'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
War Effort Fashions!
from Wren
Good news, Marty!
We won't have to sacrifice fashion for the war effort!
And really, dahling, doesn't a Mercedes go with *everything*?
HHS Unveils Red Dress Project
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced the launch of a new national
partnership with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and top fashion designers to
raise awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of American
women.
The centerpiece of The Heart Truth campaign is the "Red Dress Project,"
which is being launched today in New York City by HHS' National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute (NHLBI); top fashion designers; Mercedes-Benz USA; and
7th on Sixth, the producers of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.
The Red Dress Project includes a collection of 19 red dresses from America's
most prestigious designers. The dresses symbolize the fact that heart
disease is a woman's health issue as well as a man's. The dresses will be
exhibited, along with information about women and heart disease, in Bryant
Park, Feb. 7-14, when American designers unveil their new designs for the
fall.
HHS Unveils Red Dress Project (continues)
Wren
"If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands, they
must be made brighter in our own..."
(Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
The Witches' Voice
Thanks, Wren! I'm so grateful it's a 'winter' color....; P
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Fairly overcast day - the weather is changing.
Did the grocery shopping & stopped by Reptiles Unlimited for fresh crickets. Their website has been updated.
The kid hated the TV offerings so much tonight he asked if he could take a bath! That was a first.
Tonight, Saturday, CBS opens the evening with a FRESH 'Touched By An Angle', then a
FRESH 'The District', followed by a FRESH 'The Agency'.
Just like the last 2 weeks, NBC pisses away 2 hours with RERUNs - first up, a RERUN 'Law & Order', then a
RERUN 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit', then a FRESH 'Meet My Folks'.
'SNL' is finally FRESH, again, with Matthew McConaughey hosting, and the Dixie Chicks providing the music.
ABC has the movie 'The Shawshank Redemption'.
The WB has the movie 'Jaws'.
Faux has 2 episodes of 'Cops', and an episode of 'America's Most Wanted'.
UPN has the movie 'Unforgiven'.
TCM celebrates a bit of James Dean tonight with
Giant (1956), and then
Rebel Without a Cause (1955), which also stars
Natalie Wood,
Sal Mineo,
Dennis Hopper,
Jim Backus, and the
Griffith Observatory.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Rolling Stones In LA
Big Dog Opens
The Rolling Stones played their first free concert in 33 years on Thursday, as a celebrity crowd headed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton looked on.
The event at the Staples Center was a considerably more sedate affair than their last free show, at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco in 1969. Then, security was handled by the local Hells Angels
chapter, who clubbed fans with pool cues while the band looked on helplessly. A teenager was stabbed to death as he appeared to point a gun at the stage.
There was nothing like that at the Staples Center, a sterile indoor arena with plenty of earnest ushers. Most of the 18,000 tickets were given away in a lottery handled by the Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC), an environmental lobby group that presented the show to raise awareness of global warming.
All costs were paid by Hollywood producer and Democratic fundraiser Steve Bing.
Actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Pierce Brosnan, Lisa Kudrow, Larry David, Mira Sorvino and Cameron Diaz, singer Christina Aguilera and director Rob Reiner graced the event with their presence, some turning
up in environmentally friendly vehicles. They posed for photographers as they strode up a green carpet to a private VIP reception that preceded the concert.
Clinton kicked off the night by addressing the crowd from the stage for five minutes. Such a coupling would have been unthinkable 30 years ago when the U.S. government sought to keep the bad boys of
rock 'n' roll out of America because of their drug busts and bad behavior.
Clinton told the crowd, "I am here because the Stones aren't term-limited and they're just as old as I am." He also mentioned the recent space shuttle disaster and warned that a chunk of Manhattan -- "where I work" -- could
fall into the ocean if global warming continued.
The band's 20-song, 135-minute set focused on the classic hits, ranging from opening tunes "Start Me Up"
and "Street Fighting Man" through to the energizing blues jams "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and "Midnight Rambler."
