Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Dems Come Alive! ...a follow-up from Michael Moore
Dems have started running tough, killer ads that have balls and SAY WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID. Check these out: In the California Senate race, Barbara Boxer is going after Carly Fiorina on the outsourcing Fiorina did as CEO of HP. Rep. Tim Bishop of Long Island, New York hits his GOP opponent Randy Altschuler on how HIS business sent jobs overseas. Richard Blumenthal half-nelsons his Connecticut Senate opponent (and former WWE CEO) Linda McMahon who said we should consider cutting the minimum wage and then lied about having said it.
Tom Danehy: Could technology that brings us a wealth of information make us dumber? (tucsonweekly.com)
Friedrich Nietzsche was a physical mess.
Carlos Ramirez: A Chat with Jim Adkins, Jimmy Eats World singer (bullz-eye.com)
There isn't a formula for the way we put our material together. The writing and recording aspect of Jimmy Eat World has changed so much. A lot of the vocals you hear on Invented are first takes. We don't really demo anymore.
George Vargas: Jonas Brothers Final Jam? No Way, Says Joe Jonas (creators.com)
Stevie Wonder is as friendly and down-to-earth as any pop-music legend around, but performing with him at the 2009 Grammy Awards was intimidating for the Jonas Brothers.
Lesley Goldberg: Margaret Cho queers up "Dancing with the Stars" (afterellen.com)
The out comedian/musician gives us weekly updates on her experience with the reality show. This week: Will she dance to Tegan and Sara? Will she hit on Bristol Palin?
Germaine Greer: Do not underestimate the curse of Greer - the Hindu goddess Kali is on my side (guardian.co.uk)
How an antique Hindu icon scuppered an attempt to portray me on film.
Eva Wiseman: "Chloe Sevigny: the interview" (guardian.co.uk)
In the identikit world of the Hollywood leading lady, Chloë Sevigny defies convention. Her quirky looks, iconic sense of style and fearless approach to acting have made her the often controversial queen of the indie movie. Here she reveals why she regrets nothing.
Dan Glaister: "For sale: Dennis Hopper's house" (guardian.co.uk)
The Easy Rider star's sleek mansion, designed in part by Frank Gehry, is up for sale. But no one is buying. Could its edgy location in Venice, LA, be putting people off?
Rhys Ifans: 'I'm a bloody good actor' (guardian.co.uk)
He has been a serial scene-stealer in other people's films. Now Rhys Ifans has the part of his life: the notorious drug-dealer Howard Marks, writes Catherine Shoard.
Susan King: "Classic Hollywood: Marlo Thomas reminisces on a life of laughter" (Los Angeles Times)
When Marlo Thomas was a teenager, she was always crazy about some boy.
David Bruce has 39 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $39 you can buy 9,750 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," and "Maximum Cool."
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'DanD cynically inspired Media Integrity' Edition...
Are there any Media-Types (TV, Radio, Print) that you believe have 'Integrity' enough that you respect them and their works? (Even in the morning, haha)... Name names, if'n ya please...
1.) Heck, yeah!...
2.) No way! They're all corporate dupes...
Send your response to
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
'Back to School Night' went well.
What Hypocrisy?
Lou Dobbs
The Nation magazine is reporting that former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs relied on illegal immigrants to help maintain his homes even as he spoke out on the air against them.
The Nation said the article, published online Thursday, is based on a yearlong investigation including interviews with five immigrants who worked without papers on Dobbs' properties in New Jersey and Florida.
Dobbs said in an interview Thursday the article is "a political assault" based on what he called "the lie" that he has hired illegal immigrants. He says: "I have never, do not now, and never will."
Dobbs was host of a weeknight news and commentary hour on CNN until abruptly resigning last November after 29 years with the network. He continues to host a syndicated radio show.
Lou Dobbs
Nobel Literature Prize
Mario Vargas Llosa
Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa won the 2010 Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday as the academy honored one of the Spanish-speaking world's most acclaimed authors and an outspoken political activist who once ran for president in his tumultuous homeland.
Vargas Llosa, 74, has written more than 30 novels, plays and essays, including "Conversation in the Cathedral" and "The Green House." In 1995, he won the Cervantes Prize, the most distinguished literary honor in Spanish.
He is the first South American winner of the prestigious 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) Nobel literature prize since Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez won in 1982 and the first Spanish-language writer to win since Mexico's Octavio Paz in 1990.
The Swedish Academy said it honored him for mapping the "structures of power and (for) his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt and defeat." Its permanent secretary, Peter Englund, called him "a divinely gifted storyteller" whose writing touched the reader.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Donates $2.9 Million
CMA
The Country Music Association is donating more than $2.9 million to Nashville-area flood relief and music education programs.
The record donation comes from the net proceeds of this year's CMA Music Festival held June 10-13 in Nashville.
