'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Connie Schulktz: Women Know It Ain't Over When It's Over (creators.com)
It seems a growing number of Americans are hoping the yearlong vitriol aimed at strong women will evaporate right along with the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton.
FROMA HARROP: The Marriage Debate We Ought to Have (creators.com)
The new California court decision advancing gay marriage will reignite "the debate," the headlines read. What impact will the issue have on the presidential campaigns?
GREGG EASTERBROOK: The Sky Is Falling (theatlantic.com)
The odds that a potentially devastating space rock will hit Earth this century may be as high as one in 10. So why isn't NASA trying harder to prevent catastrophe?
Jim Hightower: AUTOCRACY IN ACTION (jimhightower.com)
Is it 1984 already? ... We've had illegal domestic spying, falsified intelligence, presidential annulment of laws, torture, unconstitutional defiance of congressional authorityŠ and more. Now comes news of another twist from the Bush-Cheney bag of tricks: secret law.
David Wild: By George He's Done It: Bush Saves the Sitcom (huffingtonpost.com)
In the first success of his second term -- also known as the New Dark Ages -- Bush has at long last actually achieved something: he's helped save the situation comedy and he's done it without even trying.
Alex Remington: Interview with David Pasquesi, Improviser, Actor, Comedian, Meat Man (huffingtonpost.com)
Odds are, you've seen David Pasquesi or heard his voice, though you may not realize it. Of the seventeen movies he's appeared in, three were directed by Harold Ramis.
DAVID P. BARASH: How Did Honor Evolve? The biology of integrity (chronicle.com)
The real test of character, George Orwell noted, is how you treat someone who has no possibility of doing you any good. It's a matter of honor...
Gretchen Rubin: The Happiness Of Stopping My Daughter's Tantrums (huffingtonpost.com)
There's a Buddhist saying that I've found to be uncannily accurate: "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."
Simon Crerar: Angelina Jolie discusses challenging new role (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Heavily pregnant Angelina Jolie said that she couldn't imagine anything worse than losing a child.
Kim Simpson: Review of "A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans" by Michael Farquhar (popmatters.com)
You may be galvanized to the point that you grab foolish historical forgetfulness by the throat and form a William J. Burns awareness society.
Hazzard: greatest novelist of 20th century? (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Bryan Appleyard interviews the highly rated, yet little known, lovestruck Australian artist of genius, Shirley Hazzard.
Dave Weich: Philip Pullman, Tamora Pierce, and Christopher Paolini Talk Fantasy Fiction (Powells.com; from 2003)
Pierce: "The fantasy that appeals most to people is the kind that's rooted thoroughly in somebody looking around a corner and thinking, What if I wandered into this writer's people here? If you've done your job and made your people and your settings well enough, that adds an extra dimension that you can't buy."
Hubert's Poetry Corner
George W and the Kingdom in his Dense Skull
Bottom feeding Presidents James Buchanan and Warren G. Harding - now lookin'
good!
Reader Comment
TCM & AMC
THIS IS A COMPLAINT: AMC HAS BEEN RUNNING SHOWS THAT WERE SEEN LESS THAN A MONTH AGO. SUCH AS DEATH WISH, TO DEATH WISH V. ITS RUN MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT. ISN'T THERE ANYTHING ELSE IN THEIR FILE.
TCM IS RUNNING MOVIES THAT ARE 70, 80, AND IN SOME CASES 100 YEARS OLD, ALL BLACK & WHITE.
NO WONDER PEOPLE ARE SIGNING UP FOR CABLE SO THEY CAN WATCH "TECHNIQUE COLOR". SOME OF JOHN WAYNE'S MOVIES ARE BEGINNING TO SQUEAK THEY'VE BEEN PLAYED SO MUCH.
WHAT ABOUT THE MUSICALS. SURELY THEY MADE COLOR MOVIES IN THE 50'S!
Carolyn B
Thanks, Carolyn!
I hate what has become of AMC - it's like the USA Network for movies.
Heavy-handed editing with an extra heaping helping of commercials.
OTOH, I don't mind black & white.
Orson Welles said there was never a great movie made in color.
While I don't quite agree with him, I can see his point.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Seasonal, but windy.
French Legion of Honor
Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg is now an officer in the French Legion of Honor.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said the honor was prompted by the filmmaker's work on documenting the Holocaust and his efforts to help the war-wracked Darfur region of Sudan.
Spielberg, 61, met with Sarkozy in the French presidential palace on Wednesday.
He was at the Cannes Film Festival last weekend for the world premiere of his new film, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," starring Harrison Ford.