The band kept its comments to a minimum. Lead singer Mick Jagger noted that the Stones had been preceded by some great opening acts over the years, such as Tina Turner and Stevie Wonder, "but we never had the
president of the United States open for us."
Guitarist Keith Richards, politically incorrect as usual, muttered that "the Eskimos are feeling the pinch."
Big Dog Opens
On The Auction Block
'The 1932 Mickey Mouse Annual'
Historians, Disney fans and racists alike will be clamoring for the latest piece of Mickey Mouse memorabilia hitting the auction block. Walt Disney's racist views were widely overlooked
during his lifetime, and many today are unaware of them. But a case in point is the item online collectibles dealer momentsintime.com is offering: a copy of "The 1932 Mickey Mouse Annual,"
featuring heavy use of the N-word. In one scene, the world's most famous mouse and his galpal Minnie are in the jungle fighting "fierce n- - - - -s." The natives are depicted as having enormous
lips and eyes. The rare book, published in Britain, is selling for $54,000.
'The 1932 Mickey Mouse Annual'
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Jamaicans Celebrate Birthday
Bob Marley
With reggae thumping over loudspeakers, hundreds of Jamaicans paid tribute Thursday to late reggae legend Bob Marley on his 58th birthday.
Radio stations dedicated blocks of airtime to play Marley's songs, and newspapers published ads to honor the dread-locked singer, who died of cancer in 1981 at age 36.
"He taught us love and we have to follow him," reggae musician Eustace Lawrence said at a Kingston tribute concert, one of many staged across the Caribbean island.
Marley's music has enjoyed a resurgence after the BBC named his "One Love" song the anthem of the century.
Born Feb. 6, 1945, in rural St. Ann parish, Marley rose from the shantytowns of Kingston to international stardom and remains one of Jamaica's most beloved heroes.
Bob Marley
Protesters Brave Snow
Naked Women
Just after dawn on Friday, roughly 30 women scurried into the heart of Central Park, splitting up into groups to avoid arousing police suspicion. Once they reached their destination, the Bethesda Fountain, they
displayed their deep misgivings about war by disrobing amid a steady snowfall.
Lying down in shivering temperatures, the group of women -- students, executives and artists among them -- used their stark naked bodies to spell out the words "No Bush."
"I have never done anything remotely like this before, but I think it's incredibly cool," said Elizabeth Lorris Ritter, a 40-year-old activist housewife. "We're totally vulnerable out here, yet we're making a wonderful statement."
Women have staged similar nude protests in this country, as well as in Europe and South Africa in recent months, said the event's organiser, Wendy Tremayne.
The women said they are frustrated that too many Americans have passively accepted war with Iraq as inevitable and unavoidable.
"Part of it is apathy," said Kate Heim, 25. "The other part is that people don't realise it's about to happen. It doesn't seem real."
Naked Women
Painting Found in Japan
Unsigned Van Gogh
An unsigned painting of a peasant woman valued at $83 just days ago by a Japanese art house has been identified as a previously unknown work by Vincent van Gogh.
Shinwa Art Auction says the oil painting, a dark profile of a frowning middle-aged woman in a white bonnet, is now worth at least $25,000.
The piece was deemed a van Gogh on Thursday by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, two days before it was scheduled to be auctioned in Tokyo. Shinwa President Yoichiro Kurata said the bidding will go ahead.
The piece resembled several paintings of peasant women by van Gogh, so Kurata sent it to the Van Gogh Museum last month for authentication. He said he received a faxed letter Thursday saying the work was a van Gogh painted between 1884-1885.
The piece was part of the collection of Japanese artist Kazumasa Nakagawa, who died in 1991. Kurata said he was not sure when Nakagawa acquired the van Gogh. Shinwa Art Auction took the piece on consignment last year.
