Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Thank God you don't live in Oklahoma (sfgate.com)
There's a touching scene in "The Dildo Diaries," a sweet 'n' slippery little documentary released way back in 2002, in the very beginnings of the Dark Days of Bush, in which we as viewers are privy to a truly hellish hallucination, a series of images that, should you ever choose to bear witness, will haunt you for the rest of your days.
Connie Schultz: If Sarah Palin Is a Feminist, Then I'm President of the Tea Party (creators.com)
Betcha didn't know I'm president of our local tea party. Am, too. I'm also a middleweight boxer. Whew, talk about muscle pain. Good thing I'm a massage therapist as well. You didn't know that? Where've you been?
Susan Estrich: Kath (creators.com)
What do you say when your best friend lies dying? That she was brilliant and beautiful and loving and sweet. That she was way too young. That we had this deal, this deal we made years ago, that if anything happened, we would take care of each other. That I didn't.
Froma Harrop: To Fix Immigration, Look North (creators.com)
Ripped from the news: Haitians are illegally crossing into Vermont from Canada, looking for work.
Deborah Orr: When murder feeds off misogyny (guardian.co.uk)
The killing of a prostitute is as awful as the killing of anyone else.
Jon Henley: "Matt Ridley: 'We can overcome disease, poverty and climate change'" (guardian.co.uk)
The author of 'The Rational Optimist' on why life on earth is bound to get better.
"Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life: A Book by and for the Fanatics Among Us (with Bitchin' Soundtrack)" by Steve Almond: A review by Ryan White
Without judging the book by its cover, the cover of Steve Almond's new book demands of the reader a certain personal value judgment. Well, technically, the title does all the work, not the cover.
Tony Hicks: "Heavy metal brushstrokes: Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted finds a new gig, as a painter" (Contra Costa Times)
Nicole Leigh Smith and her man were at their Montana ranch, where he was moping with his right arm in a sling, thanks to recent surgery.
Myrna Oliver and Valerie J. Nelson: Art Linkletter, host of TV's 'People Are Funny,'' dies (latimes.com)
Art Linkletter, who hosted the popular TV shows "People Are Funny" and "House Party" in the 1950s and 1960s, has died. He was 97.
Gerardo Orlando: A Chat with Sasha Grey, Co-star of "9 to 5: Days in Porn" (bullz-eye.com)
I think I've just grown so much as an individual, and as a woman and as a business woman. So many things have changed. You know, I've been able to travel the world and meet so many different people, all by the age of 22.
Geoff Boucher: "William Shatner: 'My whole career has been a close call'" (latimes.com)
I wish I knew the truths or the verities of acting or performing. I wish I knew, really. Nobody knows. What is not talked about often are the intricacies of the decision of staying in acting over the years when it's a game for the young and the beautiful. When you're young and beautiful and talented, you have a real shot. When you're a little bit older and you're not as beautiful and the next beauty is coming up, more often than not you're starting to see the end of your career.
Kate Muir: Juliette Binoche and the naked truth (timesonline.co.uk)
After winning the Best Actress Award at Cannes, the French star says that she is done with fakery and artifice.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Remake (Mistake?)' Edition
Is CBS seriously taking on a remake? Hawaii 5-0 Remake?
Apparently so. According to the Hollywood Reporter,
CBS has the rights to the original show which aired from 1968 to 1980, and CSI: NY writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will be taking a stab at developing the show and writing the pilot.
And so it goes...
Are there any TV series that you'd like to see resurrected with a 'Remake'?
Send your response to
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Link from RJ
Last Secret of the Moai
Hi there
A possible link, perhaps? Thanks for taking a look as ever!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
All the TV pundits have gone on at length about how high-def shows every line & wrinkle. While that's a good thing for the producers of botox and plastic surgeons, they seem to have missed what sticks out most to me - men with hair hats.
Who knew Brian Williams wears a doily? Sure couldn't tell with my old TV, but he was on Letterman the other night, and he might as well as had Donald Trump's pet ferret sitting on his head.
And then there's Rand Paul. OMG.
The kid & I no longer play 'jeez, look at that frozen forehead' or 'when did chiclets become teeth' - we've upgraded to 'holy crap, get a load of that hair hat'.
Austin Names Downtown Street
Willie Nelson
The Austin City Council voted Thursday to add iconic Texas balladeer Willie Nelson's name to Second Street downtown.
The Austin American-Statesman reports the city will install "Willie Nelson Boulevard" along the street. The street will retain Second Street as its formal name, but businesses and residents along the street will be able to receive mail using the new name.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit Capital Area Statues group is raising money to put a life-size statue of Nelson on Second Street in front of the "Austin City Limits" studio.
