'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Selected Saturday Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still nice weather, but the clouds are starting to roll in.
Cousin Keith stopped by to see the visiting niece.
Spent the afternoon looking for souvenirs.
Ten years ago today, it was a rainy day in Florence, Italy.
I've only won one thing in my life - a trip to Italy (that was supposed to be a trip to Morocco) from Star magazine.
We left on the 12th, leaving the 17-month old kid behind with his earthquake-virgin grandmother. We'd spent 4 days in Rome & Naples, and had taken the train to Florence that morning.
It was raining & gray. I'd been to Florence back in my Pepperdine days, where it became my favorite city, and this wasn't the welcome I'd anticipated.
We got to the hotel, and after settling in, the kind woman behind the desk sent us to a great trattoria. We returned to our room stuffed & pleasantly under the influence.
Being Americans, we turned on the TV. Holy shit, the Northridge earthquake had just happened & they were carrying local LA feeds.
There seemed to be too many numbers for my fingers, eyes & brain to co-ordinate to make the phone ring in Long Beach, so went down to the desk, where the wonderful woman with the great food knowledge was still on duty.
Gave her all the phone numbers and she was able to get a call through in a couple of minutes.
Mom answered, said all was well & that the kid thought it was fun. Some pals & neighbors had stopped by to make sure she was OK.
It was the only time she was anxious to return to the backwoods of PA, even though she had great conversation material for years.
That's how I remember the Northridge earthquake - 10 years ago today - and a kind Italian woman named Rosella.
Tonight, Saturday, CBS opens the night with the Season Premiere of 'Star Search', followed by a FRESH 'Hack', then
a FRESH 'The District'.
NBC fills the night with the movie 'As Good As It Gets'.
'SNL' is FRESH with Jessica Simpson & Nick Lachey hosting, music by G-Unit.
ABC starts the night with the movie 'Liar, Liar', followed by the network tv Season Premiere of 'Monk'.
The WB here has 'NBA Basketball', with the LA Clippers visiting the LA Lakers.
Faux has the traditional 'Cops', 'Cops', 'America's Most Wanted'.
'MAD TV' is FRESH, with Jeff Probst hosting.
UPN has the movie 'D.O.A.'.
A&E has 'City Confidential', 'American Justice', 'Cold Case Files', and 'City Confidential'.
AMC has the movie 'King Kong' (Jessica Lange version), followed by the movie 'Legal Eagles', then the movie
'White Palace'
BBC -
[6pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 3;
[6:40pm] 'My Hero' - Parents;
[7:20pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 4;
[8pm] 'The Vice' - Home is the Place;
[10pm] 'The Sins' - Lust;
[11pm] 'Dead Ringers' - Episode 6;
[11:30pm] 'Dead Ringers' - Episode 5;
[12am] 'The Vice' - Home is the Place;
[2am] 'The Sins' - Lust;
[3am] 'Dead Ringers' - Episode 6;
[3:30am] 'Dead Ringers' - Episode 5;
[4am] 'The Vice' - Home is the Place;
[5am] 'Faking It' - Video Games Tester to Racing Driver; and
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Queer Eye', followed by the movie 'Silverado' (not the Neil Bush story), then the movie 'Silverado' again.
Comedy Central does double shots all night with 'Trigger Happy TV', 'Trigger Happy TV', 'Reno 911!', 'Reno 911!', 'Chappelle's Show', 'Chappelle's Show',
'The Man Show', and 'The Man Show'.
History has a FRESH 'Medieval Lives' with Terry Jones, 'Little Big Horn: The Untold Story', and 'Wild West Tech'.
SciFi has the movie 'Mosquito', followed by the movie 'Skeeter', then the movie 'Bugs'.
TCM:
[6am] 'Too Hot To Handle' (1938);
[8am] 'Nocturne' (1946);
[9:30am] 'Festival of Shorts #28' (2000);
[10am] 'Cimarron' (1931);
[12:15pm] 'The Naked And The Dead' (1958);
[2:30pm] 'The Fighting 69th' (1940);
[4pm] 'Northwest Passage' (1940);
[6:15pm] 'Valley Of The Kings' (1954);
[8pm] 'The Man Who Would Be King' (1975);
[10:15pm] 'The Quiet Man' (1952);
[12:30am] 'The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty' (1947);
[2:30am] 'The Bribe' (1949);
[4:30am] 'Lili' (1953). (ALL TIMES EST)
Ernie Schuchert, left, nephew to J. William Schuchert, the inspiration for Wimpy, a character from the Popeye comic strip, and Laurie Randall, right, co-owner of Spinach Can Collectibles and the Popeye Museum, pose inside the museum in downtown Chester, Ill., Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2004. Saturday, Jan. 17, is the 75th anniversary of Popeye the Sailor Man's comic-strip debut.
Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Missing Dalek Episode
Doctor Who
A long-lost Dalek episode of Doctor Who has been returned to the BBC by an engineer who rescued the film from destruction in the early 1970s.
The episode of The Daleks' Master Plan, from 1965, was returned by Francis Watson - who worked at the BBC when episodes were thrown out to make space.
Steve Roberts from the BBC's restoration team said it was five years since an episode was last recovered.
Roberts says the episode, featuring William Hartnell as the Doctor, was the second from the Master Plan storyline - and titled Day Of Armageddon.
The episode is also significant because it shows the first Doctor in one of his major early confrontations with the Daleks.
Doctor Who
Together Again
Shatner & Nimoy
Priceline.com went boldly into a new frontier in the late 1990s with its name-your-own-price approach to buying airline tickets and other products over the Internet.
Priceline is still offering the name-your-own-price approach, but is adding a new service that allows customers to choose from a selection of published fares, flight times and airlines. Under the old method, customers could name their own price and travel dates, but Priceline chose the airline and flight times.
To highlight the new choice, Norwalk, Conn.-based Priceline is starting a multimillion dollar television advertising campaign that begins airing Monday featuring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy of "Star Trek" fame.
The new commercial tries to illustrate the new choice by jolting Shatner with the appearance of Nimoy as an alternative.
Shatner is told there is a new Priceline in which travelers can select their flights, times and airlines from a selection of fares.
"Yeah, but who could ever replace me?" Shatner asks.
Nimoy pokes his head in the office. "Hi guys," he says, as Shatner looks perplexed.
Shatner & Nimoy
Acrobats perform on Chinese poles during the rehearsal of the Canadian group Cirque Du Soleil's 'Saltimbanco' in Seville late on January 15, 2004. Saltimbanco will be performed at Seville between January 16 and February 15, 2004.
Photo by Marcelo del Pozo
#2,245 On The Hollywood Walk O'Fame
Isabel Sanford
Isabel Sanford, best known as Louise Jefferson or "Weezie" on the CBS sitcom "The Jeffersons," moved on up to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Sanford, 86, was joined at the ceremony Thursday by about 300 fans, family members and friends, including "All in the Family" and "Jeffersons" creator Norman Lear and Marla Gibbs, who played the Jeffersons' maid Florence.
Sanford made her feature film debut in the classic "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," before co-starring with Sherman Hemsley for more than 10 years in "The Jeffersons," a spin-off of the popular series "All in the Family."
In 1981, Sanford became the first black woman to receive an Emmy for best actress in a comedy series.
Sanford's star, No. 2,245, is on Hollywood Boulevard near La Brea Avenue only a few away from the star honoring Carroll O'Connor of "All in the Family."
Isabel Sanford
CBS Launching Third Incarnation
'CSI'
CBS is planning another spin-off of U.S. television's most watched show, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," with a third edition of the forensic drama set in the Big Apple, a network spokesman said on Friday.
"CSI: New York" is slated to premiere on the Viacom Inc.-owned network this coming fall. A formal announcement is to be made Saturday by CBS President Leslie Moonves at the network's annual winter showcase for television critics.
Like the original show, the new "CSI" is being created by Anthony Zuicker, who will assume day-to-day supervision of the drama. The series will be jointly produced by CBS Prods., Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis Communications Corp. and the production company of Hollywood mogul Jerry Bruckheimer.
'CSI'
UPDATED FOR 2004!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
To Receive DeMille Award
Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas co-starred with Kirk Douglas for the first time last year in "It Runs in the Family." Soon, he'll have something else to share with his father: the Cecil B. DeMille Award.
The 59-year-old actor will receive the career achievement award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association during the Jan. 25 Golden Globes ceremony in Beverly Hills, Calif. Kirk Douglas, 87, took home the same honor in 1968, making them the first father-son recipients.
This year's Golden Globes ceremony is scheduled to air live on NBC starting at 8 p.m. EST.
Michael Douglas
Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Madeleen Driessen from the Netherlands rides on a hovercraft-like airboard during a public relation event in Berlin on Thursday Jan. 15, 2004 to promote Dutch cheese during the agriculture fair 'Green Week'. The 'Green-Week', the world's biggest agriculture fair, will open in Berlin on Friday, Jan. 16, 2004.
Photo by Herbert Knosowski
Home After Accident
Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne is back home after injuring himself in an all-terrain vehicle accident in England more than a month ago.