Unsigned Van Gogh
Goes to Mexico City
'Vagina Monologues'
Eve Ensler is using her off-Broadway hit "The Vagina Monologues" to help fight a decade of rapes and murders on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ensler dedicated a personal performance of the play in Mexico City on Thursday night to Esther Chavez, director of a center that helps thousands of rape and abuse victims in Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million across from El Paso, Texas.
On Friday, Ensler was to join Chavez and other activists on the border to protest the deaths of more than 300 women in Ciudad Juarez during the past decade. Police have confirmed that more than 75 of the cases are related to a string of rape-murders.
Dozens of suspects have been arrested — and some convicted — in the murders. But bodies have continued to turn up in Juarez.
"The time has come for the murders and violence in Juarez to come to an end," Ensler said in a tribute to Chavez during her performance.
Mexico is part of a 21-city world tour Ensler is making to promote V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and children.
Ensler's play — which celebrates female sexuality while decrying violence against women — has been banned at some Catholic colleges in the United States for its frank talk on female genitalia.
'Vagina Monologues'
HBO Offers Sanitized Version For Networks
'Sex and the City'
HBO has approached the broadcast networks about acquiring the off-cable run of "Sex and the City" for their fall primetime schedules.
According to various network sources, the cabler is asking for a license fee of around $3 million an episode for the rights to air a sanitized version of "Sex." HBO would then reserve the rights to sell the Emmy-winning show
into regular, stripped broadcast or cable syndication two years after that.
NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox were all approached, although it's unclear who might be interested.
Insiders believe it's likely that HBO will also pursue a similar strategy for repeats of "The Sopranos." But others wonder whether "Sex" and "Sopranos" haven't already been overexposed, through constant airings and DVD sales.
The shows are also branded as HBO properties, which may concern network chiefs. The networks may also worry that edited versions won't be as well received -- particularly among men.
It's not unprecedented for a repeat cable show to land in primetime. Fox aired edited versions of HBO's "Tales from the Crypt" and "Dream On" in the early 1990s, to disappointing results. In its infancy, the network
had slightly better luck with Showtime's "It's Garry Shandling's Show."
'Sex and the City'
British Artists Get Chance to Chill
Antarctica
Aspiring British artists are being offered the chance to head south and chill out creatively in the world's last great wilderness, Antarctica.
British Antarctic Survey and the Arts Council of England are offering to take two selected artists free of charge down to the frozen continent to spend two months working during the southern hemisphere summer.
Places are open to painters, poets, photographers, film-makers and writers with the condition that they produce works inspired by their experiences and underscoring the scientific significance of Antarctica.
The project, which is expected to run for several years, follows the release to schools last year of software enabling children to make music out of the sights and sounds of the region.
Antarctica
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
MSNBC Seeks Hate-Monger For Slot
Michael 'Savage' Weiner
MSNBC, which just announced a primetime talk show with former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, is in talks with firebrand right-wing radio host Michael Savage, sources say.
The No. 3 cable news network is considering Savage for a weekend public affairs show, though it has not decided on a time or precise format, one insider said.
Savage is the author of "The Savage Nation," in which he attacks big government, feminism, illegal immigration and perceived liberal media bias.
His radio program, syndicated by the Talk Radio Network and also called "The Savage Nation," airs on more than 300 stations nationwide.
Michael 'Savage' Weiner
A Chinese stilt entertainer, in traditional attire, performs as colleagues watch during a Lunar New Year cultural presentation in Shanghai, China's financial hub February 7, 2003. Millions of
Chinese continue to enjoy their annual week-long Spring Festival holiday, welcoming the Year of the Goat with traditional family visits, prayers and cultural performances.
Photo by Claro Cortes IV
Discusses HBO Show on Slavery
Alfre Woodard
Alfre Woodard thought that assuming the voices of slaves would be hard work until she saw their pictures — and was reminded of home.
"It seems so long in the past," Woodard said of slavery at a launch Thursday of "Unchained Memories," an HBO documentary based on interviews in the 1930s with the last generation of slaves, as archived in the Library of Congress.
"But when I looked at (the photos) it was so familiar," the 49-year-old said. "It was my family. I never thought of them as slaves."
