'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Commentary
Re: Early Christmas Advertising
I've often used Christmas advertising as a barometer of how well the
economy is doing. The earlier you see Christmas advertizing, the
worse the economy is and the more desperate the stores are to extend
the season. Well, the Bush economy has officially tanked. I've seen
a Christmas commercial or two already, mostly for mail order things
so I mostly forgave them.
But what really got me was walking through the Marshall Fields store
in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago, barely post-Labor Day (and I
hadn't been in the story for a while, so I don't know how long the
situation had existed). The store had a major theme of (are you
ready): Halloween.
Since when did Halloween become such a marketing gimmick for anyone
except candy companies? What ever happened to Columbus Day sales?
Maybe Bosses Day (Oct 16) is being downplayed due to the slime from
bosses like Ken Lay and Dick Cheney. Maybe The Simpson's influence
on American culture is large enough to make their Halloween Specials
a retail gimmick.
Maybe this is proof that the terrorists have won. Bush's criminal
negligence before 9/11 (an impeachable offense, I suspect) and the
massive cover-up afterward have scared everyone so much that our
buying habits have been affected: the only thing we have to sell is
fear itself.
TTFN,
Baron Dave Romm
////
"I'm currently running, but not for office."
-- David Lee Roth,
Carson Daly 9/14/02
Thanks, Baron Dave!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Had some pretty visuals courtesy of Vandenberg tonight. Woo hoo - talk about trails!
Hate to admit it, but watched 'Family Affair' - really like both Tim Curry & Gary Cole. The show is inoffensive, but I found myself daydreaming - something along the lines of Tim Curry in fishnets & heels, doing 'The Time Warp', while
Gary Cole got all 'American Gothic'. They could have some really interesting Halloween shows...
Stuck around for 'Do Over'. 30-something guy wakes up a teenager, knowing how everything has turned out. Wasn't as bad as anticipated.
The Emmys are Sunday night - check out The Big List.
Tonight, Friday, CBS has '48 Hours', a 'special' '60 Minutes', and a rerun of 'The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers'.
On a rerun Dave the scheduled guests are John Travolta and Nelly.
Scheduled on a fresh Craiggers is The Mooney Suzuki.
NBC starts with a rerun 'Providence', then a 'Dateline', and wraps with a rerun 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
Scheduled on a fresh Jay are Kate Hudson and BB Mak.
On a rerun Conan (from 6/27/02), the scheduled guests are Adam Sandler, Christopher Meloni, and Our Lady Peace.
Scheduled on a fresh Carson Daly are Jason Lee, Lucy Liu, Dean Winters, and Violent Femmes.
ABC pisses away 2 hours with the rerun 'America's Funniest Home Videos: The Battle Of The Best', and then '20/20'.
The WB is ALL fresh - the series premiere of 'What I Like', the season premiere of 'Sabrina', the season premiere of 'Reba', and the series premiere of 'Greetings From Tucson'.
Faux is ALL fresh - the series premiere of 'Firefly' and the series premiere of 'John Doe'.
UPN has a ball game - it's Ruppert's Doggers visiting the Padres.
Check local PBS listings for 'NOW With Bill Moyers'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
'Adopt-A-Minefield' Benefit
Paul & Heather Mills McCartney
Paul McCartney and his wife, Heather Mills McCartney, arrive at the Adopt-A-Minefield benefit Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002, in Los Angeles.
Photo by Jill Connelly
Live on HBO
Rolling Stones
Cable TV made some music news Wednesday, with HBO locking up a live performance of the Rolling Stones in January, and VH1 signing Pink, David Bowie and Santana to perform at the 2002 "VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards" Oct. 15.
HBO will cover the Stones at one of the last U.S. stops on their current "Licks" world tour, a Jan. 18 event at Madison Square Garden. It will be the Stones' first live concert for TV.
The "VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards" will also be cablecast live, from Radio City Music Hall, with "Will & Grace" star Debra Messing as host. VH1 will announce more music performers for the special later this month.
Rolling Stones
Flees 'Freaky Friday'
Annette Bening
Annette Bening has officially dropped out of Walt Disney's comedy remake of "Freaky Friday."
Reasons for the exit remain unclear, though sources indicated the project is still going forward. Bening was to play a widow who swaps personalities with her
tomboy teen ( Lindsay Lohan). Kelly Osbourne recently dropped out of the picture for personal reasons and was recently replaced by Christina Vidal. Osbourne's mother, Sharon Osbourne, has recently been treated for colon cancer.
