'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Question
Re: Jerry Lawler/Andy Kaufman Feud
How is the Jerry Lawler/Andy Kaufman "revelation" news?
The movie "Man On The Moon"
makes it pretty damn clear that their whole
feud was an act.
(Lawler plays himself in the movie)
Judson_K
Hi Judson -
I'm so old I can remember Andy Kaufman working as a busboy at Jerry's Deli in the Valley, the night he debuted on 'Saturday Night Live', his excursions on 'The Dinah Shore Show', as well as 'that' night on 'Fridays', and 'that' visit to Letterman, too.
Didn't see 'Man On The Moon', though.
When I saw the story, just thought it was kind of cool that Jerry Lawler was finally putting it on the record (yes, I realize he's selling his book, but Andy Kaufman was an original, Lawler was lucky, and this makes a mark for future 'googling' - and that's a good thing).
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Crisp, sunny day. Jo (the remaining) lizard was so happy it seemed he was smiling.
Lead story on all the local news was Shaquille O'Neill got married.
Talked to dear old dad - he was snowed in at his girlfriend's, like that's a bad thing. ; )
Heard a bit of some new commercial that was using Nat King Cole's ''Straighten Up & Fly Right''. Had to fire up the old Winamp & take a listen. Seems the song is about a buzzard that
took a monkey for a ride in the air. Damn, love that Winamp.
So, while looking at the stuff to play on the old Winamp, came across some Randy Newman. Damn, his 'Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man)' has never seemed more appropriate. 'It's Money That Matters' also seems to fit. (And, yes, I LOVE LA.)
Also took the opportunity to listen to R.E.M.'s 'Man On The Moon'.
Tonight, Friday, CBS starts the evening with '48 Hours', then follows with the fresh, but, seriously time-delayed tape of 'The Kennedy Center Honors'.
On a RERUN Dave are Isabella Rossellini and Mort Sahl.
On a seemingly fresh Craiggers are Sean Astin and Joshua Redman.
NBC offers a 2-hour 'Dateline', then a RERUN 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
On a seemingly fresh Jay are Darrell Hammond, Nick Cannon, and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
On a seemingly fresh Conan are Alan Cumming, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Carr.
On a seemingly fresh Carson Daly are Lauren Graham, Allan Houston, Jeff Ross, Orny Adams, amd Queens of the Stone Age.
ABC opens with a RERUN 'America's 'Funniest' Home Videos', then a RERUN 'Whose Line', a RERUN 'Drew Carey', and then '20/20'.
The WB has nothing fresh - RERUN 'What I Like About You', RERUN 'Sabrina', RERUN 'Reba', RERUN 'Greetings From Tucson'.
Faux RERUNs 'M*A*S*H: 30th Anniversary Reunion Special'.
UPN has the movie 'Mortal Kombat'.
Check local PBS listings for 'NOW With Bill Moyers'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
(Grandfather Frost & Snow Maiden)
Ded Moroz & Snegurochka
Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost), the Russian Santa Claus, left, and Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), Ded Moroz' traditional companion, center,
smile during a welcome ceremony in Moscow, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2002, with Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov at right. New Year's is the biggest
holiday of the year in Russia, and is followed by the Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7.
Photo by Alexei Sazonov
Showcases Memorabilia
Hard Rock Cafe
Hard Rock Cafe International has opened its vault of rock n' roll memorabilia to the public in a 17,000-square-foot museum.
The Hard Rock Vault showcases a portion of the company's 65,000 rock artifacts that rotate among its restaurants, hotels and casinos worldwide. It's in a building that once housed the
Guinness Book of World Records Experience.
Visitors to the exhibit, which opened Monday, enter through a tunnel illuminated by vintage images of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones on oversized flat-screen TVs. The hallway leads
into the "Hub," the attraction's main exhibit hall, which includes a black leather jacket Bruce Springsteen wore on the cover of his "Born to Run" album, Led Zeppelin legend John Bonham's
drum set and guitars from Pete Townshend, Steve Cropper and B.B. King.
The Hub is followed by the "Total Immersion Tour," a guided stroll offered to about a dozen visitors at a time through several themed rooms. It starts in the "Back Alley," a tribute
that links punk icons such as the Sex Pistols and The Ramones with Nirvana and Courtney Love.