The money will be split evenly between CMA's "Keep the Music Playing" campaign and The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, which provides grants to help flood victims.
This year's festival went on as planned just one month after a devastating May flood caused more than $2 billion in damage in Nashville alone.
CMA
FBI Seizes Fingerprints Before Auction
John Lennon
A set of John Lennon's fingerprints being auctioned for at least $100,000 has been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 30 years after the singer's death.
The 1976 signed application for Lennon's U.S. citizenship was one of the hallmarks of about 850 celebrity items in an online sale timed around Lennon's 70th birthday on Saturday.
The fingerprint card was being shown to media at a midtown New York store on Wednesday in an auction preview of more than 90 Beatles items when the FBI faxed a subpoena there and took the card.
Lennon was born in Liverpool, England and had been investigated by the FBI in the early 1970s for anti-war activity.
John Lennon
Lost Concerto Found In Scotland
Antonio Vivaldi
A lost flute concerto by 18th century composer and virtuoso violinist Antonio Vivaldi has been discovered by an academic among a set of dusty papers housed in Scotland's National Archives in Edinburgh.
The extraordinary find, a 300-year-old copy of the Italian Baroque composer's original manuscript, comprises the parts for "Il Gran Mogol," one of a quartet of national concertos.
The others, entitled "La Francia," "La Spagna" and "L'Inghilterro" remain lost.
The musical score, which scholars believe may never have been performed, was found and authenticated by Southampton University research fellow Andrew Woolley.
Antonio Vivaldi
Ted Hughes Poem Published
Sylvia Plath
The late British poet laureate Ted Hughes repeatedly tried to perfect a poem describing the night his wife Sylvia Plath killed herself, drafts of a work published for the first time Thursday show.
The draft poem, called "Last Letter," describes Hughes' anguish in the days leading up to Plath's death in her London home on February 11, 1963. Beginning with "What happened that night? Your final night," it ends with the moment Hughes is informed of his wife's death.
The New Statesman magazine, which published the drafts Thursday, called the abandoned poem an important missing piece in Hughes' collection "Birthday Letters" - the only place readers have so far been able to find explicit references in Hughes' work to Plath's death.
Hughes, who had two later marriages, went on to become poet laureate from 1984 until his death. He didn't speak out about Plath's suicide until the anthology "Birthday Letters" was published in 1998, just months before he died.
Sylvia Plath
Most Powerful Women List
Forbes
The Forbes list of the world's most powerful women includes Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Beyonce Knowles and Ellen DeGeneres, all of whom apparently wield more power than the woman who is second in line for U.S. president.
The annual list, released late Wednesday, places Winfrey third. The talk-show queen is worth $2.7 billion and earned $315 million in the past year, but beyond wealth Forbes takes into account executive position, creative influence and entrepreneurship.
No. 1 on the list is First Lady Michelle Obama. Forbes didn't calculate her and her husband's personal wealth or money earned in the last year, choosing instead to list in that category the country's national budget, which is $3.5 trillion.
After Winfrey, Lady Gaga, at No. 7, is the next media person on the list. She earned $62 million in the past year and, according to Forbes, "single-handedly reinvigorated pop music and pop culture."
Forbes
Teen Voice Sues Nickelodeon
'Dora The Explorer'
A teenager who gave voice to the spunky heroine of Nickelodeon's "Dora The Explorer" says the network cheated her out of millions of dollars by underpaying her for work on the groundbreaking children's cartoon series.
Caitlin Sanchez, 14, didn't get the fees she was due for reruns, recordings for DVDs and other Dora products and hundreds of hours of promotional work, she and her family said in a lawsuit filed against Nickelodeon and its corporate parents.
Caitlin has been the voice of 7-year-old Dora since 2007, leading its audiences on whimsical adventures that also help its young viewers learn English and Spanish. She replaced the character's original voice, Kathleen Herles.
While she made $5,115 per episode, she wasn't paid or was grossly undercompensated for at least 160 extra hours of recording work, and at least 400 hours of promotions, marketing and interviews, her lawsuit said. While traveling the country to talk up the show, she got only $40 a day, it said.
'Dora The Explorer'
Las Vegas Producer Sues
Donny and Marie
A Las Vegas producer has hurled some pretty outrageous claims at Donny and Marie Osmond.
Throughout their many years in show business, the duo has developed a nice-guy-nice-gal reputation, but in a new lawsuit the producer of their Vegas stage production paints the brother and sister as "underhanded, devious, fraudulent and greedy."
Earlier this year, Donny and Marie signed a deal to extend their show at the Flamingo Las Vegas for another few years.
Chip Lightman produces it and claims in a complaint filed Friday in Clark County District Court that the Osmonds engineered a "a plot to defraud the William Morris Agency" of its cut for negotiating the recent contract. After Lightman allegedly refused to sign onto the scheme, Donny is said to have fired him. Lightman's suit seeks unspecified damages for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, fraud and defamation.