Steven Spielberg
2008 Winners
Polar Music Prize
Pink Floyd and soprano Renee Fleming were named winners of the 2008 Polar Music Prize on Wednesday for their contributions to their musical genres.
The British rock group and Fleming will each receive a cash prize of $168,000 at an Aug. 26 awards ceremony in Stockholm, organizers said.
The Polar Music Prize is Sweden's biggest music award. It was founded by Stig Anderson, manager of Swedish pop group ABBA, in 1989.
The prize is typically split between pop artists and classical musicians.
Polar Music Prize
Scores In Legal Feud
Yoko Ono
John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, made big strides on Wednesday in a legal feud over footage of the former Beatle smoking pot, writing songs and discussing putting the hallucinogenic drug LSD in President Richard Nixon's tea.
Ono is in a legal dispute to stop World Wide Video, a New England consortium of Beatles collectors, from releasing the black-and-white footage as a two-hour film titled "3 days in the life" about Lennon during a pivotal and turbulent time for the most celebrated band of the 1960s.
U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel in Boston ruled in favor of Ono in two counts in a case involving videotapes that Rolling Stone magazine has described as "awesome John Lennon footage you might never see."
The footage, recorded from February 8 to 11, 1970, shows Lennon composing two hits, "Remember" and "Mind Games," along with a candid discussion of his drug use and scenes that World Wide describes as "intimate and no-holds-barred."
Yoko Ono
Pushes Unity In Rare Performance
Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra
Iraq's national symphony orchestra gave a rare public performance on Wednesday highlighting sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of people, including some of its musicians.
It is hard enough for the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra (INSO) to meet for practice sessions, let alone help unite Iraqis who face suicide bombings, shootings and kidnappings.
Some members have been kidnapped or killed in sectarian bloodshed, others have received death threats, and 29 have joined the exodus of more than 2 million people who have fled Iraq.
The ensemble's music library and instrument store were looted after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003, and one of its main concert venues was destroyed by U.S. missiles.
Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra
First Film Festival
Saudi Arabia
It's a far cry from the glamour of Cannes: No celebrities strutting their stuff; an all-male audience drinking coffee and juice rather than champagne; and if any female spectators showed up - well, no one knew. They came in through a back entrance into a separate hall, off-limits to the male organizers.
Still, there was an undercurrent of excitement at the cultural club in this eastern Saudi city. The four-day film festival that kicked off Tuesday night was the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia - one that many hope will boost the kingdom's fledgling film industry, and more important, lead to the opening of movie theatres.
Indeed, the event in this devout Muslim country was unthinkable just a few years ago. Saudis who want to watch a movie now can do so only at home - either on satellite TV or censored DVDs in which kisses and other such scenes have been cut out - or in small clubs. Cinemas were closed in the early 1980s amid a rise in conservatism.
Saudi Arabia
Renewal Time
The Simpsons
While Fox has renewed The Simpsons for a record-tying 20th season, Variety reports there is currently no new contract in place with the oh-so-essential people who voice the characters on the Emmy-winning sitcom.
Sources close to the show say production has already been delayed for months, and we're already looking at a 20-episode season rather than the standard 22. If a deal isn't arrived at soon, that number could get smaller.
The series' lead talent-Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Hank Azaria, Yeardley Smith, Nancy Cartwright and Harry Shearer-reportedly make about $360,000 per episode and are angling for a figure closer to $500,000.
Though that sum would be in league with the earnings of some sitcom regulars whose faces actually make it into the picture, the Simpsons crew has argued in the past that they're not asking for much when you take into consideration the profitable workhorse that is The Simpsons brand.
The Simpsons
25 Years In Prison
Lou Pearlman
Lou Pearlman, the man who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in federal prison for engineering a decades-long scam that bilked thousands of investors out of their life savings.
It was the maximum sentence the boy band mogul could receive for allegedly swindling some $300 million from investors and banks since the early 1980s.
U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp noted that many victims were Pearlman's relatives, friends and retirees in their 70s or 80s who lost everything.
However, the judge said he would reduce Pearlman's sentence by one month for every $1 million returned to investors. It wasn't clear how, or if, investors would ever be compensated.
Lou Pearlman
Writer Screwed
"Roger Rabbit"
Toward the end of Robert Zemeckis' 1988 animated/live action mystery "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," a distraught Roger confronts the aptly named Judge Doom, who, it has become clear, set the rabbit up for the murder of Toontown magnate Marvin Acme.
"So you thought you could get away with it, didn't you?" Roger says. "Ha! We toons may act idiotic, but we're not stupid. We demand justice!"
Twenty years later, Gary Wolf, the science fiction author whose 1981 novel formed the loose basis of the hit movie, is still fighting his own crusade for cartoon justice -- or at least a pile of money from Disney, which released the film.