Next door, there's the "Dressing Room," with costumes worn by Elton John, Madonna, Gene Simmons, Prince and others. It leads to the "Psychedelic Meltdown," with Jimi Hendrix collectibles.
Hard Rock Cafe
Hard Rock Vault
Osaka, Japan
Artificial Fish
Two artificial fish swim in a fishtank at the Eamex Corp's laboratory in Osaka, western Japan on December 26, 2002. The company says it uses small
pieces of artificial muscle, or polymer actuator, attached between the bodies and tails of the fish to help them swim. The fish were jointly developed
by Eamex and Daiichikogei, another Osaka-based company. A set of two fish in a tank will be on sale in January 2003 for an open price, which company
officials expect to be around 16,000 yen ($133).
Photo by Keiko Kanai
Ads Help Win Back Viewers
Queen Elizabeth
The decision to advertise Queen Elizabeth's Christmas message for the first time has reversed a 10-year decline in ratings, figures showed on Friday.
The four-minute broadcast drew an estimated 9.3 million viewers, compared with 8.7 million last year, British newspapers reported.
The figures vindicate Buckingham Palace's decision to break with 70 years of tradition and preview the Queen's speech on television.
Despite a brief upsurge after the death in 1997 of Diana, Princess of Wales, viewing figures for the annual address have been in steady decline.
This year's figures mean the Queen's speech was the seventh most popular broadcast on Christmas Day.
Queen Elizabeth
Spars With Neighbors
Ted Koppel
Newsman Ted Koppel is sparring with his neighbors over the size of their homes.
The anchor of ABC's "Nightline" and his wife contend in a lawsuit that their neighbors in the posh Washington suburb of Potomac, Md., have disregarded an agreement limiting the
size of homes to 10,000 square feet.
A preliminary ruling from a Maryland appeals court cleared all but two homes, but the remaining cases are headed to trial in Montgomery County, Md., The Washington Post reported Thursday.
Firing back, the developers of nearby properties filed a countersuit claiming the only house exceeding the limit will belong to the Koppels, according to the Post.
Attorney Thomas D. Murphy — representing Koppel, 62, and his wife, Grace Anne Dorney, 63 — said the limit would only ban "mega-mansions," and was "designed to protect the land
in Potomac which has been disappearing in a sea of 'houses on steroids'."
Ted Koppel
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
A Hollywood Enigma
Sidney Korshak
Investigative reporter Gus Russo has sold a proposal for the first major biography of Hollywood power broker and mob adviser Sidney Korshak to Bloomsbury USA.
Tentatively titled "The Fixer," the Korshak bio is one of two books Russo plans to write on the history of underground crime in America.
Korshak, who once had close ties to Al Capone's Chicago cartel, figures prominently in Russo's recent book on the Chicago mob, "The Outsider."
But Korshak remains a shadowy figure in Hollywood, best known as a lawyer for labor interests, an influential political insider and a confidante of such executives as Lew Wasserman, Charles Bluhdorn and Robert Evans.
Korshak, who was investigated by the FBI for years but never indicted, was a slick, behind-the-scenes operator who prized anonymity and granted few interviews before his death in 1996.
Korshak, who also served as an uncredited legal consultant on the James Bond picture "Diamonds Are Forever," which was shot in Las Vegas, became known as "the Fixer" for his work
as a legal trouble-shooter, resolving seemingly intractable corporate and labor disputes.
Sidney Korshak
Turning Japanese
CNNj
CNN and Japan Cable Television have teamed up to launch CNNj, a news channel tailored for Japanese viewers.
CNNj, which bows in March, combines content from CNN in the U.S. with that from CNNfn and CNN Intl. Some 126 hours of content a week will be in Japanese, with major
breaking news also translated into Japanese.
Japan is CNN's largest market in Asia.
CNNj
Plans Spain Oil Spill Film
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Jean-Michel Cousteau, the son of the late ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, hopes to capture the devastation of last month's massive oil spill in northwestern Spain on film for a possible
documentary, the oceanographer and environmentalist said.