"Friday" is being directed by Mark S. Waters ("The House of Yes") and was written by Heather Hach.
Annette Bening
Booked To Perform On Letterman
Jerry Seinfeld
The biggest trick-or-treat this Halloween is likely to be Jerry Seinfeld performing new stand-up material on David Letterman's "Late Show."
Seinfeld is booked to appear on Oct. 31, and perform for the first time on TV in more than a year.
That is the first night of the November sweeps, the crucial ratings period that networks use to set ad rates.
Jerry's last TV performance was also on Letterman in March 2001, when he performed about five minutes of new material.
Seinfeld's spokeswoman confirmed that the comedian is booked on Letterman's show but cautioned that the date could change. He's also scheduled to
appear on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno on Oct. 10, but is not expected to perform.
Jerry Seinfeld
Marc Jacobs Spring 2003 Fashion Show
P. Diddy & Kelly
Singer P. Diddy (L) and Kelly Osbourne (R) arrive at the Marc Jacobs Spring, 2003 fashion show in New York. September 18, 2002.
Photo by Jeff Christensen
National Endowment of the Arts
Heritage Award Fellowship
Appalachian music legend Jean Ritchie, considered one of the greatest dulcimer players of all time, was honored Wednesday by the National Endowment of the Arts for
connecting world audiences to the rich folk heritage of her home region.
Ritchie was among 15 artists receiving a NEA Heritage Award Fellowship, the country's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Other 2002 Heritage recipients
included Chicago blues guitarist David "Honeyboy" Edwards and Louisiana's Luderin Darbone and Edwin Duhon, co-founders of Cajun group the Hackberry Ramblers, which
has been continuously performing since 1933.
Other folk musicians receiving the $10,000 fellowship were Tennessee fiddler Ralph Blizard; Irish fiddler Kevin Burke; Lebanese reed flute player Nadim Dlaikan;
Sephardic musician-composer Flory Jagoda; Contra dance musician-composer Bob McQuillen; and Conjunto accordionist Domingo "Mingo" Saldivar.
Fellowships were announced at a Capitol Hill ceremony. The artists will headline a free concert in Washington Friday night.
Heritage Award Fellowship
Got Help With Role From Daughter
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn got some help from her daughter to play the role of Suzette in "The Banger Sisters."
Hawn plays a former rock groupie who hasn't grown up, but she was hampered by the fact that she never idolized rock stars when she was growing up.
Hawn's daughter Kate Hudson played the groupie Penny Lane in the critically acclaimed "Almost Famous."
Hawn says she was never into the drug culture that is often associated with rock groupies.
"I lived a different kind of life. I wasn't a stoner, I wasn't a drinker. I got married very young," Hawn said. "It just wasn't my world."
Goldie Hawn
Trial Date Set
Winona Ryder
Actress Winona Ryder will go to trial next month on charges she stole designer merchandise and illegally possessed painkillers
Superior Court Judge Elden Fox set Oct. 7 as the trial date Wednesday after plea bargain negotiations broke down.
Deputy District Attorney Ann Rundle didn't describe the offer made to the actress or say why it was withdrawn.
Ryder, 30, is charged with second-degree burglary, grand theft, vandalism and possession of a controlled substance. She could face three years in prison if convicted.
Winona Ryder
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Exhibiting His Artwork
Marilyn Manson
Shock rocker Marilyn Manson described his upcoming Hollywood exhibition of watercolors and mixed-media as "grotesque images" painted with "pretty colors."
Manson's first gallery exhibit is aptly titled, "The Golden Age of Grotesque," the name for his upcoming fifth album.
The Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions gallery on Hollywood Boulevard will exhibit about 50 pieces, all of them for sale, beginning Friday.
Marilyn Manson
Saved By Women
Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe was reportedly rescued from a barroom brawl by a lady karate champion just weeks after another women put him in a "hammerlock." The British Daily
Star reports Crowe challenged a group of men drinking at the Rosarita Beach resort in Mexico to a fight after one of them made fun of him. The "Gladiator" star
looked like he was about to get beat up when his personal trainer and five-time world karate champion Lourene Bevaart floored three of the hecklers and dragged
Crowe to safety. "Lourene punched one guy and pushed a couple of the others to the floor. Russ was lucky she was there," said an insider on the set of Crowe's movie "Far
Side of the World." Last month, an unidentified cast member told the Washington Post that during another Mexican brawl, "Crowe had to be subdued by a muscular women
friend of another actor . . . she got him in a hammerlock."
