'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Peculiar weather for these parts. Started out overcast, then sunny, followed by more overcast, and finally, rain & the heater - don't ever remember firing up the furnace this time of year.
Why does Joe Lieberman remind me of a lawn gnome?
So, I tripped over my own feet getting out the shower the end of last week. Nothing broken, but did bruise a few ribs. The good news is today I can resume my normal slouch at the keyboard, instead of sitting like I have a pickle up my ass (the posture taught in typing class), and I'm grateful.
Have some mail, but today was too busy. Maybe tomorrow.
Tonight, Thursday, NBC is supposed to start the evening with a FRESH 'Survivor: The Amazon', followed by a FRESH 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', then a
FRESH 'Without A Trace'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Dave are Megan Mullally and Marilyn Manson.
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers are Famke Janssen, triathlete/model Lokelani McMichael, and the Ataris.
NBC is supposed to open the evening with a FRESH 'Friends', followed by a heaping helping of a
RERUN 'super-sized' 'Friends', then a FRESH 'Will & Grace' that runs 40 minutes (and starts at 20 after the hour). A FRESH
'ER' follows.
Scheduled on a FRESH
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Paul Rudd and John Freyer.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Rachel Weisz, Nick Broomfield, and the Mooney Suzuki.
ABC may begin the night with a FRESH 'All American Girl', or since it's ratings suck, it may be pre-empted, and probably filled with some form of a 'Blooper' show (regardless, it screams 'CHEAP', how Disney), followed by a 2-hour 'Primetime Special Edition', titled 'How To Steal A Million' (so we know it ain't about Enron, or anything related to oil or republicans).
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Sarah Silverman, Chris Jericho, and this week's guest co-host Patton Oswalt.
The WB offers the movie 'Pitch Black'.
Faux has 'The First Annual Miss Dog Beauty Pageant', followed by 'The Pulse'.
UPN fills the evening with 'WWE SmackDown!'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Alex's Entertainment Report
Patti LaBelle
No Tours, No Reunions
Led Zeppelin
Rock legends Led Zeppelin are about to release a whole lotta archives onto the market, but the surviving band members insisted there will be no reunion concerts.
On May 27, the band who's Stairway to Heaven once straddled the globe will release a two-disc DVD set featuring live performances from 1970 to 1979, and the three-CD "How The West Was Won," drawn from June 1972 concerts in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.
However Fifty-nine-year-old Led Zep guitarist Jimmy Page scotched any idea of a new concert tour.
"The reason Led Zeppelin was not reformed is because we lost a major ingredient, John Bonham. It would have been inconceivable to bring in someone else".
Bonham, the group's drummer, died in 1980 aged 31 after a heavy night of drinking, leaving fellow group members Page, singer Robert Plant and bassist-pianist John Paul Jones to pursue their own projects.
Page said he had paid the price for being a rock star in the 1970s.
"I was driven by Led Zeppelin, I was living, breathing, drinking L.Z, the price I paid for was a broken marriage".
The guitar virtuoso confirmed that he had played on three 1960s rock classics before Led Zeppelin was formed; "Gloria" by Them, featuring Van Morrison, "You really Got Me" by The Kinks and "I Can't Explain" by The Who.
Led Zeppelin
A model displays 'Oh-Edo Bra' developed to mark the 400th anniversary of Edo shogunate by lingerie manufacturer Triumph International Japan, during its 2003 Autumn/Winter collection in Tokyo May 7, 2003. The brassiere features embroidery depicting 400-year-old Edo castle on its cups and 38 crystalline pieces embedded across the straps and cups' outlines representing Tokyo's new subway route. Triumph says the bra was created to rediscover old and new Tokyo and added that it is not for sale.
Photo by Yuriko Nakao
Family To Release Unearthed Recordings
Bob Marley
The family of Bob Marley has discovered a batch of unheard recordings by the reggae icon that may be used as the basis for an album partially produced in the same style as the mid-1990s Beatles singles "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love."
Marley's eldest son, Ziggy, tells Billboard.com the eight-track recordings, which his father made at home, will likely be supplemented with vocals from himself as well as some of his musical siblings.
In addition, Ziggy says he would like to have such top-shelf musicians as Carlos Santana (a well-known Marley fan) contribute to the album. The Marley family is in discussion with Universal Music for the release of the album, which Ziggy hopes will be issued next year.
Recorded in the late '70s, the songs will not be familiar to Bob's fans. "I didn't know any of these songs," Ziggy says. "The way he was playing the guitar on one song that I heard, it was like jazz. It wasn't what you would expect from him at all."
