'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Comment
Re: Brotherhood & Boomtown
There go two of the shows that I watch every week. But I guess I don't count, my almost grown kids don't count, and their friends don't count. That's an awful lot of spending power down the drain.
I guess advertisers don't like intelligent audiences. Could be why we keep the local library busy.
~ jh
Thanks, jh!
It seems that the networks, in attempting to program to the broadest audience as cheaply as possible, are getting what they deserve - a mass exodus from their attempts to maximize profits.
And with consolidation, it's only gonna get worse.
Reader Comment
Re: cnnnn
cnnnn article is a porn search engine, not cool
rs
Thanks, rs.
Sorry the link was distasteful - it came from a (previously) reliable source, I was running late & didn't check it out.
Between a crappy dial-up, a cantankerous computer & my own crankiness when tired, I took a chance, and was busted.
Please remember, that while I am very fortunate to have several regular (& smarter than me) contributors, just one person puts this page together daily. I try hard, but sometimes, well, shit happens.
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Selected Saturday Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The temperature was a bit more moderate. Smoke from the big fires is blowing this way & has colored the daylight like Maxfield Parrish is in charge of the sky's palette.
Yesterday I said there had been 8 major grocery chains in the LA-area, but Christi called to say she counted 10 - Albertson's; Alpha Beta; The Boys; Hughes; Lucky's; Mayfair; Ralph's; Safeway; Smith's Food King; and Von's.
Thanks, Christi!
Tomorrow (Sunday) is the kid's 11th birthday. We've opted for lunch at his favorite Chinese restaurant with a few of his pals.
Tonight, Saturday, CBS begins the evening with '48 Hours', followed by a FRESH 'Hack', then a FRESH
'The District'.
NBC pays tribute to their viewing audience by offering a night of RERUNs. Opening the night is a RERUN 'Whoopi', followed by another
RERUN 'Whoopi', then a RERUN 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', followed by a RERUN 'Law & Order: Special Vicims Unit'.
'SNL' is a compilation show - 'The Best Of Tracy Morgan'.
ABC starts the night with the cartoon-classic movie, 'Sleeping Beauty', followed by a FRESH 'Dragnet'.
The WB offers the pre-taped 'World Music Awards'.
Faux has game 6 of the 'World Series', providing the left coast with a primetime full of 'Stargate SG-1' and 'X-Files' RERUNs.
UPN has the movie 'Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge'.
A&E has 'City Confidential', 'American Justice', 'Cold Case Files', and a RERUN of a RERUN 'Crossing Jordan'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly', followed by the movie 'Planet Of The Apes' (Chuck Heston version), then the movie 'Beneath The Planet Of The Apes'.
BBC -
[6pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 3;
[6:40pm] 'My Hero' - Episode 3;
[7:20pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 4;
[8pm] 'The Vice' - Dabbling;
[10pm] 'Cambridge Spies' - Episode 1;
[11pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Sheryl Crow;
[11:30pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Barbara Hershey;
[12am] 'The Vice' - Dabbling;
[2am] 'Cambridge Spies' - Episode 1;
[3am] 'So Graham Norton' - Sheryl Crow;
[3:30am] 'So Graham Norton' - Barbara Hershey;
[4am] 'The Vice' - Dabbling; and
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Queer Eye', followed by the movie 'Good Will Hunting', then the movie 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'.
History has 'Mail Call', 'Battlefield Detectives', 'No Surrender: German & Japanese Kamikazes', then 'Vanishings!', and another 'Vanishings!'.
SciFi has the movie 'Dagon' followed by the movie 'Bone Snatcher', then the movie 'Candyman 3'.
TCM pays tribute to Burt Lancaster - once in the morning, and then all night.