Nelson has lived in the Austin area for nearly 40 years.
Willie Nelson
Takes The Wall Back On Road
Roger Waters
Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters has announced plans to take his cult rock opera "The Wall" around Europe and the United States, three decades after it was originally staged.
The show, released as a double album by the British band in 1979, deals with complex issues of isolation, alienation and war, and Waters said it would be a tribute to the soldiers who have died in recent conflicts.
"When we first did it, we were after the end of the Vietnam War, and we're right now in the middle of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so there's a very powerful anti-war message in The Wall," he said at the tour launch on Thursday.
He added: "This production of The Wall is a lot more political, a lot more general, a lot more universal and a lot more all-encompassing than the original production was in 1980, which was largely an autobiographical exercise."
Roger Waters
Florida Folk Festival
Doug Gauss
Tallahassee singer-songwriter Doug Gauss has clocked more than 45 years of experience performing at the 58-year-old Florida Folk Festival.
"I first played at the festival in 1964 as a cornet player accompanying Greek dancers from my native Tarpon Springs," Gauss, 60, said.
The same year, Gauss convinced his father to let him buy a guitar and learn to play. He's pretty much been singing folk tunes and historical songs about Florida ever since.
"I'm the son of a fundamentalist preacher and, before he acquiesced to my having a guitar, I had to promise not to play in bars," Gauss said. "It's a promise I've - mostly - kept for 45 years."
Gauss will be performing and hosting the finale concert at 10 p.m. Sunday for the Memorial Day weekend's annual Florida Folk Festival at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs. He also will perform solo (4:30 p.m. today, 2 p.m. Saturday, 3:40 p.m. Sunday) and play with Doug Gauss & The Enablers (1:30 p.m. today, 4:20 p.m. Saturday, noon Sunday).
Doug Gauss
Doug is a long time contributor to, and supporter of, the E-page! Yea, Doug!
Agrees With Sean Penn
Oliver Stone
Film director Oliver Stone said on Friday Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was misunderstood by the Western media, but said the socialist president should consider cutting back on his hours-long television appearances.
Stone, in the Venezuelan capital Caracas for the local premiere of his documentary "South of the Border," which profiles Latin America's leftist leaders, told reporters he admired Chavez and his record since coming to power in 1999.
Venezuela's president says he is reversing decades of exploitation in the OPEC member nation with policies for the poor including free clinics and schools.
"There is no question that the American press, the Anglo press, does not understand the way he speaks," Stone said.
Oliver Stone
Asks Blog Readers To Gauge Her Intelligence
Greta Van Susteren
Fox News host Greta Van Susteren has surely received audience complaints before - but a recent email exchange irked her enough to take issue with it on her own blog. And in a move that Fox executives probably would have tried to discourage had they been consulted, Van Susteren also urged her blog readers to weigh in on the central point raised by her correspondent: that she is, well, rather dimly lit.
It all started when Brian of Tahlequah, Okla., told Van Susteren she had a "mind like a seive" (yes, it should be "sieve"). Brian didn't stop there: He also wanted the host to know that her "brain is empty."
In her blog post, Van Susteren responded with a few questions - and several question marks. "Why does Brian watch if he thinks I am so stupid?" she wrote. "How stupid is that????"
Perhaps expecting fans to rally around her, Van Susteren polled the audience as to who's dumber: Van Susteren or the guy watching a show he doesn't like. As of this writing, after more than 12,000 votes, the results aren't in the host's favor: 67 percent of respondents say Van Susteren is dumber.
Greta Van Susteren
Thought 'Fish Called Wanda' Not Funny
Michael Palin
Michael Palin nearly missed out on one of his biggest screen hits when he dismissed smash comedy "A Fish Called Wanda" because it "wasn't that funny", he told an audience in Hong Kong on Friday.
Palin said fellow Monty Python star John Cleese handed him the film's script for advice on the character he would eventually play in the 1988 movie.
"I wrote in my diary to tell John that the script wasn't that funny," the British actor told the Foreign Correspondents' Club.
"It turned out to be very funny."
Michael Palin
New Court Date
Charlie Sheen
Actor Charlie Sheen has a new court date over domestic violence allegations involving his wife, as settlement talks continue.
Sheen has pleaded not guilty to menacing, criminal mischief and assault charges stemming from an argument with his wife, Brooke Mueller Sheen, on Christmas Day at an Aspen home where they were on vacation.
A hearing is scheduled June 18, but The Aspen Times reports that the court this week set another hearing for June 7.
Sheen's attorney Richard Cummins told the newspaper the hearing was set "in contemplation of a final disposition being made that's acceptable to the district attorney's office."
Charlie Sheen
Humilitated By Bam-Bam Rubble
Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan is suing over a commercial for Cocoa Pebbles cereal.
