'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Barbara Ehrenreich: Truck Drivers Block Freeway Traffic Across the U.S. to Protest Soaring Fuel Prices (Barbaraehrenreich.com)
Faced with $4-per-gallon diesel fuel, truck drivers -- who deliver 70 percent of the nation's goods -- are hitting the brakes.
Jim Hightower: BIG-SPENDING GEORGE (jimhightower.com)
LBJ was derided as a big-spending liberal, but he was tight-fisted compared to Bush. While George is now trying to pretend that he's a small-government fiscal conservative, federal spending in his administration has grown by 5.3 percent a year, nearly a full point higher than the rate of increase in the Johnson years, and more than double the annual spending growth under Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
Kim "Howard" Johnson: As Del Lay Dying (Chicago Reader)
On his deathbed, comedy genius Del Close held court at one last party.
Ben Wener: Max Weinberg provides an insider's tour of life on E Street (The Orange County Register)
It's a tired question about the very idea of getting tired. But it came up in conversation with Max Weinberg quite naturally. While he chomped away at a late lunch after his flight from Vancouver touched down in Los Angeles, I suddenly found the oh-so-obvious query I'd ordinarily resist reflexively popping out.
Jon Bream: Nellie McKay's playful personality belies her over-the-top talent (Star Tribune)
New York singer/songwriter Nellie McKay is absolutely brilliant and bloody confounding.
Martin Bandyke: 5 questions for Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards (Detroit Free Press)
Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards covers a lot of lyrical ground on her third studio release, "Asking for Flowers." "The Cheapest Key" is a witty put-down that runs through part of the alphabet ("A is for all the times I bit my tongue ...), while "Oh Canada" finds cracks in the social structure in her home country. ("There are no headlines when a black girl dies.")
Len Righi: Venerable Brit pop-rocker Nick Lowe is reaching new highs (The Morning Call)
For Nick Lowe fans, the last year has been a bonanza.
Brian Logan: Tom Stoppard gets quantum physical (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
As his early play mixing physics and espionage is revived, the playwright reveals what he learnt from it - and what he didn't.
David Thomson: God, guns and glory (film.guardian.co.)
Charlton Heston was a great actor who played mighty men - from Moses to a spaceman in a loincloth. And he thought his movies could change the world
James Mottram: Is Asia Argento a great actress or just a serial exhibitionist? (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
She jokes that she has played all the vampires, crazies and killers, but Asia Argento still knows how to shock.
John Anderson: Dennis Quaid stepped outside of his comfort zone for 'Smart People' (Newsday)
Quaid's mind has been somewhere other than acting recently: In November, the newborn twins of he and wife Kimberly Buffington were given an accidental overdose of the blood-thinner heparin at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Used to clean intravenous lines, the heparin was delivered to Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace Quaid at 1,000 times the normal infant dosage.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Cal Arts Renames Music School
Herb Alpert
California Institute of the Arts is naming its music school after Herb Alpert following a new $15 million donation from the Grammy-winning trumpeter.
The grant will pay for three faculty chairs, student scholarships and music programs - including a student-run record label - at the newly minted Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, school President Steven D. Lavine said Wednesday
Albert and his wife, vocalist Lani Hall, pledged the money through his Herb Alpert Foundation, which has already donated some $9 million to the school.
Herb Alpert
Teams With Ex Nihilo Vineyards For Icewine
Rolling Stones
Ex Nihilo Vineyards, in Okanagan Centre north of Kelowna, will be producing a limited release of an icewine labelled in honour of the Rolling Stones' hit "Sympathy for the Devil."
Decoa Harder of Ex Nihilo says the company started talking with Stones' frontman Mick Jagger and the boys almost three years ago.
She says only 222 cases of the sweet dessert wine will be released May 1, priced at $125 a bottle.
Each bottle will be numbered and the label will feature the classic Rolling Stones red tongue logo.
Rolling Stones
Early Exit?
Katie Couric
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed CBS News executives and people close to Katie Couric, said on Wednesday she could leave her job as anchor of the low-rated "CBS Evening News" well before her contract expires in 2011.
CBS and Couric both issued statements downplaying the Journal story while stopping short of an outright denial.
The report comes as CBS continues to lag in third place in the network news ratings, far behind NBC and ABC, 19 months after Couric's much ballyhooed debut as the first woman solo anchor of a major U.S. evening newscast -- for a salary reportedly worth $15 million a year.
The Wall Street Journal suggested Couric's next job might be to succeed veteran TV interviewer Larry King at CNN, who is 74 and whose contract with his network expires next year.
Katie Couric
Workers File
Reality TV Shows
A dozen former workers on some of U.S. television's leading reality shows, including "American Idol," filed state labor complaints on Tuesday seeking $500,000 in unpaid overtime and penalties.