Donny and Marie
Subpoenaed In Spain
Sean Connery
Oscar-winning film star Sean Connery and his wife have been subpoenaed to testify before a Spanish judge in an investigation into a property scandal, court sources said Thursday.
The 80-year-old actor, who currently lives in the Bahamas, was named in May in the investigation dubbed "Goldfinger" after the 1964 James Bond film and which involves the sale of his luxury seaside villa near the jet-set resort of Marbella.
Connery sold the villa, named Malibu, in 1999 reportedly for around nine million dollars (6.5 million euros).
The villa was subsequently knocked down, and a four-storey luxury apartment complex with 72 flats was built on the land where it once stood in 2004-2005, despite planning rules which said only five homes could be constructed on it.
Sean Connery
Citi Ordered To Pay
Larry Hagman
Larry Hagman, the actor who played the villainous J.R. Ewing in 1980s TV show "Dallas," became a victim of fraud and misconduct at the hands of Citigroup Inc, a FINRA arbitration panel ruled this week.
The total award includes $10 million in punitive damages that Citi must pay to charities selected by Hagman, $1.1 million in compensatory damages and nearly $440,000 in legal fees.
Hagman, who also played astronaut Anthony Nelson in "I Dream of Jeannie" in the 1960's TV show, had requested $1.35 million in damages.
Hagman received the unusually large award after the arbitrators found Citigroup Global Markets "engaged in serious misconduct," meeting FINRA's standards for punitive damages, the ruling said.
Larry Hagman
Second Bankruptcy
Toni Braxton
Toni Braxton has filed for bankruptcy a second time, citing millions of dollars in debt and financial problems exacerbated by a heart condition that forced her to cancel a series of Las Vegas shows.
The filing will likely result in the six-time Grammy Award winner having to sell some of her assets to pay off debts listed in court records as ranging between $10 million and $50 million.
Her attorney, Debra Grassgreen, said in a statement the filing will allow Braxton to pay off tax debts, sell heavily indebted property in Atlanta and still care for her children.
Grassgreen said the Vegas show cancellations left Braxton, 43, saddled with debts from which she could not recover.
Toni Braxton
Death An Accident
Gary Coleman
Police have confirmed that "Diff'rent Strokes" actor Gary Coleman's death has been ruled an accident.
Santaquin Police Chief Dennis Howard said an autopsy found Coleman died of natural causes after an accidental fall. The finding matches the evidence police found at Coleman's Santaquin home on May 26, Howard told The Associated Press.
The state medical examiner's conclusions bring the police investigation into the death to a close, Howard said.
The 42-year-old actor died at a Provo hospital two days after his fall. He was taken off life support after suffering a brain hemorrhage.
Gary Coleman
Shaves 15 Hours
MDA Telethon
The Muscular Dystrophy Association's Labor Day Telethon is getting shorter.
The group says it plans to shave more than 15 hours off its annual fundraising telecast. The 2011 MDA Labor Day Telethon will now be a six-hour, prime-time program, organizers said Wednesday.
Spokesman Jim Brown says the hope is that the shorter format will capture more viewers, bigger performers and generate more donations for the nonprofit group.
Last month's Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon raised $58.9 million to fund research to find a cure for muscular dystrophy and ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.
MDA Telethon
Not Christian
Yoga
A Southern Baptist leader who is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice.
Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God.
Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine."
"That's just not Christianity," Mohler told The Associated Press.
Yoga
Clog Commonwealth Games Drains
Condoms
Thousands of flushed condoms threaten to choke the Commonwealth Games village's drainage system, media reports said, in the latest problem to hit the venue from hidden snakes to outbreaks of dengue.
Games organisers, who won a race against time to ready the village, are now battling to clear clogged drains after thousands of non-biodegradeable contraceptives were flushed down toilets in the first week of the event.
Following a decision to provide free condoms at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, it has become something of a tradition.
At the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, athletes quickly used up the 70,000 free condoms provided, forcing organisers to supply another 20,000, while at the 2004 Games in Athens, the provision was doubled to 130,000.
At both the Beijing Games in 2008, and the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February, 100,000 condoms were provided for athletes.
Condoms
Elk Viewing Center
Elk County
A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the official opening Wednesday for a north-central Pennsylvania visitors center the state hopes becomes a prime destination for viewing elk.
The Elk County Visitors Center in Benezette was built through a partnership between the state and the Keystone Elk County Alliance. The commonwealth chipped in $6 million for the project, with another $6 million from private funding.
Leaders hope the center becomes a hub for viewing the one of the Northeast's largest elk herds. Economic development officials hope that brings in dollars for a rural part of the state that has long struggled financially.
Fall is mating season for elk and considered a good time for tourists who want to catch glimpses of the massive animals.
Elk County
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