[6am] 'I Take This Woman' (1940);
[8am] 'While The City Sleeps' (1956);
[10am] 'The Unforgiven' (1960);
[12:15pm] 'Jason And The Argonauts' (1963) [a Ray Harryhausen classic];
[2pm] 'National Velvet' (1944);
[4:15pm] 'Bell, Book and Candle' (1959);
[6pm] 'Spellbound' (1945);
[8pm] 'From Here To Eternity' (1953);
[10pm] 'Criss Cross' (1949);
[12am] 'From Here To Eternity' (1953);
[2am] 'Lawman' (1971); and
[4am] 'Brute Force' (1947). (ALL TIMES EDT)
Children's illustrator Eric Carle signs one of his books during a book signing during a book promotion stop for his latest work 'Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do you See?' in San Marino, Calif., on Aug. 20, 2003. The 74-year-old Carle isn't ready to put down his paint brush.
Photo by Rene Macura
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Appalling Ratings
Leno Bests Letterman
Despite double-digit dips in primetime among younger adults, NBC has kept its late-night audience intact from last season while CBS' viewership has gone through the floor.
CBS has lost so many adults 18-34 in the first four weeks of the season that NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" has surpassed "Late Show With David Letterman" by a wide margin, a 1.2 rating vs. a 1.0, according to Nielsen Media Research.
"Letterman's" losses in the demo are staggering, down 40% from this point in the season a year ago. Similarly, "The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn" is off 29% and trails ABC's new entry, "Jimmy Kimmel Live" by a 0.6 to a 0.5 in the demo.
While the overall decline in viewing among young adults as measured by Nielsen has affected programming in all dayparts, the launch of "Kimmel" in January seems to have hurt CBS more than NBC.
Leno Bests Letterman
Offers to Help Save 'The Bottom Line'
Bruce Springsteen
Rocker Bruce Springsteen has pledged big money to save the Greenwich Village club The Bottom Line from possible eviction by landlord New York University, the club's lawyer said on Friday.
"The Boss" and Viacom President Mel Karmazin have offered "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to bail out the club, lawyer Mark Alonso said. He was not sure if the money would be a loan or an investment.
Even with Springsteen and Karmazin's help and an offer from Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. to pay the back rent and expand an arrangement to broadcast live music from the club, the two sides remain far apart, Alonso said.
Bruce Springsteen
'Jacob Caressing Benjamin,' dated 1645, an etching by Rembrandt van Rijn, is part of the exhibit 'Rembrandt's Journey : Painter, Draftsman, Etcher,' at the Museum of Fine Arts, is shown Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2003 in Boston. The show goes on view Sunday and continues through Jan. 18, after which it will travel to the Art Institute of Chicago.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Top-Earning Dead Celebs
Elvis Presley
Rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley, dead for more than 26 years, on Friday led the Forbes.com list of top-earning deceased celebrities for the third year in a row, to the tune of $40 million for the year ending September 2003.
Runner-up on the list was Peanuts cartoon creator Charles Schulz, earning $32 million. Third at $22 million was writer J.R.R. Tolkien, whose "Lord of the Rings" books have been transformed on screen into a lucrative movie franchise.
Former Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison earned $19 million and $16 million, respectively, putting them fourth and fifth on the list, based on estate earnings.
New to the list this year were Broadway musical composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, with $7 million, as well as song writers Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, and Dr. Robert Atkins -- whose popular books and products promoting high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets are all the rage again -- who all earned about $6 million each.
Rounding out the top 10 were children's book author Dr. Seuss, race car driver Dale Earnhardt, rapper Tupac Shakur, reggae star Bob Marley and movie star Marilyn Monroe.
Elvis Presley
U.N. Award for Refugee Work
Angelina Jolie
Near tears, with her voice cracking, Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie accepted the U.N. Correspondents Association's first Citizen of the World Award for her work with refugees.
Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency since 2001, told the awards dinner Wednesday night that she was "inspired and humbled" to work with refugees.
Jolie, 28, said it was exceptionally meaningful to receive an award named for Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. envoy to Iraq, who was one of 22 people killed in the Aug. 19 bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.