The Hulkster says Post Foods stole his likeness to depict him suffering humiliating defeat to Bam-Bam of "Flintstones" fame.
Terry Bollea (Hulk's real name) filed the lawsuit in Tampa District Court alleging misappropriation of name and likeness and false endorsement.
In the commercial, a character known as "Hulk Boulder" with long blond hair and a blond Fu Manchu mustache takes part in a "Cocoa Smashdown" against various "Flintstones" characters. He defeats Fred and Barney in the ring, begins to reward himself with a bowl of cereal pulled from his championship belt, but then is ambushed by Bam-Bam. According to the complaint, "Hulk Boulder is shown humiliated and cracked into pieces with broken teeth, with the closing banner 'Little Pieces...BIG TASTE!'"
Hulk Hogan
British Ballerina 'Helped Panama Coup Plot'
Margot Fonteyn
Top British ballerina Margot Fonteyn was arrested in Panama over a Cuban-backed plot to overthrow the central American country's government in the late 1950s, according to archives declassified on Friday.
Fonteyn admitted her part in the failed plot with her husband and 125 Cuban revolutionaries sent by Fidel Castro, in exchanges with Foreign Office minister John Profumo.
Panamanian authorities arrested her in April 1959, and she later confessed that she met Castro and helped assemble rebels and weapons at sea for an attempt to invade the country.
"She knew that her husband was gun-running, she knew that he was accompanied by rebels and at one point she used her yacht to decoy government boats and aircraft away from the direction which her husband was taking," wrote the British ambassador to Panama Sir Ian Henderson.
She went on to an acclaimed career including a famed partnership with Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev. She retired to Panama with her husband Roberto Arias, the son of a former Panamanian president, before her death in 1991.
Margot Fonteyn
Spielberg's Latest Headache
Tintin
As Belgium's best-known reporter prepares himself for the silver screen, uncomfortable questions remain as to whether it is just his plus fours and quiff that need to be given a makeover.
Film director Steven Spielberg's "The Secret of the Unicorn" is a tale of sunken ships and treasure which highlights Tintin as a swashbuckling hero ready to take on any villain. It is expected to be the first in a trilogy of Tintin movies.
However, an altogether different aspect of the reporter is attracting attention in his home country of Belgium.
In Brussels, an increasingly heated court case is unfolding, brought by a Congo-born student who argues that one of the cartoon albums, "Tintin in the Congo," is racist and should be banned or at least carry a warning on its cover.
Tintin
'Rocket Car' Fuel
Mentos
The guys from Maine who became online celebrities by creating geysers from Mentos candies and Diet Coke say they have harnessed that power to create a "rocket car."
The contraption created by Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz of Buckfield features a utility trailer on the back and a modified girl's bike at the front.
They're offering a teaser of their invention on their website. The full video directed by Rob Cohen of "The Fast and the Furious" will debut online Tuesday.
Grobe tells the Sun Journal newspaper that their latest invention uses Coke Zero and has been dubbed "The Fizzy and the Furious."
Mentos
In Memory
Gary Coleman
Gary Coleman, the child star of the smash 1970s TV sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" whose later career was marred by medical and legal problems, has died after suffering an intercranial hemorrhage. He was 42.
Utah Valley Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Janet Frank said life support was terminated and Coleman died at 12:05 p.m. MDT.
A statement from the family said he was conscious and lucid until midday Thursday, when his condition worsened and he slipped into unconsciousness. Coleman was then placed on life support.
Diff'rent Strokes"" debuted on NBC in 1978 drew most of its laughs from the tiny, 10-year-old Coleman.
Coleman was an immediate star, and his skeptical "Whatchu talkin' 'bout?" - usually aimed at his brother, Willis - became a catchphrase.
The series lasted six seasons on NBC and two on ABC and lives on thanks to DVDs and YouTube. But its equally enduring legacy became the former child stars' troubles in adulthood, including the 1999 suicide of Dana Plato, who played the boys' white, teenage sister.
Coleman had financial and legal problems in addition to continuing ill health from the kidney disease that required dialysis and at least two transplants. As an adult, his height reached only 4 feet 8 inches.
He moved to Utah in fall 2005, and according to a tally in early 2010, officers were called to assist or intervene with Coleman more than 20 times in the following years. They included a call where Coleman said he had taken dozens of Oxycontin pills and "wanted to die." Some of the disputes involved his wife, Shannon Price, whom he met on the set of the 2006 comedy "Church Ball" and married in 2007.
Coleman was born Feb. 8, 1968, in Zion, Ill., near Chicago. His mother told Ebony his kidney disease was diagnosed when he was 2. He underwent his first transplant at age 5.
Gary Coleman
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