Bob Marley
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Guitars to Be Auctioned
John Entwistle
Rock legend John Entwistle's prized pink bass guitar "Frankenstein" goes on display in London on Thursday before being auctioned with his collection of exotic fish, celebrity sketches and gold discs.
Entwistle, who died of a heart attack in Las Vegas last year, amassed the collection during nearly 40 years as bassist with The Who -- when he was better known for smashing his guitars on stage than preserving them for posterity.
Entwistle's favorite bass guitar "Frankenstein," a pink Fender Precision, is tipped to fetch up to 7,000 pounds.
"It is the remains of five smashed basses, hence the name 'Frankenstein'," the bassist wrote in his private notebook.
The most expensive of the 150 guitars on sale is a rare Gibson Explorer with an estimate of between $80,760 and $113,000. A 1958 Gibson Flying V is tipped to make up to $80,760.
Drawings by Entwistle of his famous friends, including Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, will also go under the hammer.
John Entwistle
Big Red or Tiburonia granrojo, is shown near the Farallon Islands illuminated by a remotely operated submarine March 31, 2002. Marine biologists at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute discovered 23 of what they call Big Reds in Monterey Bay and the Sea of Cortez and off Hawaii, Japan and the Farallon Islands near San Francisco.
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Campaign To Help Ali Ismail Abbas
Hollywood
Hollywood has launched a drive to bring a limbless Iraqi orphan who became the symbol of civilian suffering in the US-led war to the United States for medical treatment.
A constellation of Tinseltown stars -- including Arnold Schwarznegger, Angelina Jolie, Mariah Carey, Ashanti and Justin Timberlake -- have already signed on for the effort to bring 12-year-old Ali Ismail Abbas to Los Angeles.
Other luminaries including Christina Aguilera are also on board and top names like George Clooney and Julia Roberts are expected to join their ranks, promoter and marketing guru to the stars Cheryl Shuman told AFP.
Ali, who was last week undergoing medical treatment in Kuwait for burns that cover 60 percent of his body, had both arms amputated above the elbow in Baghdad last month after he was caught in a US missile strike on March 30.
He was the sole survivor among 20 killed, including his parents, brothers and sisters, when the deadly projectile hit his family home in Al Zafiriya and the world media quickly seized on him as a symbolic victim and launched a high-profile campaign to save his life.
Hollywood
Backs Bill in Congress
Christopher Reeve
Paralyzed film star Christopher Reeve came to Congress on Wednesday to push for a new bill that he said would be the first to provide a comprehensive approach to treating and eventually curing paralysis.
The $300 million package includes funds for research into paralysis and rehabilitation. It addresses access to treatment and quality of life issues for the 2 million Americans who have been paralyzed from spinal cord injuries, strokes and diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
Reeve said science is making such rapid progress that a cure -- getting up from a wheelchair and walking -- is a 'realistic' goal. He also said that someone who suffered the same injury today that he endured eight years ago might have a very different prognosis, facing less damage.
'I certainly was not expected to live,' he recalled in an interview after a news conference with the bill's sponsors.
But some patients now being treated in trials with debris-eating cells called macrophages appear to have less damage and one patient was able to recover fully from a severe injury similar to his own, he said.
Reeve has come to Congress to lobby for several bills over the years with mixed results. He was part of the successful push for more funding for the National Institutes of Health. But broader federal funding for stem cell research which he supported did not pass.
Christopher Reeve
Launched for King Memorial
Ad Campaign
Halle Berry is escorted to a "colored section" at the back of a restaurant and TV weatherman Al Roker can't find a treadmill that isn't marked "white guests only" in a new ad campaign to raise money for a memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The public service ads using modern celebrities to portray times past were unveiled Wednesday. They are part of an effort over the next year and a half to raise $40 million needed to break ground on the national memorial to the civil rights leader. The advertisements will be placed on radio and TV as well as in newspapers and magazines.
The foundation hopes to raise $100 million to complete the project, Johnson said, and already has $20 million to $25 million in contributions or commitments.
The landscaped memorial would cover a four-acre triangle on the shore of Washington's Tidal Basin, between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials and next to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial.
Ad Campaign
Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation
or:
Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation
In Fine Form After Surgery
Rodney Dangerfield
A month after brain surgery, wisecracking comedian Rodney Dangerfield appeared in fine form Wednesday, assailing hospital food as "garbage" and retorting: "Why should I tell you?" when asked how he was feeling.
Dangerfield, 81, was released from the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center on April 21, nearly two weeks after undergoing surgery meant to improve his blood flow for an upcoming heart valve replacement.
