health-related videos in a controversy over whether the segments were journalism or advertising paid for by drug companies.
Boca Raton, Fla.-based WJMK, which says it makes commercials, corporate videos and educational programs, also accused Cronkite of wrongfully telling news organizations that the company misled him about the series. The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks unspecified damages.
The suit stems from the controversy over journalists' appearances on videos that looked like newscasts but which are underwritten by health care companies that make the products being discussed. In May, the New York Times reported about this practice in a piece on marketing efforts by pharmaceutical and health care companies.
After the piece appeared, Cronkite barred WJMK from using his name or showing work he did for them. Aaron Brown, a news anchor for CNN, also announced he was severing ties with WJMK.
WJMK, in its suit, said that Cronkite had violated terms of the February contract that required him and his agents to get WJMK's approval before speaking to third parties about his participation in the series. The production company had agreed to pay him $50,000 for his role in the videos.
For more, Walter Cronkite
An undated handout photograph shows an Italian Maiolica plate, provided by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford on Thursday. A leading museum has paid 240,000 pounds for a plate which shows a portrait of a man whose head is made up entirely of penises. It is thought to have been made by Italian Renaissance ceramicist Francesco Urbini in the 16th century. The head is framed by a garland carrying the inscription: Ogni homo me guarda come fosse una testa de cazi (Every man looks at me as if I were a dickhead).
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Wins Vatican Endorsement
'The Passion'
Mel Gibson's film "The Passion" has won another Vatican endorsement, with a top cardinal rejecting suggestions the movie may offend Jewish sensibilities and promote anti-Semitism.
"Anti-Semitism, like all forms of racism, distorts the truth by putting an entire race in a bad light. This film does nothing of the kind," Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos said in Thursday's La Stampa newspaper.
Hoyos, a Colombian, is prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and heads a Vatican commission that's trying to bring ultraconservatives back to the church. Gibson is a member of an ultraconservative Catholic movement.
"I felt moments of deep spiritual intimacy with Jesus Christ," Hoyos said.
'The Passion'
Handel Masterpiece Gets 'Explicit' Label
'The Messiah'
George Frideric Handel has at least one thing in common with Eminem and other modern artists: his music has been slapped with an "explicit" warning at Apple Computer Inc.'s online iTunes Music Store.
The baroque composer's 1742 masterpiece, "The Messiah," is marked with the red warning that indicates the content might not be appropriate for young children or others with sensitive tastes. It's on a recording by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by John Alldis.
The warning, which appeared when the album's tracks were made available Tuesday, is most likely a technical mix-up, though "The Messiah" does touch on love, violence and death — in a more profound way than, say, most music produced 260 years later.
'The Messiah'
Apple iTunes
Drops 'AOL' From Name
Time Warner
Acknowledging the failures of the largest merger in U.S. history, the board of AOL Time Warner Inc. voted Thursday to remove the letters "AOL" from the company's name.
The largest media and entertainment company in the world will now be called Time Warner Inc., as it was before the merger announced on Jan. 10, 2000 that was billed as a way to jump-start a media revolution by combining "old" and "new" media companies.
The name change will be phased in over the next several weeks, and will affect the company's logos, the way promotes its brands and even its ticker symbol, which is currently "AOL" but will revert to "TWX."
For more, Time Warner
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Little Late For 'Tough Love'
Guillaume Depardieu
French movie star Gerard Depardieu says he's cut off contact with his troubled actor son, Guillaume, who was convicted this week of threatening a man with a gun.
"He's a real poet who touches me enormously, but who is very difficult, incorrigible," Depardieu told Paris Match magazine of his 32-year-old son.
"At the moment, we have no ties. I cut things off because I no longer want to be the wall, or the trash bin where one dumps anything one wants," Depardieu said.
"He has tried to contact me but I don't reply because I think that it's better for his mental health," he added. "We'll see."
Guillaume Depardieu
Liza Minnelli arrives at the Zac Posen fashion show to view the designer's spring/summer 2004 collection in New York Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003. Other persons in photo are unidentified.
Photo by Julie Jacobson
Make Entertainment Show Stops
Candidates
Forget newsmaker interviews with Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. These days, candidates are more likely to trade barbs with Jay Leno or Oprah Winfrey, believing the more effective route to voters is on entertainment shows rather than traditional news programs.
Consider just one week on the campaign trail.
John Edwards previews his presidential campaign kickoff on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has shown some aversion to candidates' debates, talks to Winfrey about his bid for California governor.
And in a blurring of the line between political reality and televised fiction, Democrat Howard Dean uses a quip fed to him on HBO's "K Street" in a real presidential debate.