Russell Crowe
Pyramid Of The Sun
Teotihuacan
An archeological worker sits on the top of the pyramid of the Moon as the pyramid of the Sun is seen behind him in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, the site of the first metropolis of the Americas, September 17, 2002.
Archeologists think they could be a few feet away from uncovering a royal grave at the pyramid of the Moon which would help unlock the secrets of the city which dates to 500AD and was discovered by the Aztecs in 1500,
a century after it had been torched and abandoned.
Photo by Daniel Aguilar
Disney Preps Martial Arts 'Snow White'
'Snow White and the Seven Shao Lin'
Disney is negotiating with the Chinese choreographer of groundbreaking action films "The Matrix" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," to direct a live-action take on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
The project was until recently known as "Snow White and the Seven Shao Lin." (For the martial arts illiterate, that's a reference to the Shao Lin monks of China, who became masters of fighting concepts
so they could better understand the source of violence and overcome it.)
The now-untitled family action-adventure picture will mark the English-language directing debut of Yuen Wo Ping, a major name in Asia who is currently wrapping up work for Quentin Tarantino on "Kill Bill," Yuen
is already having helmed some 27 pictures there including recent Dimension import chopsocky "Iron Monkey" (originally released in 1993). He is also credited for having discovered such now-familiar talents as Michelle Yeoh, Jet Li and Jackie Chan.
The "Snow" update is set in the 1890s and follows a woman who returns home to Hong Kong to attend her father's funeral after 20 years abroad. She discovers that her stepmother is plotting against her and
escapes to mainland China, where she seeks solace with seven Shao Lin monks who, in turn, come to believe the woman holds the fate of the world in her hands and protect her. Josh Harman and Scott Elder wrote the script.
'Snow White and the Seven Shao Lin'
Gives $100M to Schools
Walter Annenberg
Retired publishing magnate and philanthropist Walter Annenberg has pledged $100 million each to communication schools at the University of Southern California and the University of Pennsylvania, his foundation said Thursday.
The Annenberg School for Communication at both schools received $120 million endowments in 1994.
Penn will use the new endowment to pay full tuition for its graduate school students, among other things. At USC, the endowment will fund the new Center for the Study of Journalism and Democracy and help subsidize scholarships and three new faculty positions.
Walter Annenberg
University of Pennsylvania
University of Southern California
The Annenberg Foundation
BartCop TV!
Added To Farm Aid
Kid Rock
Kid Rock will join Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and others for Saturday's annual Farm Aid concert outside Pittsburgh.
Dave Matthews, who joined Farm Aid's board of directors last year, will also perform at the sold-out concert at the Post-Gazette Pavilion in Burgettstown, Pa. The
concert will be broadcast live on CMT.
Nelson, Young and Mellencamp organized the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. In 14 Farm Aid concerts since 1985,
the organization has raised more than $24 million.
Kid Rock
Farm Aid Web site
CMT Web site
South Africa
St Lucia
Oil continues to wash up on the beaches from the stricken cargo ship MV Jolly Rubino, upper right, lying off St Lucia, 150 miles north-east of Durban, South Africa, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2002.
All hope has been abandoned of pulling the ship off the rocks after it ran aground Sept. 12 on reefs off the UNESCO World Heritage Site of St. Lucia on South Africa's east coast. Instead, workers
will focus on pumping oil off the ship in an effort to protect an ecologically sensitive estuary nearby before the ship breaks up.
Photo by Jon Hrusa
Diagnosed with Emphysema
Johnny Carson
Retired "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson has been diagnosed with emphysema but the 76-year-old entertainer otherwise remains "in great shape," a spokesman said on Thursday.
The spokesman said Carson had just come off the tennis court on Thursday when he learned of a newly published tabloid story reporting that he was seriously ill with the respiratory disease.
In an Esquire magazine interview earlier this year, Carson said he was perfectly content to be out of the public eye, living quietly in a large Malibu home he shares with his wife, Alexis,
playing cards with friends and spending time on his yacht.
Johnny Carson
'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'
The TV Version
CBS has finally sent an RSVP to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," picking up a small-screen version of the smash indie film for midseason.