The claims, lodged with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, are part of a broader campaign by the union representing Hollywood writers to end what workers on many such shows have described as sweatshop conditions.
The Writers Guild of America has sought since 2005 to organize reality show workers. And two class-action lawsuits filed that year accused several major networks and production companies of violating California labor laws governing overtime wages and meal breaks.
Those suits, which are still pending, also accused producers of coercing workers to falsify their time cards.
Reality TV Shows
Gossip Blogger Gets Radio Show
Perez Hilton
Gossip maven Perez Hilton will soon be dishing it up on the airwaves as well as in the blogosphere.
The celebrity blogger, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, will be the star of twice-daily radio minishows that begins broadcasting on May 5, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday on its Web site.
The three-minute-long radio shows will air during morning and evening drive times in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and other big cities, with more markets planned for the next few months, the paper reported.
"Radio Perez" is the first offering from the newly established "C" Student Entertainment Corp., the Journal reported. The company was created by former Premiere Radio Networks chief Steve Lehman and Andy Schuon, former head of programming at MTV and other cable stations and at Infinity Broadcasting, now CBS Radio.
Perez Hilton
End Divorce Proceeding
Wright Penn
Oscar winning actor Sean Penn and his wife actress Robin Wright Penn have withdrawn their divorce petition filed in December, a court document posted on celebrity Web site TMZ.com showed on Wednesday.
The request to dismiss the divorce, filed one day earlier in Superior Court of California in Marin County north of San Francisco, shows the withdrawal was made "without prejudice."
A spokeswoman for Penn declined to comment, and no further details were available.
Wright Penn
Photo Auction Canceled
Diane Arbus
An auction house in New York City has canceled the sale of recently discovered photographs by Diane Arbus.
A Brooklyn collector has sued the photographs' current owner, saying he didn't know the images were the famed photographer's work when he agreed to sell them for about $3,500.
The owner says in court papers the collector's claims "strain credulity."
Diane Arbus
More Testimony
Anthony Pellicano
Michael Ovitz, once one of the most powerful players in Hollywood, testified on Wednesday that he hired private eye Anthony Pellicano to investigate journalists writing negative stories about him.
But the ex-president of the Walt Disney Co and former talent manager said he never ordered Pellicano to threaten the journalists and knew nothing about illegal wiretaps or unauthorized background checks.
Ovitz's testimony related to 2002 when he was trying to sell his struggling subsequent venture, Artists Management Group. Ovitz said he wanted to find out the sources behind what he called embarrassing stories in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
Prosecutors allege it was Pellicano who in June 2002 left a dead fish with a rose in its mouth and a note saying "Stop" on the shattered car windshield of Los Angeles Times investigative journalist Anita Busch.
Busch's complaint to police triggered a raid on Pellicano's Hollywood office that eventually led to his trial.
Anthony Pellicano
Frank's Widow Sues German Fan Club
Gail Zappa
Frank Zappa's widow is trying to stop a German fan club from using the Grammy-winning rocker's name for its annual "Zappanale" festival.
Gail Zappa says the German-based Arf Society's use of Zappa's name and an accompanying logo infringe on trademarks held by the Zappa Family Trust. The logo features a prominent mustache similar to that sported by the legendary musician.
The Arf Society says the trust has been aware of its use of the name since the festival was launched in 1998.
Gail Zappa
Minor Pleads Guilty
Barron Hilton
Paris Hilton's brother pleaded guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanors stemming from a drunken-driving incident and will spend months taking alcohol education programs, authorities said. Barron Hilton, 18, also will lose his license for a year.
He was not in court as his lawyer entered his pleas to drunken driving and possessing a false driver's license, district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.
Two other counts of driving under the influence and being an unlicensed driver at the time were dismissed, she said.
He was sentenced to three years of probation, fined about $2,000 and ordered to attend a three-month alcohol education program, another one involving a visit to a morgue and a third run by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Barron Hilton
Plea Deal
Ex-Miss Nevada USA
A dethroned Miss Nevada USA agreed Wednesday to pay fines for five misdemeanor traffic violations in exchange for prosecutors dropping a charge of resisting arrest.
Katherine N. "Katie" Rees, 23, avoided trial by entering no contest pleas. If she had been convicted of the dropped misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest, she could have faced six months in jail.
However, Rees and her lawyer, Michael Cristalli, said they are considering filing a federal police brutality and civil rights claim against the two Las Vegas police officers who they allege broke Rees' front tooth by slamming her against the hood of her car during her arrest Feb. 6.
Rees pleaded no contest to speeding, operating a motor vehicle without proof of insurance and driving with an expired registration, a suspended license and suspended registration. She agreed to pay up to $1,312 in fines.
