'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
They Come In Peace
The SpaceBrothers World Tour!
Last Fall, 24 SpaceBrothers left our Southern California compound to visit
host families near and far, here and abroad, families picked for two special
qualities: they had email accounts and digital cameras.
Now, and for the next three weeks, you can see and hear where these
SpaceBrothers went, who they met, and what they found when they got there -
a planet's worth of drama, pathos, sex, drugs, humor, probing, crime,
Kuwait, Berlin, France, cute kids, hot cars, Canuckians, monkeys, Spidey,
bikers, guns, New Jersey, and air guitar.
This week's photo-pheatures include "I Was An Alien Lab Rat" and
"Everything's Up to Date in Kuwait City, " with new material added every
Monday.
Please stop by!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Woke up to rain that not a single tv-talking-head-weather-predictor predicted. Temperature dropped nearly 30 degrees from yesterday.
Dear old dad back in PA is paying gas bills (to heat the house) in amounts comparable to what we paid in CA, the first winter of Smirk. He's not pleased. At least he's looking forward to his 'Polka cruise'.
'Science project season' is nearly here. Past experience has shown the hardest part is buying the cardboard tri-fold early before every store in a 100-mile radius is sold out.
Tonight, Thursday, CBS opens the evening with a fresh 'Star Search', then a fresh 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigationl', followed by a fresh 'Without A Trace'.
Scheduled on a fresh Dave are Renee Zellweger and Chuck Barris.
Scheduled on a fresh Craiggers is Ashton Kutcher.
NBC starts with a fresh 'Friends', then a fresh 'Scrubs', followed by a fresh 'Will & Grace', then a fresh 'Good Morning, Miami', and wraps it with a fresh 'ER'.
On a RERUN Jay are Adam Sandler, Rupert Grint, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
On a RERUN Conan are Anthony Hopkins, David Alan Grier, and the Naked Trucker & T-Bones.
On a RERUN Carson Daly (from 11/7/02), are Salma Hayek and Xzibit.
Jay, Conan & Carson Daly - all reruns, all week.
ABC has the movie 'Snow Day', and then 'PrimeTime Thursday'.
The WB RERUNs 'High School Reunion', then the series premiere of 'The Surreal Life'.
Faux has a 'special' - 'Cops: The Top 15 Moments of All Time'.
UPN kills the night with 'WWE Smackdown!'.
CNBC has its first documentary - 'The Big Heist: How AOL Took Time Warner' at 9pm (es/pst).
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Sandra Unitas stands next to a statue of her late husband Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas, on Dec. 26, 2002 at the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore. Sandra Unitas, who for 30 years was the
loving wife and dutiful mother who quietly attended to home and family while her husband, the beloved football warrior, traveled in the spotlight, has taken on a new role, that of standard-bearer for her husband's legacy.
Photo by Jed Kirschbaum
Easing Up On Bono
Henry Rollins
U2's Bono may be the poster boy for rock star philanthropy, but Henry Rollins thinks he's doing too much.
In an interview with a Metroactive, a California entertainment newspaper, the ex-Black Flag frontman voiced his concern over Bono's ambitious undertakings.
"I hate this guy's music, but I like the idea of absolving Third World debt, because otherwise these people are going to die," Rollins said. "So if he's using all that rock star
power, well, right on. Like he's Mr. Africa Third World Debt Guy, which is a huge issue, but now, he's Mr. AIDS Guy. Well, wait a minute, how did you go from Third World debt to AIDS? It starts to sound like he leaves a lot undone."
In a 1992 NME interview, Rollins called Bono, "the most pompous, pretentious, unbelievably crass guy I have ever encountered in music."
While he still questions Bono's motives, he seems to have eased up on the Irishman since. "Is this a crusade or really good promo for U2's new greatest hits album?" Rollins contemplates
his own question in the recent interview, and continues: "I have to think his heart's in the right place. I think he's a boring singer, but I don't think he's a bad man."
Rollins kicked off his spoken word tour in California last night, and is set to perform in Vancouver on January 11th and Toronto on February 1st.
Henry Rollins
Returns to TV With HBO Show
Bill Maher
Comedian Bill Maher has rebounded from the cancellation of his ABC talk show "Politically Incorrect" with another current events forum on HBO.