His wife, Sharon Osbourne, told her talk-show audience during the episode she taped Thursday in Los Angeles that her husband had returned to their house in Beverly Hills, Calif., the previous night.
"I am so happy he's home I can't begin to tell you, but my poor husband is in so much agony, still in so much pain, he couldn't sleep all night and the one thing is ... he's got this metal rod ... instead of a collarbone now," she said during "The Sharon Osbourne Show" airing Jan. 22.
Ozzy Osbourne
Misdemeanor Complaint
Rip Torn
Actor Rip Torn was arrested early yesterday for drunk driving after he crashed his car into a taxicab in New York City's Greenwich Village. According to the below misdemeanor criminal complaint, the 72-year-old Hollywood veteran was incoherent when approached by an NYPD officer, who noted that Torn smelled of booze, had bloodshot eyes, and was unsteady on his feet. When questioned, Torn, who was driving a 1990 Volvo, just kept repeating, "What? Huh?" Torn, a former Oscar nominee, won a 1996 Emmy for his role opposite Garry Shandling on HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show." The actor, whose first name is Elmore, is scheduled for a March 18 appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court. (1 page)
Rip Torn
Mobile, Alabama
'Hole in Sky'
A giant hole that appeared in a uniform layer of cloud over Mobile, Alabama, in the US, has left scientists puzzled.
Meteorological experts believe the hole formed when ice-crystals from a passing plane fell through the cloud, causing the water droplets in it to evaporate.
The unusual phenomenon was observed on 11 December last year.
Strictly speaking there is no scientific term for the apparition, and what exactly it is has been the subject of much meteorological speculation.
'Hole in Sky'
Autograph Case Settled
George Harrison
The estate of George Harrison has settled its lawsuit against a doctor it accused of coercing the dying ex-Beatle into signing a guitar belonging to the doctor's son.
The guitar "will be disposed of privately" and Harrison's estate will give a new guitar to Ariel Lederman, the 14-year-old son of the doctor who treated Harrison for cancer two weeks before his death, according to a joint statement read aloud Friday in federal court. No further details were available.
The agreement prevents all parties from commenting on the dispute or its settlement. It stipulated that it does not indicate wrongdoing by Lederman, his children or the hospital.
George Harrison
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Plead Not Guilty
Jamie Foxx
Comedian Jamie Foxx and his sister pleaded not guilty Friday to charges from a fight with police officers and security guards last year at Harrah's New Orleans Casino.
Foxx and younger sister Deidra Dixon both attended the hearing, where a Feb. 3 trial date was set. Neither commented after entering their pleas.
The 36-year-old actor and his sister were charged with two counts each of battery on a police officer causing injury, a felony, and one count of disturbing the peace, a misdemeanor. Dixon also is charged with resisting an officer, another misdemeanor.
Jamie Foxx
An employee of a German travel organizer cleans a model of Egyptian King Tutenkhamun in the fairgrounds of the CMT, an international fair for caravaning, motoring and tourism, in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany, Friday, Jan. 16, 2004. Some 1,400 exhibitors from 82 countries are participating at this fair lasting from Jan. 17 - 25, 2004.
Photo by Thomas Kienzle
Had File on Reporter
Anthony Pellicano
Files seized from a celebrity private investigator's office included "corroborating evidence" linking him to a threat against a reporter who had been looking into a possible link between actor Steven Seagal and the mob, prosecutors said.
In federal court documents filed Thursday, the prosecutors said Anthony Pellicano had a file that included a physical description, license plate number and home address of Los Angeles Times reporter Anita Busch.
Prosecutors said investigators also seized from Pellicano's office in 2002 a file labeled "Stephen Seagal matter," which included an article Busch had helped write about the actor.
Busch was researching a possible link between actor Steven Seagal and a reputed Mafia associate in June 2002 when she found her car's windshield smashed, a dead fish inside the vehicle with a rose in its mouth and a cardboard sign saying "Stop."
Anthony Pellicano
Trial Date Set
Glen Campbell
A May 17 trial date has been set for country music singer Glen Campbell, who faces a felony aggravated assault charge in a minor traffic accident in November near his Phoenix home.
Campbell, 67, was accused of kneeing a police officer after being taken into custody. The officer wasn't hurt.
The singer also faces misdemeanor charges of extreme drunken driving, drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident.
Extreme drunken driving applies to a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 percent or higher. Police said breath tests on Campbell showed he had a 0.20 blood-alcohol level at the time of his arrest. The legal limit for Arizona drivers is 0.08 percent.