The bug-eyed comic, best known for his self-mocking line, "I don't get no respect," was true to form, remarking as he entered the room for a news conference: "I gave my wife a kiss on the way in. At my age, that's about as sexy as I can get."
He wore a sweat shirt and sandals with white socks. A long scar was visible on the right side of his head.
His wife, Joan, remarked: "Rodney looks so good, I think from now on he should only play romantic leads."
Dangerfield, whose films include "Back to School," "Ladybugs" and "Caddyshack," said he's lost 30 pounds during recuperation. "If you want to lose weight, do what I did. I went on the brain surgery diet."
He also quipped that news of the surgery boosted merchandise sales on his Web site. "Before next Christmas, I'm going to pass the word around that I'm deathly ill," Dangerfield joked.
In six weeks to two months, Dangerfield will have an operation to replace a faulty aortic heart valve. The brain surgery was designed to reduce the chances of Dangerfield having a stroke during the heart surgery.
Rodney Dangerfield
www.rodney.com
Cleared of Possessing Kid Porn
Pete Townshend
Rock guitarist Pete Townshend, co-founder of The Who, was cleared Wednesday of possessing pornographic images of children but still was placed on a national register of sex offenders.
Townshend, 57, was arrested in January on suspicion of making and possessing indecent images of children. The arrest was part of Operation Ore, an FBI-led crackdown on Internet child pornography.
After a four-month investigation, London's Metropolitan Police said Wednesday the rocker "was not in possession of any downloaded child abuse images" but had accessed a site containing such images in 1999.
The musician acknowledged using his credit card to enter a Web site advertising child pornography but said he was doing research for his autobiography. Townshend denied being a pedophile and said he had campaigned against child pornography.
As part of the cautioning procedure, Townshend's fingerprints, photograph and a DNA sample will be taken by police and he will be placed on a national sex offender registry for five years.
Pete Townshend
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Focus Of Paris Fashion Museum
Marlene Dietrich
A Paris fashion museum is to mount a show devoted to Marlene Dietrich, the first time in France a major exhibition is to focus on the film icon who lived out her final years in the French capital.
The show at the Musee Galliera -- from June 14 to October 12 -- includes more than 250 outfits worn by the Berlin-born star, both in film and in private life, from the start of her career in the 1930s throughout the next five decades.
The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Berlin Filmmuseum which is home to the collection, includes models created for her by some of Hollywood's top designers, including Travis Banton, Eddie Schmidt, Jean Louis, and Irene.
Organizers said the show aims to demonstrate Dietrich's influence on her own style, from icily erotic to ambivalent androgyne to femme fatale. Dietrich closely shaped her image and was known to supervise her film wardrobe down to the smallest detail.
In conjuction with the show, the city will rename a square in the capital's well-heeled 16th arrondissement (district) after Dietrich, who spent the last 17 years of her life in Paris until her death on May 6, 1992, at the age of 90.
Marlene Dietrich
A mother pushes a pram with her child sitting in it as they enjoy a walk on a path through some fields on the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, in the late afternoon sun on Wednesday, May 7, 2003.
Photo by Michael Probst
Buying Back Muppets
Henson Family
Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and their Muppet friends are homeward bound.
Ailing German media company EM.TV & Merchandising AG said on Wednesday it agreed to sell Jim Henson Co., the producer of the Muppets, to the children of their creator -- the late Jim Henson -- for $89 million.
The deal ends a nearly two-year hunt for a buyer. Among the suitors were Walt Disney Co., children's programming magnate Haim Saban and former TV executive Dean Valentine.
EM.TV bought Henson from the family for $680 million at the peak of the stock market bubble in 2000. It has since sold off pieces of the company, including the Sesame Street characters and its stake in children's network Noggin.
Five Henson siblings would be on the 45-year-old company's board. Two of them, Brian and Lisa Henson, would help manage Henson and its singing, wise-cracking puppets. The brand and its licensing contracts have suffered under EM. TV's management, according to industry insiders, despite the success of a recent made-for-TV Christmas movie.
Goldman Sachs advised the Henson family, and Allen & Co. advised EM.TV.
Henson Family
Painting Sold For $23 Million
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
A famous portrait by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, "Dans les Roses," depicting the young wife of Leon Clapisson has been sold for 23.5 million dollars at Sotheby's.
The portrait of the middle-class woman from Paris done in 1882 had been estimated by experts to be worth between 20 million and 30 million dollars.
Leon Clapisson, a rich businessman and art collector, had asked Renoir to paint a portrait of his wife, the young and beautiful Marie-Henriette.