"Real Time with Bill Maher" is set to debut on the cable network Feb. 21.
At a meeting Tuesday of the Television Critics Association, the 46-year-old comic described the show's goals this way: "To keep everybody honest; to note that what
public figures say, they then have to do; and when they don't, to point out that discrepancy and to mock it."
The hourlong "Real Time" will be broadcast live at 11:30 p.m. Eastern time on Fridays and will focus on the past week's political and cultural news, Maher said. It will feature an opening
monologue and a "Politically Incorrect"-style round-table discussion.
Unlike the nightly ABC show, which featured an ever changing mix of participants, the new one will draw from a pool of about eight regulars.
Among those participating in the first show, Maher said, would be comedian Larry Miller and conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
Bill Maher
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Talk Shows Set for Fall
Ellen & Sharon
Ellen DeGeneres and Sharon Osbourne will storm the talk show arena in the fall, now that their respective projects having landed key clearances.
"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has been picked up by the NBC-owned stations, while "The Sharon Osbourne Show" was snapped up by Tribune outlets. Both talkers are produced by Warner Bros.
Domestic Television Distribution.
The "Ellen" deal puts the talk/variety strip on all 14 of NBC's owned-and-operated stations, representing more than 30% of the country. Stations cleared include WNBC, New York; KNBC, Los Angeles and WMAQ, Chicago.
As for "Sharon Osbourne," the show will be seen on all of Tribune's owned outlets, representing more than 40% of the country. Stations include WPIX, New York; KTLA, Los Angeles; and WGN, Chicago.
Ellen & Sharon
The drummer of the Band of the Irish Guards, is covered in a light snow while playing outside London's Buckingham Palace, Wednesday, Jan 8, 2003. A second day of snow and freezing temperatures in southern
England brought disruption to train services with frozen points delaying passengers. The fresh snow on already icy roads was expected to cause havoc with traffic.
Photo by Alisatair Grant
Commercials Link SUVs, Terror Funds
Arianna Huffington
A group hoping to lessen U.S. reliance on foreign oil on Wednesday debuted two television ads that link gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles to terrorist funding.
The ads mimic spots that link drug money to terrorism.
The 30-second ads were created for The Detroit Project, a nonprofit launched by syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington. They will begin airing Sunday in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington and Detroit.
"This campaign is not designed to demonize SUV owners," Huffington said. "We want to encourage customers to connect the dots and make socially responsible consumer choices."
The ads were written and directed by Scott Burns, who was part of the creative team responsible for "Got Milk." They are intended as parodies, Burns said.
The ads were turned down by several TV stations - WABC in New York, KABC and KCBS in Los Angeles and WDIV in Detroit, according to campaign publicists Fenton Communications.
The Detroit Project was created by Americans for Fuel Efficient Cars, a group co-founded by Huffington, film producer Lawrence Bender, environmental activist Laurie David, and movie and TV agent Ari Emanuel.
Arianna Huffington
New Tattoo
Anna Kournikova
She already dresses like a stripper, and now tennis temptress Anna Kournikova is sporting a new tattoo just above the crack of her delightful derriere, a spot favored by ink-loving
ecdysiasts. But Kournikova isn't ready to show off her tantalizing tattoo just yet. While practicing for a doubles match in Sydney, Australia, the ravishing Russian sported tape over
her tattoo, which insiders say is a sun design.
Anna Kournikova
Returning to ESPN
Jim Rome
Jim Rome is returning to ESPN to host "Rome Is Burning," a weekly one-hour talk show starting May 6.
Rome also will have weekly one-minute editorials on the network's "SportsCenter" and will write columns for ESPN.com.
Rome hosted "The Last Word with Jim Rome" on Fox Sports Net from 1997 until last year. Before that, he had a nightly talk show on ESPN2. He also has a nationally
syndicated radio broadcast, "The Jim Rome Show," which is based in Los Angeles.
Jim Rome
Jim Rome Web site
1 Season Remains
'Sex and the City'
HBO's "Sex and the City" will call it quits after the show's sixth season, with its final episode airing early next year.
Twenty half-hour episodes of the Emmy-winning comedy will be produced for the concluding season, with shooting set to start March 31 in Gotham. Twelve of those episodes will air starting in
June, with the remaining eight unspooling in a sort of mini-season that will begin January 2004.