Ex-Miss Nevada USA
Stiffed Bodyguard
Lindsay Lohan
A man who says he worked as a bodyguard for Lindsay Lohan has sued the actress and her company, claiming he is owed more than $55,000 in unpaid wages.
David Kim filed a lawsuit Monday in Superior Court against Lohan, her Crossheart Productions and 50 unnamed defendants alleging the star employed him for 19 weeks then refused to pay him.
In court papers, Kim claimed breach of oral contract and violation of four California labor codes, in addition to fraud and infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit claimed Kim was hired from October 2006 until March 2007 by Lohan, 21, and her agents or employees based on "various oral representations and text messages."
Lindsay Lohan
New Photos From 1972 Surface
Elvis Presley
Never-before-seen photos have surfaced of Elvis Presley rocking Madison Square Garden in all his jumpsuited glory. The images were taken in 1972 by George Kalinsky, the official photographer of the famed arena, the singer's estate said Wednesday.
Kalinsky came across the photos while working on a campaign for a billboard company called "Great Moments in New York." Now one of them is on display as part of the campaign on a three-story billboard atop the Virgin Megastore in Times Square; it shows The King glancing up, his outstretched arms holding the cape of his glittering jumpsuit.
Kalinsky needed to get permission from Elvis Presley Enterprises, the business arm of the performer's estate, to reproduce Presley's image for the campaign. The estate asked if he had any more photos, and Kalinsky came back with about 40 unpublished images from Elvis' second-night performance at the Garden in 1972, said Kevin Kern, spokesman for Elvis Presley Enterprises.
The collection will be displayed at Graceland starting Memorial Day weekend as part of "Elvis Jumpsuits: All Access," an exhibit that will also feature more than 50 of Elvis' famous jumpsuits.
Elvis Presley
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of March 31-April 6. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.89 million homes, 5.7 million viewers.
2. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.63 million homes, 5.28 million viewers.
3. "Wizards of Waverly Place" (Sunday, 8:30 p.m.), Disney, 3.33 million homes, 4.63 million viewers.
4. "The Hills" (Monday, 10:30 p.m.), MTV, 3.02 million homes, 4.02 million viewers.
5. "iCarly" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.01 million homes, 4.09 million viewers.
6. "Hannah Montana" (Thursday, 9 p.m.), Disney, 2.96 million homes, 3.8 million viewers.
7. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.95 million homes, 3.95 million viewers.
8. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.92 million homes, 3.81 million viewers.
9. "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" (Sunday, 8:01 p.m.), Spike, 2.85 million homes, 4.23 million viewers.
10. "Wizards of Waverly Place" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 2.836 million homes, 3.69 million viewers.
11. "The Hills" (Monday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 2.833 million homes, 3.83 million viewers.
12. "NCIS" (Saturday, 9 p.m.), USA, 2.82 million homes, 3.85 million viewers.
13. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.74 million homes, 3.59 million viewers.
14. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 11:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.73 million homes, 3.51 million viewers.
15. "Back at the Barnyard" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.72 million homes, 3.53 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Cedella Booker
Cedella Booker, the mother of Jamaican music legend Bob Marley, has died, a family spokesman said Wednesday. She was 81. Booker died in her sleep Tuesday night at her home in Miami, apparently from natural causes, spokesman Jerome Hamilton said.
Booker, a Jamaica native, was 18 when she married Norval Marley, a British man 32 years her senior. Their son brought Jamaican reggae music to international prominence, becoming its international image. Bob Marley died in Miami of a brain tumor in 1981 at age 36.
After Norval Marley died in 1955, Booker married an American man and settled in Delaware. She wrote two biographies of her famous son and recorded two albums, "Awake Zion!" and "Smilin' Island of Song."
Booker is survived by two children and several grandchildren, including Ziggy Marley, who won four Grammys with the Melody Makers, a band that included brother Stephen and sisters Sharon and Cedella.
Cedella Booker
In Memory
Stanley Kamel
Veteran television character actor Stanley Kamel, who portrayed Dr. Charles Kroger on the award-winning series "Monk," died at his Hollywood home, USA network officials said Wednesday. He was 65.
Kamel's acting career spanned nearly four decades, beginning with an uncredited appearance in "Mission: Impossible" in 1969. He made guest appearances on dozens of shows, including "The Rookies," "Mannix," "The Incredible Hulk," "Eight is Enough," "Barney Miller" and "The Golden Girls."
He appeared in eight episodes of "Melrose Place" in 1994, and the following year portrayed the father of Rebecca Gayheart's character on "Beverly Hills, 90210."
He also appeared in a handful of films and was scheduled to appear in the upcoming comedy "For Better or for Worse" with Gayheart and Janeane Garofalo.
He is survived by his brothers Dr. Stephen Kamel and Robert Kamel, five nieces and nephews and six grand-nieces and nephews.
Stanley Kamel
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