Clapisson refused to accept the portrait, and Renoir painted him another one, which was more academic and which today resides at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The rejected "Dans les Roses" was given to Durand-Ruel, the chief commercial agent for Renoir, who sold it in the United States in 1886, making it the first impressionist painting to cross the Atlantic.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Broadcast Job With Turner Sports
Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake is going from center stage to the sidelines as a special correspondent for Turner Sports.
The 'N Sync singer will report from several sports events for TNT, including the NBA playoffs, NASCAR races and the PGA championship. For TBS, he'll appear at major league baseball games and Big 12 and Pac-10 college football games.
The 22-year-old pop star has played in the celebrity basketball game during the NBA All-Star Weekend the past two years. Last year, he hit a long-range jumper over fellow TNT analyst Kenny Smith, who won two championships with the Houston Rockets.
Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake Web site
The gold-crusted domes of the 11th century Monastery of Caves shine in the the sunset in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, May 5, 2003.
Photo by Efrem Lukatsky
Questioned in NY Street Brawl Lawsuit
Leonardo DiCaprio
Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has been questioned in a $45 million lawsuit stemming from a five-year-old case that alleges he ordered friends to beat up actress Elizabeth Berkley's ex-boyfriend.
In the lawsuit filed against DiCaprio and his friends, the star is accused of inciting his entourage, referred to in court documents as "his posse," to attack screenwriter Roger Wilson, who once acted in two "Porky" flicks.
The March 4, 1998, brawl took place outside the trendy Asia de Cuba restaurant on Madison Avenue in midtown Manhattan.
Wilson, once the boyfriend of "Showgirls" star Berkley, alleges he suffered a broken larynx and other injuries when he was punched in the throat after being goaded by a member of DiCaprio's entourage -- injuries which he said ruined his singing career.
Last Thursday, DiCaprio spent several hours being questioned by Wilson's lawyer, Leslie Kelmachter, during depositions. "The civil suit and depositions are going very well," she told Reuters.
Leonardo DiCaprio
'Welcome, Back Kotter' Actor Arrested
Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs
Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, who played Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington on the '70s sitcom "Welcome, Back Kotter," was arrested for investigation of misdemeanor domestic battery for allegedly pushing a woman to the ground during an argument, police said.
Hilton-Jacobs was roller-skating with the 42-year-old woman at Venice Beach when two officers heard a commotion about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, investigated and arrested the actor, police spokeswoman Grace Brady said. Brady said there were no visible injuries to the alleged victim, whose name was not released.
Hilton-Jacobs was booked, with bond set at $20,000, and was released from custody late Monday.
Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs
Partially Paralyzed
Robert Conrad
An arraignment for actor Robert Conrad, who's accused of felony drunk driving, has been postponed a month because he's partially paralyzed on his right side.
Conrad, best known for his roles in "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "The Wild Wild West," was to have been arraigned Tuesday on two drunk driving charges. A judge continued the hearing until June 10.
Calaveras County District Attorney Jeffrey Tuttle said he received a letter from a Santa Clara Valley Medical Center doctor indicating Conrad was suffering from paralysis and sustained a head injury in a March 31 car accident.
Lavelda Conrad said her husband also suffered a spinal cord injury in the head-on collision.
Conrad's blood-alcohol level was above 0.20 percent, nearly three times the legal limit, when he crashed into another vehicle on Highway 4 near Arnold, injuring Kevin Burnett of Forest Meadows, according to a criminal complaint filed last month.
After the court hearing, Conrad's wife said her husband also has just 40 percent use of his left arm and is confined to a wheelchair but can "take some steps" with help.
Lavelda Conrad said her husband is 68, but court records indicate he is 73.
Robert Conrad
Russian Duo Run Afoul of London Police
Tatu
Russian lesbian pop act Tatu and legions of schoolgirl fans ran afoul of London police who cited ancient parliamentary laws to ban a video shoot outside the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday.
The fans, dressed in school uniforms and knee-high socks, turned up for filming on Albert Embankment, opposite the Houses of Parliament, but police had already told producers to move on.
Tatu shot to fame in Britain in February with their debut British single "All the Things She Said," the video of which featured a controversial lesbian kiss -- branded "pedo-pop" by critics.
Tatu
Sai Mai, a 26-month-old female tiger, plays with baby pigs at a zoo in Chonburi province, 80 km (50 miles) east of Bangkok on May 7, 2003. The Royal Bengali tigress was born in captivity and breast-fed by a female pig for four months after her birth.
Photo by Sukree Sukplang
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
Fresh Chapter Tomorrow
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