HBO announced the decision Tuesday during its session at the Television Critics Assn. winter press tour.
Among its many honors, "Sex and the City" was the first cable show to take top honors in the Emmy Awards' comedy series category. It is based on the book by Candace Bushnell.
'Sex and the City'
A Pragmatic Man
George Clooney
Hollywood heart-throb George Clooney bared his bottom in the movie "Solaris" to stir-up excitement and promote the film, he was quoted telling a German magazine on Wednesday.
"If my ass helps the film, I don't have a problem with that," Clooney, 41, told the German edition of Playboy magazine in its February issue.
Clooney said the film's promoters found it hard to sell "Solaris" because it was a hybrid of sci-fi and romance.
"It's a serious film without any spectacular special effects and, in times like these, these sorts of films can be difficult to promote," he said.
George Clooney
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Music Biz Ally
Bill Frist
Just as the Grammy nominations were announced in New York, the record business was quietly celebrating the arrival on Capitol Hill of new Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
Frist first became an ally of the music industry while serving as a U.S. senator from Tennessee.
"He has a lot of friends in the industry in Nashville. It has really informed his thinking," Recording Industry Assn. of America chair Hilary Rosen said.
For instance, Frist has helped the RIAA crack down on piracy rings and has written to the U.S. Dept. of Justice on the subject.
When it came to showbiz, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott was first and foremost a friend to broadcasters.
Bill Frist
A Buddhist worshiper prays at the place where Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment, during the Kalachakra Buddhist festival in the town of Bodh Gaya in the Indian
eastern state of Bihar on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2003. The Kalachakra is the most important ritual of the Mahayana sect of traditional Buddhists.
Photo by Elizabeth Dalziel
Name The Cubs Contest
'Siegfried & Roy'
Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried & Roy received an early Christmas present October 22, 2002 when three cubs were born to their Royal White Tiger family.
It is now time to name the two males and one female. Siegfried & Roy are conducting a naming contest with the proceeds going to assist in children's education.
Anyone can enter the contest, however the $1,000 prize for each winning name must be donated to a Las Vegas school of their choice to assist teachers in garnering educationsal tools.
Entries can be sent via email by clicking here.
Entries can also be sent by fax to (702)895-9945 or by mail to: Siefgried & Roy PR, 4187 Pleasant Rd., Las Vegas, NV 89108. All entries must be received by January 20, 2003.
Winners will be invited to meet Siegfried & Roy and the cubs.
'Siegfried & Roy'
'Mr. 3000'
Bernie Mac
Bernie Mac, star of his eponymous hit sitcom on Fox, is set to play ball in "Mr. 3000," a Disney feature comedy.
He will play a retired baseball player for the Detroit Tigers who returns to the game when three of his past base hits are disallowed, dropping him below the 3,000-hit plateau. The project is out to directors.
In addition to "The Bernie Mac Show," Mac will be seen as Bosley in the upcoming "Charlie's Angels 2" and in DreamWorks' "Head of State" opposite Chris Rock.
Bernie Mac
Available On The Web
Dawson Creek Music
Sony Pictures Television and Mixonic Custom Media, a CD duplication company, on Tuesday launched a Web site enabling fans of the TV show "Dawson's Creek" to create customized CDs of songs from the program.
Users of the site will be able to select from an initial list of more than 50 cuts, including some from well-known artists like Aimee Mann and Vanessa Daou, as well as lesser-known artists.
Fans will also have the option to buy eight discs containing collections of songs inspired by characters from the series.
Dawson Creek Music
Laments 'Celebrity Mole'
Kathy Griffin
It didn't take much for Kathy Griffin to admit she's lowered her celebrity status by appearing on "Celebrity Mole Hawaii."
"I have gone from 'B-List' to 'D-List,'" she said in an interview. "I skipped 'C' altogether. I jumped right to 'D.'"
Griffin said she didn't do very well on the ABC show, where seven celebrities try to figure out who among them is "The Mole." They must complete a series of challenging physical and mental
games to earn money for the pot.
"I thought I would do much, much better," she said. "I thought I would cry less, I can tell you that. I thought I would get in fewer fights. I don't get along with people to begin with.