Angelina Jolie
To Play In Syndication
'Band of Brothers'
Hot on the stiletto heels of selling "Sex and the City" into syndication, HBO has turned its attention to another of its award-winning properties: the 2001 miniseries "Band of Brothers."
The premium cable network has been pitching the World War II drama from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to cable networks, sources said. Most channels are keeping mum on their prospects, but HBO has begun talks with the History Channel, which confirmed its interest; FX has already passed.
The 10-hour "Band," which raised the bar for investment in cable programming with its $120 million price tag, could fetch as much as $750,000 per each hourlong episode, according to observer estimates. The BBC ended up paying $1 million per episode for international rights.
'Band of Brothers'
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Honored At 'His' Cuba Drinking Spot
Ernest Hemingway
American writer Ernest Hemingway is back at one of his favorite watering holes in Cuba, leaning at the bar in front of his usual cocktail, a frozen daiquiri.
In memory of the countless hours the Nobel-Prize winning novelist and legendary drinker spent at the Floridita bar, a life-sized statue was placed on Friday at the corner of the bar where Papa Hemingway always stood for a few drinks.
The bronze statue was made by Cuban sculptor Jose Villa based on photos of the writer, who fished and wrote in Cuba from 1940 to 1960, the year before his suicide at his Ketchum, Idaho, home.
The barmen at the Floridita will pay tribute to the writer everyday by placing a daiquiri by the statue served just the way he liked it: white rum, lime juice, sugar, crushed ice and a drop of maraschino, whipped up in the blender.
Ernest Hemingway
A Buddhist monk of Drepung Loseling Monestary creates a Mandala sand painting, a sacred ancient Tibetan art form at Longwood Gardens near Kennett Square, Pa., Friday, Oct. 24, 2003. Longwood Gardens opens its annual Chrysanthemum Festival with the creation of the sand painting, a three-day undertaking which the monks will dismantle on Sunday in a ceremony symbolizing the impermanence of life.
Photo by Jacqueline Larma
Named UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
Shakira
Shakira has been appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency said Friday. The 26-year-old singer is the youngest person and the first Colombian to serve as UNICEF ambassador.
"UNICEF has done tremendous work in my home nation ... and I have seen firsthand the difference UNICEF makes," Shakira said in a statement released by the agency.
Shakira, who lives in Miami and has won a Latin Grammy and numerous MTV awards, joins a list of past and present UNICEF ambassadors that includes the late Audrey Hepburn, Harry Belafonte, Roger Moore, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Lange and Mia Farrow.
Shakira
New Face Of Chanel No. 5
Nicole Kidman
One fashion icon is partnering with another: Nicole Kidman is the new face of Chanel. The French luxury house announced Friday that Kidman is the new celebrity spokeswoman for Chanel No. 5, the top selling fragrance in the world. The iconic perfume was introduced in 1921.
Kidman isn't the first celebrity to be featured in Chanel ads, but the company has used stars, including Catherine Deneuve and more recently Estella Warren, when they were still up-and-comers — unlike Kidman, who's at the height of her celebrity after winning the best-actress Oscar this year for "The Hours."
Nicole Kidman
Friend Stabbed Near Paris Club
Blu Cantrell
R&B star Blu Cantrell says she's in "complete shock" after witnessing her friend's stabbing outside a Paris nightclub where she was celebrating her latest album release.
Cantrell and party host Tony Dinero were leaving Le Cabaret Milliardaire on Oct. 16 when a disgruntled club employee attacked them, the singer said in a statement. Cantrell was unharmed, but Dinero suffered stab wounds to the back of his head and eye.
Cantrell said she hoped for a "speedy and full recovery" for Dinero. She was in the French capital to celebrate the release of "Bittersweet."