The network has officially ordered seven episodes of the half-hour comedy; that number could increase, however, as the series producers are in negotiations with CBS to bump the pickup to 13.
Just like the feature, the TV "Greek Wedding" will star Nia Vardalos as a woman whose life revolves around a traditional Greek family. The series will pick up as Vardalos' character starts dating
a non-Greek man behind her parents' back.
Vardalos, who originated and starred in the one-woman stage show, which Tom Hanks' Playtone Prods. banner turned into the feature picture, wrote the pilot with Marsh McCall ("Just Shoot Me"). McCall
will executive produce, along with Vardalos' manager Brad Gray and Rita Wilson, Hanks' wife; Vardalos will serve as co-executive producer.
Wilson's involvement has become the stuff of legends: the actress fell in love with the play and was instrumental in bringing her husband on board. The film, which cost about $5 million to make,
has now grossed more than $110 million at the North American box office. It is poised to pass the $140 million haul of "The Blair Witch Project" to become the biggest-grossing indie film of all time.
'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' - The TV Version
Comedy Central
Robert Evans
The colorful life of legendary producer Robert Evans will form the basis of a weekly animated series just snapped up by Comedy Central.
Following a multinetwork bidding war, the cable channel has ordered 10 episodes of the still-untitled series, which will revolve around both the real-life and fictional
adventures of Evans as he interacts with Hollywood executives, global leaders -- and the trickiest creatures of all: women.
Brett Morgen-- who co-wrote, co-produced and co-directed the well-reviewed Evans documentary "The Kid Stays in the Picture" -- is teaming with "South Park" scribe Pam Brady
to write and executive produce the show, expected to bow no earlier than summer 2003.
Robert Evans
Resolve Bath Dispute
Geffen & Rich
David Geffen threatened to take Denise Rich to court after her whirlpool bath overflowed, damaging artwork and clothing in his apartment downstairs.
But the dispute between the powerhouse Fifth Avenue neighbors is now over, Rich's spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, told The New York Times.
Rubenstein said the parties have agreed to money damages. The amount wasn't disclosed.
Geffen & Rich
Dried Blood Liquefies in 'Miracle'
Saint Gennaro
The substance many Neopolitans believe is the dried blood of their patron saint liquefied right on cue on Thursday, in a twice-yearly "miracle."
Thousands of faithful crammed into Naples cathedral to see the blood of the fourth century Saint Gennaro turn from powder to liquid, which they see as a good omen for the city
and the world. The miracle has been recorded almost without fail for the past 600 years -- on September 19, the saint's feast day, and on the first Saturday in May. When the blood has remained dry, tragedies have followed.
Scientists have confirmed that the substance inside the closed vial is blood but cannot explain why it regularly turns to liquid.
Disaster has struck at least five times after the blood failed to liquefy. In 1527 the plague killed 40,000 people and more recently in November 1980 some 3,000 people died in a massive earthquake that struck southern Italy.
Saint Gennaro
Visited `Sesame Street'
Pickles
Laura Bush looked right at home as she visited a monster and a towering fowl.
The setting was "Sesame Street" (as it exists on Stage G at Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York) where the first lady paid a call Thursday morning to tape a segment.
Seated at a picnic table and surrounded by giggly Elmo, Big Bird and three cute youngsters, Mrs. Bush read aloud a kids' book called "Wubba, Wubba, Woo!" — and seemed
very much like the teacher and librarian she once was.
Once she was finished reading the book (created especially for the segment), Mrs. Bush thanked her new friends for taking part.
But the segment's breezy on-screen feeling was contradicted by behind-the-scenes concerns Thursday. While "Sesame Street" is no stranger to visiting dignitaries (including
past first ladies Barbara Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the current state of high alert demanded unprecedented security.
An advance Secret Service team had been on the premises all week. And during the precisely allotted one-hour shoot, at least a dozen agents were visible just in the studio.
Pickles Goes To Sesame Street
www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet
Snow Leopards
Sheela & Leila
Eleven-week-old snow leopards "Sheela" and "Leila" sit together at the Friedrichsfelde zoo in Berlin, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002. The leopards are the children of three-year-old
snow leopard "Omar," who was brought from a zoo in Estonia some three-an-a-half months before the births of the young cats. Snow leopards are found in the wild in the mountains of central Asia.
Photo by Fritz Reiss
'The Osbournes'
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