The film team of his Santa Barbara-based Ocean Futures Society plans to focus on the residents, workers and fishermen of A Coruna, a town off the Galician coast.
Cousteau hopes the film can educate the public and force governments to remove aging and obsolete oil tankers from the ocean.
"Thousands and thousands of people are completely out of work because they were completely dependent on the ocean for their way of living," Cousteau said.
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Doesn't Mind Liz Taylor Comparisons
Jennifer Lopez
With two marriages behind her and a third planned, Jennifer Lopez knows she's been compared to the oft-wedded Elizabeth Taylor. And she's fine with that.
"I'm not mad if people call me the modern-day Liz Taylor," Lopez tells InStyle magazine for its January issue. She even has a book on her coffee table about Taylor, who's been married eight times.
"We've all had a love of our life and failed love affairs. I'm just the biggest romantic — it's really sad," Lopez says. "I tell people that but nobody listens. They're too busy
writing about the thread count they think I demand."
Jennifer Lopez
China
Chengdu
Chinese university students celebrate Christmas in Chengdu, Sichun province, December 25, 2002. Christmas is becoming an increasingly popular festival in China as Chinese adopt Western ideas and festivals.
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Friends Trade Tattered Card
49 Years
Back in 1953, fed up with holiday cheer, Joe Staab bought coworker Gerry Champion an "ugly little Christmas card" that was green and brown with pinecones on the front.
Forty-nine years later, the same old tattered card keeps going back and forth between Staab and Champion around this time of year.
"It started as a joke," Champion said of the exchange that began when she and the then-21-year-old Staab worked at a naval accounting office in Atlantic City, N.J.
They have sent the card to each other almost every year since. Champion sends it on even years; Staab sends it on odd years.
"I didn't want to send Christmas cards," said Staab, now retired and living in Federal Way, Wash., with his wife Joan. "But she keeps sending it back."
Each year, whoever sends the card writes a brief message. With time, the messages have shrunk the available space, but there's still room for years to come.
49 Years
In Memory
William T. Orr
Actor and television executive William T. Orr, who served as executive producer of Warner Bros. television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, has died. He was 85.
The former son-in-law of legendary movie mogul Jack Warner, who helped bring such hits as "Maverick," "77 Sunset Strip" and "F-Troop" to television, died Wednesday at his home from natural causes, Warner Bros. said Thursday.
Orr was head of Warner Bros.' early entry into television production. Many of his western and detective shows appeared on ABC Television.
He began his career in 1936 as an actor, playing second lead roles opposite Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart and Edward G. Robinson. His knack for impersonation led him to act in a musical stage review "Meet The People," a show hosted by gossip columnist Louella Parsons that mixed political satire and song.
During World War II he made training films alongside fellow actors Ronald Reagan and Alan Ladd.
In 1945, Orr married Jack Warner's stepdaughter, Joy Page. The two divorced after 25 years, although they remained good friends.
In 1955, he was put in charge of Warner Bros.' fledgling TV Division. In 1965, he left the company to work as an independent producer. He retired in the mid-1970s.
William T. Orr
In Memory
Herb Ritts
Legendary fashion and celebrity photographer Herb Ritts died on Thursday from complications of pneumonia at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, his publicist said.
Ritts, 50, had been hospitalized a few days before his death for an unspecified condition, his publicist Stephen Huvane said. Just 10 days earlier he had photographed actor Ben Affleck
for a Vanity Fair magazine cover and was directing music videos, Huvane said.
Ritts, who lived in Los Angeles, is survived by his partner, Erik Hyman, as well as his mother and three siblings. Private memorial services were planned for January in Los Angeles, Huvane said.
Ritts photographed the icons of three decades in fashion spreads, album covers, advertisements and music videos.
A native southern Californian, Ritts began his career in the late 1970s with informal portraits of friends in the movie industry. He moved from fashion spreads in the late 1970s and early 1980s to nude
studies of Masai women in Africa to famous portraits of pop singer Madonna, jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and actor Jack Nicholson made up as "The Joker" for the film "Batman."
Curators of a recent show of his work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston described him as "an image maker for our time who translated our culture's dreams and desires into strong memorable pictures."
Herb Ritts
'TBH Politoons'
(9/10/02)
'The Osbournes'
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