Mention the Wolf case to seasoned entertainment litigators and you'll hear either a groan or a chuckle depending on which side of the talent-vs.-studios battle the lawyer fights. The case already has spawned at least two significant judicial setbacks for profit participants trying to collect damages from studios. And just last week, a California court of appeal sent a portion of the case back to the trial court, illustrating the uphill and often unending battle facing talent who dare challenge studio accounting.
"Roger Rabbit"
Cable & Satellite
Dissatisfaction
If you thought Americans held the federal government in the lowest regard, think again and look no further than the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Another poor showing in the annual survey for cable and satellite TV companies Tuesday led some experts to warn that sector players had better get their act together amid a weak economy and heated competition -- or risk losing out longer-term.
The survey by the University of Michigan on Tuesday showed customer satisfaction with cable and satellite TV firms is up from last year and higher than at any point since the research was launched in 2001.
However, the industry remains at the low end of rankings across all sectors, with a 64 average satisfaction rating, up a from last year's 62 rating, out of a possible 100. This tied the sector with newspapers and bested only the troubled airline industry. The federal government earned a 68 satisfaction rating in another ACSI survey in December.
Dissatisfaction
Seeks Bond As He Appeals
Wesley Snipes
Wesley Snipes must surrender to prison authorities June 3 if he isn't granted bail to appeal three federal tax convictions, defense lawyers said in a court filing.
Snipes' attorneys plan to argue before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the trial judge erred in several ways before and after his February conviction. U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges last month sentenced Snipes to three years in prison.
To be granted freedom during the appeal, the 45-year-old actor must prove that he has a substantial issue to raise and isn't a flight risk. His attorneys argue that Hodges gave the jury bad instructions and should have granted them an expanded pretrial hearing on their request to move the proceedings.
Prosecutors said Snipes had no major issues to raise and has demonstrated he could flee. In a Monday filing, U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill said Snipes told the probation office he had less than $10,000 in liquid assets, but the actor surprised the government by producing $5 million in payment for back taxes at his sentencing.
Wesley Snipes
Stolen Masterpieces On Display
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch's masterpiece "The Scream" goes back on display this week for the first time since it was stolen four years ago but has suffered permanent damage, museum officials said Wednesday.
Masked gunmen stole the work and another Munch masterpiece, "Madonna," in a brazen daylight raid on the Munch Museum in August 2004. Police recovered the paintings, considered priceless, over a year later. Two men have been convicted and sentenced.
The two works show signs of damage despite extensive restoration. At a preview of the exhibition called "The Scream and Madonna Revisited," which opens Friday, water damage to the lower left corner of "The Scream" was clearly visible, as were scrapes to both paintings.
Edvard Munch
Gitmo Guest
Murat Kurnaz
A handful of US lawmakers gave only half an ear to the testimony on Tuesday of a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba who spent nearly five years in prison before being released without charge.
Murat Kurnaz, a Turk who was born in Germany, was arrested during a trip to Pakistan in autumn 2001 and delivered to US authorities in exchange for a payment of 3,000 dollars.
Kurnaz spent several nightmarish weeks at the US base in Kandahar, Afghanistan before being transferred to the US "war on terror" camp at Guantanamo.
US authorities determined in 2002 that Kurnaz had no terror links, but claimed that he remained a danger because one of his friends had committed a suicide attack -- even though the friend in question is alive, and has never been found to have terror ties.
Murat Kurnaz
Prime Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for May 12-18. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (2) "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 24.86 million viewers.
2. (1) "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 24.77 million viewers.
3. (4) "Dancing with the Stars" (Monday), ABC, 18.47 million viewers.
4. (9) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 18.06 million viewers.
5. (8) "Dancing with the Stars" (Tuesday), ABC, 16.99 million viewers.
6. (6) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 16.84 million viewers.
7. (10) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 15.55 million viewers.
8. (17) "House," Fox, 15.02 million viewers.
9. (14) "NCIS," CBS, 14.88 million viewers.
10. (19) "Without a Trace," CBS, 14.54 million viewers.
11. (15) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 13.92 million viewers.
12. (15) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.82 million viewers.
13. (24) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 12.88 million viewers.
14. (25) "CSI: NY," CBS, 11.86 million viewers.
15. (X) "Academy of Country Music Awards," CBS, 11.73 million viewers.
16. (30) "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 11.5 million viewers.
17. (25) "Hell's Kitchen," Fox, 11.31 million viewers.
18. (19) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 11.22 million viewers.
19. (22) "Lost," ABC, 10.96 million viewers.
20. (22) "60 Minutes," CBS, 10.79 million viewers.
Ratings
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