Politics and entertainment are two professions that crave attention, making a crossover inevitable. In the past, political appearances were largely cameos — candidate Richard Nixon intoning, "Sock it to me?" on "Laugh-In" in 1968, or Bill Clinton showing his prowess with a saxophone on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 1992.
In recent years, however, candidates have found it hard to get airtime on news programs while the entertainment shows provide larger audiences, the promise of longer programming and the possibility of easier questions. The appearances often are mutually beneficial.
For a lot more, Candidates
Could Mole Be Leaking Winner?
'Survivor'
An offshore bookie who takes wagers on the outcome of CBS' "Survivor" decided not to take bets on Thursday, suspicious that someone who knows the winner is spreading inside information.
The Antigua-based company, BetWWTS.com, has taken bets from as many as 1,000 people for past editions of "Survivor," consistently television's most popular reality game.
Yet in the past few days, the company took more than 15 bets on the same contestant, all from people who lived near each other in Vancouver. The company shut the game down.
Twice before the bookmaker has had to suspend betting on a reality game. Once, for ABC's "The Bachelor," it received a large number of bets from the bachelor's hometown on the woman he eventually chose as the winner.
For the Amazon edition of "Survivor" last spring, the company suspended betting a month before the televised finale because of a concentration of wagers on two contestants, including the eventual winner, 21-year-old swimsuit model Jenna Morasca.
Another offshore bookmaker, BoDog.com, suspended betting last spring after allegedly finding at least two CBS employees betting on the show's outcome.
'Survivor'
Judge Throws Out Lawsuit
Creed
Fans who felt cheated by Creed's Chicago show are getting no sympathy. A judge in Chicago has dismissed a $2 million dollar lawsuit filed by four fans against the band, accusing singer Scott Stapp of appearing too intoxicated to perform well last December.
Stapp had denied the allegation. Creed attorney Rob McNeely says the band is pleased with the decision.
However, the judge dismissed the suit "with prejudice," meaning the fans can amend their complaint.
Creed
Spanish Navy Blamed
Giant Squid
Shockwaves from scientific tests carried out by the Spanish navy have killed four giant squid -- one the length of a bus -- off Spain's coast in recent days, the head of a marine protection agency said on Thursday.
"The navy ship the Hesperides is working in the area...and the shock waves (are the cause of death)," said Luis Laria, president of marine protection agency CEPESMA. The giant squid, mythologized as the monster that attacked Captain Nemo's Nautilus in the Jules Verne adventure "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," is the world's largest invertebrate and lives at depths of up to 6,562 ft.
Josep Gallard, a leading scientist working on the ship, denied techniques used to study the ocean floor were harmful.
"This hypothesis is far from being proven," Gallard told Reuters from on board the Hesperides. "We use this technique because of its minimal environmental impact...the changes in pressure are very slight."
Giant Squid
Rankings
Basic Cable
Rankings for the top 15 programs on basic cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Sept. 8-14. Each ratings point represents 1,067,000 households. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses.
1. NFL Football: Chicago vs. Minnesota (Sunday, 8:28 p.m.), ESPN, 7.0, 7.58 million homes.
2. "NFL Prime Time" (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.), ESPN, 3.2, 3.48 million homes.
3. Movie: "Sex & the Single Mom" (Monday, 9 p.m.), Lifetime, 3.2, 3.43 million homes.
4. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.1, 3.32 million homes.
5. "WWE Raw Zone" (Monday, 10 p.m.), Spike, 3.0, 3.27 million homes.
6. Auto Racing: Winston Cup (Sunday, 1 p.m.), TNT, 3.0, 3.21 million homes.
7. "Fairly Odd Parents" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.9, 3.11 million homes.
8. "Law & Order" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 2.8, 3.06 million homes.
9. "Fairly Odd Parents" (Sunday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.8, 3.04 million homes.
10. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), Spike, 2.8, 3.01 million homes.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.7, 2.88 million homes.
12. "Trading Spaces" (Saturday, 9 p.m.), TLC, 2.7, 2.87 million homes.
13. "Law & Order" (Tuesday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 2.6, 2.86 million homes.
14. "Law & Order" (Monday, 10 p.m.), TNT, 2.6, 2.85 million homes.
15. "Fairly Odd Parents" (Sunday, 10:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.6, 2.81 million homes.
Basic Cable
Newborn Malayan pit vipers sit in a cage at Malaysia's National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur on September 17, 2003. Twelve out of fifteen vipers, also known as calloselasma rhodostoma, survived after hatching at the zoo on August 11, 2003.
Photo by Bazuki Muhammad
'The Osbournes'
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