The Emmy-award winning actress was born in Oklahoma to sharecroppers who were descended from slaves. She said she now realizes that the "trickster" tales her parents told her as a child derived from stories
of eluding slave-owners. "They were figuring out ways to get around them."
The HBO documentary, drawing from over 2,000 interviews and 500 photographs compiled by the Federal Writers' Project from 1936 to 1938, debuts on HBO at 8 p.m. EST Monday.
Alfre Woodard
"Unchained Memories" on HBO
Headlining Holyfield Fund-Raiser
Ashanti
Evander Holyfield is ready to party — and raise money for kids.
His "Main Event" fund-raiser this year coincides with this weekend's NBA All-Star game in Atlanta, his hometown.
Grammy-nominee Ashanti and the R&B group B2K are among headliners performing at a benefit concert Friday at the Georgia World Congress Center. Other artists include Baby of Cash
Money Millionaires, Fat Joe, Jadakiss and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.
The concert, along with a dinner at his Faiburn estate and a gospel brunch, are aimed at raising money for a $20 million youth center Holyfield plans to build.
Ashanti
Show To Go Live
Anna Nicole Smith
Anna Nicole Smith isn't always a live wire on her reality TV series, but her show will be live when it returns for a second season.
A new episode of "The Anna Nicole Show" is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. EST March 2 on E! Entertainment Television. The show usually is a half-hour long, but this live episode will run until 10:33 p.m.
The 35-year-old former Playboy playmate and Guess? jeans model, who's sometimes depicted sluggishly wandering through her daily activities, will continue looking for love through a bachelor contest.
Also this season, Smith will take acting lessons to improve her TV and movie career and will undergo hypnosis to understand herself better.
Anna Nicole Smith
"The Anna Nicole Show"
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Experts To Examine Alleged Child Porn
Paul Reubens
A Los Angeles judge on Friday ruled that attorneys for actor Paul Reubens can take his collection of "artwork, kitsch, and adult erotica" -- what prosecutors are labeling child pornography -- to out-of-state experts for examination.
Defense attorney Blair Berk told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge C.H. Rehm that she has "grave concerns about Mr. Reubens' ability to get a fair trial in this case."
The former star of the popular 1980s children's show "Pee-wee's Playhouse" has pleaded innocent to a misdemeanor charge of possessing material depicting children engaging in sexual conduct.
Berk has asked Rehm to throw out the charges because the materials -- a book, a film and 24 magazines -- date from the 1900s, when possessing such materials was not a crime in California. In court papers filed last month, Berk said the sexually
explicit images of children made up a miniscule part of his vast collection of "artwork, kitsch and adult erotica."
Deputy City Attorney Richard Kraft argued on Friday that transporting the materials across state lines violates federal law. Kraft said the defense experts should come to California to view Reubens' collection.
Rehm modified a court order to allow the materials to leave the state. The judge is expected to rule later this month on whether to throw out the charge, which could result in a year in county jail for the 50-year-old actor if he is tried and convicted.
Paul Reubens
David del Val Catala, chairman and chief executive of the auction house Gestion de Activos y Subastas, holds up the ship's bell from the Santa Maria flagship used by Christopher Columbus for his
historic voyage to America in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2003. The bell is to be auctioned off Feb. 20, 2003, with the bidding starting at 1$ million.
Photo by Denis Doyle
Takes Privacy Case to the Lords
Naomi Campbell
British supermodel Naomi Campbell has taken a privacy battle to the UK's highest court in a bid to win back damages awarded against a tabloid newspaper which revealed her struggle against drugs.
Last October, the Appeal Court stripped Campbell of $5,700, along with thousands of pounds in court costs, awarded to her after she sued the Daily Mirror for breaching her privacy by reporting, correctly, that she visited a drug clinic.
Campbell is seeking to challenge this decision in the House of Lords, Britain's most senior court.