Glen Campbell
FBI Probing
Purloined Screener
The FBI has confirmed that it has entered the case of the pirated "screener" videos sent to Academy Award voters.
It is looking into four films -- "Something's Gotta Give," "The Last Samurai," "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" and "thirteen." According to multiple studio sources, illegal copies of those films that have appeared on the Internet have been traced by their respective studios to screeners intended for use by character actor Carmine Caridi, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The copies on the Internet had been stripped of visible markings, such as the "for your consideration" crawl on awards-season screeners, according to other sources.
However, because this year the screeners carried invisible markings for the first time, the studios were able to identify the Academy member for whom they had been intended.
Purloined Screener
Six Years for Sexual Battery
Mystikal
Michael Tyler, better known as the Grammy-nominated rapper Mystikal, was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday for forcing his hair stylist to perform sex acts.
Tyler, 33, who pleaded guilty to sexual battery, was taken from court in handcuffs.
Judge Tony Marabella, who saw a videotape that the men made of the acts, said the victim had been "terrorized."
"The court is convinced that the defendant believes he is above the law and can take the law into his own hands," Marabella said.
Mystikal
Still No Decision on Fate at NBC
Maria Shriver
NBC executives have still not decided whether to allow California's first lady, Maria Shriver, to continue working as an on-air reporter, a network spokeswoman said Thursday.
A decision had been expected this week on whether Shriver would remain at her post or go on some sort of leave, but the spokeswoman said both sides were still talking and nothing was expected until next week at the earliest.
Maria Shriver
Doesn't Annoy Canadian Regulator
Happy Penis Song
A song lauding the joys of an "enormous penis" is not obscene because the object of the lyric's affection isn't necessarily sexual, a Canadian regulator ruled on Friday.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council was reacting to a complaint from a Calgary radio listener to a joke song that declared: "I've got the cure for all of my blues/I take a look at my enormous penis/And my troubles start a-meltin' away."
The listener's complaint that the song was obscene fell flat before the council's members, who said the item did not break its code of ethics.
"The discussion of penis size is not in and of itself sufficiently unequivocally a sexual matter that it can be said to be in breach of the code," the council said.
Happy Penis Song
In Memory
Olivia Goldsmith
Olivia Goldsmith, the novelist whose savagely funny debut book, "The First Wives Club," became a revenge fantasy for wives tossed aside in favor of younger women, has died of complications of plastic surgery. She was 54.
Goldsmith, a successful management consultant before she took up writing, died Thursday at Lenox Hill Hospital, said her lawyer, Steven Mintz.
Among her other novels were "The Bestseller," "Flavor of the Month," "Young Wives," and "Switcheroo." A new novel, "Dumping Billy," is scheduled for a spring release. She had also just finished editing "Casting On," said her agent, Nicholas Ellison.
Ellison said Goldsmith had been in a coma since she suffered a heart attack Jan. 7 as she went under anesthesia for a procedure to remove loose skin from her chin.
While in the business world, Goldsmith became one of the first women to become a partner at the firm Booz Allen Hamilton. She decided to turn to writing after leaving New York for three years in London, Ellison said.
Goldsmith was born Randy Goldfield in New York City. She changed her legal name to Justine Rendal and wrote under the pen name of Olivia Goldsmith.
She is survived by her mother and two sisters.
Olivia Goldsmith
In Memory
Ron O'Neal
Actor Ron O'Neal, best known for starring in two "Superfly" blaxploitation movies in the 1970s, has died. O'Neal, who was 66, died Wednesday night at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer, his wife said.
O'Neal played a cocaine dealer named Youngblood Priest in "Superfly" and the sequel, "Superfly TNT," which he also directed. Though known for his work as a street tough character in the films, O'Neal also was a stage actor. In fact, it was his performance in Joseph Papp's Public Theater production of "No Place To Be Somebody" that brought O'Neal to the attention of the producers of "Superfly."
Following the "Superfly" films, O'Neal had a long career as a character actor on television and in movies, appearing in low-budget films like "Mercenary Fighters" in 1987 and "Up Against the Wall" in 1991, which he also directed. In 1996, he joined Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Richard Roundtree and Pam Grier in a reunion of blaxploitation superstars in the film "Original Gangstas."
O'Neal capped his career two years ago with a performance in "On The Edge," teaming again with Fred Williamson and Ice-T.
Ron O'Neal
A monkey holds her baby at a zoo in Guangzhou, January 14, 2004. The Year of the Monkey -- one of 12 animals that make up the Lunar New Year cycle -- begins on January 22. Picture taken January 14, 2004.
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'The Osbournes'
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