So put me in a situation where I'm in a bathing suit next to a former supermodel where we have to jump off a cliff. That's a recipe for disaster."
Griffin persuaded the producers to let the contestants keep the money they won on the show instead of having to donate it to charity.
"Me and Darva (Conger) and (rapper) Coolio, people like us, we need that money," Griffin said. "And so they came back, and they said OK and they gave us more money for the appearance
fee and (said) you can keep the money. Which I think is hilarious because celebrities have never done anything we're they've pocketed the money themselves.
"I've done 'Celebrity Millionaire' and 'Celebrity Weakest Link,' and you always give away that money to charity," she added. "And this time we were all fighting for it like animals, for ourselves."
Kathy Griffin
Celebrity Mole Hawaii
Bette Davis Movie For A&E
Mother Goddam
A&E Network is developing a two-hour TV movie about Bette Davis, with Susan Sarandon expressing interest in playing the screen icon.
The picture will focus on a decade of Davis' life during the 1950s, including the career comeback she experienced after her Oscar nomination for "All About Eve."
It will explore her love affair, marriage and divorce from her co-star Gary Merrill. The script will be written by Pulitzer-, Tony- and Oscar-winning scribe Alfred Uhry ("Driving Miss Daisy").
A&E is expected to unveil the Davis project, along with other programming news, during its session at the Television Critics Assn. press tour Wednesday.
"Telling the story of someone whose life was as fascinating and interesting as Bette Davis, one of the true Hollywood legends, illustrates the type of quality and
innovative programming that we are developing," said Abbe Raven, A&E's executive VP and general manager.
Mother Goddam
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
CNBC to Air AOL Documentary
'The Big Heist: How AOL Took Time Warner'
Cable television network CNBC, mired in a ratings slump, will air its first documentary on Thursday evening as part of ongoing efforts to entice its core audience of business-minded daytime viewers to tune in at night.
"The Big Heist: How AOL Took Time Warner," recounts America Online's $106 billion acquisition of media behemoth Time Warner Inc. to form AOL Time Warner, and is hosted by reporter David Faber, who is among the network's top daytime draws.
The move is part of CNBC's plan, launched in July last year, to re-focus its prime time programs from general and political news to more financial-oriented topics.
Where it once aired celebrity journalist Geraldo Rivera reporting on a wide range of news, it now has Wall Streeters Larry Kudlow and James Cramer hosting a show looking at topics affecting
business and "After Hours with Maria Bartiromo" with market reporter Bartiromo interviewing industry leaders.
Faber's investigative reporting has proven popular, too, making him a good personality to move into prime time. This June, when he broke news that telecommunications company WorldCom
Inc. had inflated earnings, CNBC's daily ratings spiked.
"The Big Heist" asserts what is mostly seen as a forgone conclusion in financial markets and among media watchers -- that AOL Chairman Steve Case acquired Time Warner at the peak of
the Internet boom when its stock price was overvalued and that then-Time Warner chairman Gerald Levin erred when he sold.
Such luminaries as Walt Disney Co.'s Michael Eisner, News Corp. Ltd.'s Rupert Murdoch, Viacom Inc.'s Sumner Redstone, Vivendi Universal's Edgar Bronfman, Jr. and Liberty Media's John
Malone, all discuss the deal and how it radically changed the media marketplace.
"The Big Heist" airs at 9 p.m. ES/PST on Thursday, January 9. CNBC is part of General Electric Co.'s NBC television network.
'The Big Heist: How AOL Took Time Warner'
Raika the tiger walks out in the snow at London Zoo at Regent's Park, January 8, 2003. Snow and freezing conditions continued to cause travel disruption across the UK on Wednesday.
Photo by Matt Dunham
New NY Times Editor
David Shipley
There was something missing in the announcement on the New York Times' Web site that David Shipley is the new editor of the paper's op-ed page. While the Times noted that Shipley, 39,
had been editor of the New Republic and then a senior speechwriter for President Clinton, it failed to mention he is the husband of "The Beauty Myth" author Naomi Wolf - who made headlines
in 1999 when it was learned she had been advising Al Gore on how to become president. For $15,000 a month, she told Gore he had to wear earth tones and become an alpha-male.