On Friday the three judges considering the appeal, headed by Lord Bingham, the country's most senior law lord, said they had put their decision on hold to allow Mirror bosses a chance to object to the latest legal moves.
The Mirror has until February 18 to register objections.
Naomi Campbell
Author Chosen, Puzo Snarked
'Godfather' Sequel
Random House has made author Mark Winegardner an offer he can't refuse.
The publisher said on Friday it picked the Florida-based writer to pen the sequel to "The Godfather," Mario Puzo's 1969 tale of Mafia ties and betrayal that sold 20 million copies and inspired a trilogy of films about the Corleone family.
Winegardner, author of the novels "The Veracruz Blues" and "Crooked River Burning," directs the creative writing program at Florida State University. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida.
Winegardner, who is of German-Irish ancestry, predicted his lack of Italian blood would not pose a problem in writing the book, which he hopes to have ready by the end of next year.
"Puzo himself said there's nothing in 'The Godfather' about the Mafia that he didn't learn in the library," Winegardner told NBC's Today show, where the announcement was made.
Random House is a unit of German media group Bertelsmann .
'Godfather' Sequel
Possession Not a Crime
Italy
An Italian court has ruled that taking 40 joints of hashish on a school trip is not a crime.
The marijuana was for personal use since the 17-year-old student planned to share it with two fellow students and a teacher, the appeals court judge said.
Under Italian law, selling marijuana is a crime, but possession for personal use is not.
Italy
City Settles Wrongful-Death Suit
Anthony Dwain Lee
A wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of an actor shot to death by a police officer during a Halloween costume party three years ago has been settled for an undisclosed amount, city officials said.
City officials would only announce Wednesday that the deal was a six-figure settlement. The settlement still needs City Council approval before it is paid out to the actor's family. The terms of the settlement
will become public if the council approves it, said Eric Moses, spokesman for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.
Anthony Dwain Lee, a 39-year-old actor, was shot in the back at a Halloween party on Oct. 28, 2000, by police Officer Tarriel Hopper who was investigating a noise complaint. An investigation conducted by the
city's Police Commission and the Los Angeles County district attorney's office showed that Lee pointed a replica handgun at Hopper, who shone his flashlight into a room where Lee was talking with two men.
Hopper, who thought the gun was real and feared for his life, fired four shots and killed Lee. In October, 2001, the Police Commission ruled that Hopper used justifiable deadly force and was exonerated of any wrongdoing.
Lee appeared on TV shows such as "ER" and "NYPD Blue," and had a small role in the 1997 Jim Carrey movie "Liar Liar." Friends and relatives said Lee, who grew up in Sacramento, escaped from gang life by turning to acting.
Anthony Dwain Lee
In Memory
Shigeo Sasaki
Shigeo Sasaki, whose daughter was an atomic bomb victim who became famous for the paper cranes she folded, died Tuesday of brain tumor. He was 87.
Sasaki devoted his life to campaigning for peace after his 12-year-old daughter Sadako died in 1955 of radiation-related leukemia that she developed after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima 10 years earlier. Sasaki, a barber from Hiroshima, retold her story to school children around the nation.
Sadako made cranes on her hospital bed, inspired by a Japanese legend that says anyone who makes 1,000 paper cranes would be granted a wish.
She died later that year before finishing the cranes, but her story led children all over Japan to raise money for a statue of her in Hiroshima. People still send paper cranes to the statue as a peace offering.
Her life has been also recounted in several books, including the children's stories "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" and "Sadako."
Sasaki's son, Masahiro, now manages the Sadako peace campaign on the Internet.
Shigeo Sasaki
Hippopotamus mother Maria nuzzles her three-day old newborn at San Juan de Aragon Zoo Friday, Jan. 31, 2003, in Mexico City. The baby hippo's sex has yet not been determined becasue zookeepers
must keep their distance from the protective mother. Maria was also born at the San Juan de Aragon Zoo.
Photo by Marco Ugarte
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
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Critical Date Approaches
Nick's Crusade