Blu Cantrell
www.blucantrell.com
Rapper Fighting Deportation
Slick Rick
Sitting in a Florida jail cell, fighting his deportation, Ricky "Slick Rick" Walters counts the days. He ran out of fingers a long time ago. The Hip-Hop Hall of Fame inductee is into his 17th month behind bars, with no end in sight despite extensive legal efforts and appeals from friends like comedian Chris Rock, actor Will Smith and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
It was spring 2002 when Walters, now 38, left Florida for a weeklong performance gig aboard a cruise ship. He was arrested by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents upon returning to port.
The INS wanted Walters deported under a 1996 law calling for the exile of foreigners convicted of "aggravated felonies." Walters did five years on a 1991 attempted murder conviction after shooting his cousin and a bystander, claiming the cousin had extorted money and threatened the rapper's family.
After his '90s prison term, Walters resettled in the Bronx with his wife and two children, buying a pair of apartment buildings (he's paying property taxes while jailed). He also resumed the music career that began so memorably in the 1980s.
The London native first moved to the Bronx at 11, pairing with seminal rap figure Doug E. Fresh on "La-Di-Da-Di" and "The Show." With his eye patch, distinctive accent and Mr. T-style jewelry, "The Great Adventures of Slick Rick" went platinum and made Rick a star.
Slick Rick
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Hiatus Extended
'Crossing Jordan'
The hiatus of NBC's forensic drama "Crossing Jordan" will be longer than planned.
Production didn't start Wednesday as scheduled after star Jill Hennessy asked for more time off to spend with her newborn baby, sources said. The launch of "Crossing Jordan's" third season was pushed from fall to midseason to accommodate Hennessy's pregnancy, and the actress gave birth to her first child this fall.
NBC has six episodes of the show in the can, all shot in the spring. Sources said production on "Crossing Jordan" is now expected to resume in January.
'Crossing Jordan'
Brazilians of the Fraternity of American Descendants group dance to Southern music at a Sunday brunch in Santa Barbara D'Oeste, interior of Sao Paulo state, September 14, 2003. At least four times a year, organized by the Fraternity of American Descendents, a group whose ancestors were Confederate immigrants to Brazil after the U.S. Civil War, get together at their cemetery to trade gossip, celebrate their roots and eat typically Southern food like fried chicken and biscuits.
Photo by Paulo Whitaker
Drives Up Cable TV Rates
Rising Sports Tab
The rising cost of sports programs is a leading factor behind the skyrocketing price of cable television, U.S. congressional investigators said in a report released on Friday.
But the General Accounting Office study threw cold water on the idea of letting consumers pick and choose individual channels as a way to cut cable prices, saying the extra equipment needed would increase costs and niche channels could disappear.
U.S. cable companies' costs for sports programming rose an average 59 percent over the last three years and went up an average 34 percent for all programming, the GAO's report said.
For the rest, Rising Sports Tab
Media Outlets Fighting
Elizabeth Smart Story
An unseemly clash for control has erupted among the three major U.S. television networks, Oprah Winfrey and a leading publisher over competing plans to tell the sensational tale of teenage kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart.
The various media outlets have all pledged to treat her story with restraint and dignity. After all, the object of their attention is a 16-year-old girl from Utah who police say was sexually assaulted during nine months in captivity at the hands of a homeless street preacher and his wife.
But the media have been slinging public barbs and even accusations of treachery at each other as they maneuver to package and promote rival stories of Elizabeth's ordeal to their greatest commercial advantage.
For a lot more, Elizabeth Smart Story
Ex-Enron Employee Goes Hip-Hop
NRun
A former Enron pipeline engineer going by the name NRun is releasing a rap album, "Corporate America," that chastises his former bosses by name.
NRun, whose real name is David Tonsall, lost his job after Enron's collapse into a record bankruptcy in 2001.
Tonsall said he is angry that the Enron criminal investigation is taking years and has yet to name anyone higher up the corporate ladder than former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow.
Neither Lay nor Skilling, both of whom are under investigation by federal prosecutors, has been charged with a crime. Lay, who was Enron's chairman, and Skilling, its ex-CEO, have both denied any wrongdoing.