David Shipley
China Approves TV Programming
Rupert Murdoch
China has approved dissemination of News Corp.'s STAR TV Chinese-language entertainment channel to limited locations across the mainland, a Chinese television industry executive said Wednesday.
The approval follows a similar deal for the InfoNews channel operated by Phoenix Television Holdings — a move industry watchers called a more significant step toward easing restrictions
on the country's broadcasting industry. STAR owns a 37.6 percent stake in Phoenix Television.
Authorities will allow reception of satellite broadcasts of STAR's Xingkong Weishi, a Mandarin-dialect entertainment channel, at luxury hotels and residential compounds occupied
by overseas Chinese and foreigners, according to the industry executive, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
STAR, a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp., was expected to make a formal announcement within days.
China announces new rights for foreign television broadcasters each year, but the decision to allow InfoNews to broadcast Chinese-language news programming round the clock
was viewed as a major step by some media analysts. InfoNews announced that development Tuesday.
Rupert Murdoch and other media giants are keen to reach China's huge audience and potential advertising market. Loss-making Phoenix Satellite Television lobbied hard for broadcast
approval so it could tap advertising revenues and boost its bottom line.
Rupert Murdoch
STAR
Phoenix Television
Einstein Was Right
Einstein was right. The speed of gravity matches the speed of light, according to astronomers who took advantage of a rare planetary alignment to measure one of the fundamental forces of nature.
Edward B. Fomalout of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Sergei Kopeikin of the University of Missouri measured the amount that light from a distant star was deflected by the gravity of Jupiter as the planet passed in front of the star.
Albert Einstein, who formulated basic theories about space, time and relativity, had assumed that gravity moved with the speed of light, about 186,000 miles per second, "but until now, no one had measured it," said Kopeikin.
"Einstein was right, of course," said Fomalout.
The researchers used 10 radio telescopes scattered across the Earth from Hawaii to Germany to precisely measure how light from a distant quasar, a type of star, was bent as it passed by Jupiter on its way to the Earth.
Jupiter is in the precise position for such a measurement only once a decade.
To make the measurement, the instruments had to detect a minute deflection of the light. Fomalout compared the required precision to being able to measure the size of a silver dollar
sitting on the moon's surface, or measuring the width of a human hair from 250 miles away.
Einstein Was Right
American Astronomical Society
Leads To Bust
$melly Money
Two women accused of growing marijuana in their homes made so much money they bought three neighboring houses so they could grow more plants, prosecutors allege.
But investigators learned of their activities last summer when a bank teller called police to say that the women's cash deposits smelled like marijuana.
In documents made public Monday, prosecutors contend Kathleen Jenny and Virginia Erickson were the brains behind the $1 million pot growing operation that began in 1994 in their basements.
The women, both 59, agreed last week to plead guilty to money laundering, authorities said. They face up to six years in prison, instead of the mandatory 10-year federal prison term.
The business was so successful that the women eventually involved their husbands and bought the three other neighborhood homes in which to grow more marijuana, court documents allege.
Drug agents who searched the homes found more than 500 marijuana plants, $110,000 in cash and psychedelic mushrooms. Investigators said as many as 4,000 plants were grown.
$melly Money
In Memory
Mario "Motts" Tonelli
Mario "Motts" Tonelli, a former Notre Dame star fullback who survived the infamous Bataan Death March in the Philippines during World War II, died Tuesday. He was 86.
Tonelli was recruited by Notre Dame, where he earned All-American honors in the late 1930s.
In 1940, Tonelli joined the then-Chicago Cardinals and played for one season before entering the Army.
He was among Allied soldiers who surrendered to the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines and were forced to march while suffering from dehydration and hunger. Thousands died.
At the beginning of the march, a Japanese guard ordered Tonelli to remove his Notre Dame graduation ring. But moments later, a Japanese officer gave him back the ring, saying in perfect English that he had attended USC and had seen Tonelli play.
Tonelli spent 42 months in three Japanese prison camps.
In 1946, Tonelli played for the Chicago Rockets of the new American Football League.
Mario "Motts" Tonelli
The Houses of Parliament are seen through heavy snow behind Westminster Bridge in London, January 8, 2003. Snow and freezing conditions continued to cause travel disruption across the UK on Wednesday.
Photo by Jonathan Bainbridge
'The Osbournes'
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