The title track takes Lay to task, saying Enron's failure under his watch made a mockery of the values of respect, integrity, communication and excellence that he espoused.
The record is due out on Dec. 3, the two-year anniversary of the massive layoffs that followed Enron's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
NRun
New Las Vegas Strip Battle
'T.I.'
The famed Las Vegas strip has found a new way to exploit the battle of the sexes: A scantily clad group of female "sirens" starting Sunday will fight a male band of pirates in a sea battle on a man-made lake outside the Treasure Island casino.
Treasure Island's previous all-male pirate battle, complete with cannons, a sinking ship and lots of acrobatics was for many years one of the mainstays of Vegas-style over-the-top showmanship.
A renovated Treasure Island casino has redubbed itself "T.I." and its new broadside-filled show follows the latest Vegas craze -- floor shows with large dollops of sex.
'T.I.'
Help New Screenwriters
Net Sites
Hollywood is legendary in its ability to make things difficult for unproven screenwriters. So perhaps it's only natural that dozens if not hundreds of Internet sites sprang quickly to action to help struggling writers get their scripts read by the right people.
"There's a lot of scams out there," said Chris Wehner, author of "Screenwriting on the Internet: Researching, Writing and Selling Your Script on the Web."
Wehner founded ScreenWritersUtopia.com in 1995 after discovering how hard it was to pitch scripts to Hollywood while living in Grand Junction, Colo.
For a lot more, Net Sites
In Custody Battle
Courtney Love
Singer and actress Courtney Love is reportedly in a custody battle for her 11-year-old daughter with the mother of her late husband, Curt Cobain, according to published reports.
Love told the Daily News in New York that she and Cobain's mother Wendy O'Connor had a physical fight after a custody hearing Tuesday at a Los Angeles Juvenile Court.
"Wendy went nuts," Love told The News. "She shoved me, and I slapped her like a 4-year-old, though I've never slapped a 4-year-old."
Love and O'Connor were cordial after Cobain's suicide in 1994, but their relationship started to sour after Love was arrested on drug charges this month.
Officials with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services have placed Love's daughter Frances in O'Connor's care, the News said.
Courtney Love
Alleged Stalker Sues
Masahiko Shizawa
A Japanese businessman who was ordered to stay away from Britney Spears sued the pop star in Los Angeles federal court on Thursday, accusing her security guards of brandishing a gun at him and causing "extreme emotional distress."
Masahiko Shizawa, a 43-year-old software entrepreneur from Yokohama, says Spears' guards confronted him on a public street at gunpoint and demanded that he leave the area.
Shizawa seeks unspecified damages from Spears.
Masahiko Shizawa
Pop Culture Keeps It Alive
Bell Witch
John Bell didn't tell anyone in 1817 when he first spotted strange-looking animals in his cornfield that mysteriously vanished when he tried to shoot them.
Then came the rapping, gnawing and scratching sounds in the night, and complaints from his children that an unseen hand was pulling their hair, tugging at their bedcovers and slapping their faces.
As Bell eventually invited people to stay in his home in hopes of solving the mystery, they told of a spirit who whispered, whistled, quoted Scripture and sang hymns. Even Andrew Jackson, who later became the nation's seventh president, was said to have had a haunting encounter.
When Bell died in 1821, the family blamed a spirit known as the Bell Witch for poisoning him. They also say it broke up his youngest daughter's engagement to a neighbor.
Although reports of the hauntings tapered off after Bell's death, the legend of the Bell Witch has only seemed to grow stronger.
For a lot more, Bell Witch
Police dogs with garlands and traditional colors marking their foreheads pose after being worshipped and given food during the dog worship day in Katmandu October 24, 2003. Nepal is celebrating the Deepawali festival for five days during which Nepalese Hindus worship crows, dogs, cows and the godess of wealth. Deepawali is the second great festival of the Nepalese.
Photo by Gopal Chitrakar
'The Osbournes'
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