'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Avedon's Sideshow
Link du Jour
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
Revisionist PowerPoint History
from Mark
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Beautifully overcast til noon-ish. Sunny & breezy the rest of the day.
Talked to dear old Dad tonight. He'd just finished planting his garden for the 2nd time - had so much rain the first set of seeds washed away. He's not a very happy gardener.
Tonight, Thursday, CBS starts the night with a FRESH 'The Amazing Race 4', followed by a
RERUN 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', then a RERUN 'Without A Trace'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Dave are Sarah Jessica Parker and the Dead.
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers is Bleu.
NBC begins the evening with a RERUN 'Friends', followed by a RERUN 'Scrubs', then a RERUN
'Will & Grace', followed by a RERUN 'Frasier', then a RERUN 'ER'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are Lisa Kudrow, Mark Valley, and Justin Timberlake.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Kim Cattrall, Eric Bana, and Stephen Koch.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Jamie Kennedy, David Banner, and air guitarist Dan Crane.
ABC has the movie '28 Days', followed by 'PrimeTime Thursday' ('Viva The Divas'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel is Steve-O, with this week's guest co-host Perry Farrell.
The WB has the movie 'Dumb & Dumber'.
Faux has a FRESH 'Stupid Behavior Caught On Tape', followed by a RERUN
'30 Seconds To Fame', then 'The Pulse'.
UPN here has baseball - San Francisco Giants visiting Rupert's Doggers.
A&E has 'Biography' (Greta Garbo), followed by 'Columbo: Ashes To Ashes'.
AMC offers the movie 'Young Guns', followed by the movie 'Von Ryan's Express', then the movie 'Sands Of Iwo Jima'.
BBC has 'Ground Force' - Ground Force Special: Nelson Mandela (60) (7pm),
'William at 21' (8pm),
'Faking It' - Alex the Animal (9pm),
'The Office' - Episode 4 (10:pm),
'The Office' - Episode 5 (10:40pm),
'The Office' - Episode 6 (11:20pm), and
'Faking It' - Alex the Animal (12am) (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has the movie 'Gorky Park' followed by the movie 'Gorky Park'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jon Stewart is Ron Livingston.
History has 'History Undercover', followed by 'Mouthpiece: Voice', and then 'The XY Factor'.
SciFi has the movie 'Hell Swarm', followed by the movie 'Event Horizon'.
TCM celebrates Bollywood on Thursday in June - tonight it's
'Pakeezah', followed by 'Junglee', and then 'Awaara'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Former President Bill Clinton, right, and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani shake hands backstage at the Samsung Four Seasons of Hope charity luncheon in New York, Wednesday, June 18, 2003. That wouldn't be news ordinarily, but a New York Post columnist reported Wednesday that the organizers of Samsung's Four Seasons of Hope luncheon had labored to keep the two politicians far apart because they 'can't stand each other.'
Photo by Harold Hechler Associates
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
HBO Announces Sixth Season
'The Sopranos'
Tony Soprano — or at least the HBO series that bears his name — will be sticking around awhile longer.
HBO announced that it has agreed with producers of the award-winning mob drama for a sixth season. The cast currently is wrapping up production on the fifth season, which will begin in March 2004.
The sixth season will consist of 10 episodes, shorter than the 13-episode seasons "The Sopranos" usually offers, HBO spokeswoman Tobe Becker said Thursday.
Production for the sixth season will start in early 2005. No air dates have been set.
'The Sopranos'
Hillary Clinton's Visit
Letterman's Ratings
Sen. Hillary Clinton proved to be a big draw for CBS "Late Show" host David Letterman, helping him to a rare ratings victory over NBC late-night rival Jay Leno.
Monday night's broadcast, marking the former first lady's fifth "Late Show" appearance, notched the show's highest ratings since Letterman returned from a monthlong illness on March 31, according to Nielsen Media Research figures from the nation's 55 largest TV markets.
It was only the third time this season that Letterman bested NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in overall ratings -- the first two occasions being Letterman's March 31 return from shingles and the Feb. 17 appearance of self-help guru Dr. Phil McGraw.
With Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens also a guest, viewership was particularly high in New York City, where Letterman topped California-based Leno by 75 percent.
An interview with Clinton on Jan. 12, 2000, just before she declared her candidacy for the U.S. Senate and days before Letterman's open-heart surgery, proved to be one of the highest-rated "Late Show" episodes ever.
Letterman's Ratings
Music legends Les Paul, 88, left, and B.B. King, 77, put their heads together during a jam session at the third anniversary celebration of the B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in New York's Times Square, Tuesday night June 17, 2003. Paul holds King's signature 'Lucille' guitar, which he played.
Photo by Richard Drew
Eyeing Liberal Cable Network
Al Gore
Former Vice President Al Gore is seeking financial backers for a liberal cable television network to help Democrats counter conservative media voices, Time magazine reported on its Web site on Wednesday.
Gore, who ran unsuccessfully for the White House in 2000 against President Bush, has met with politically oriented figures in Hollywood and wealthy investors, Time said on its Web site Time.com, citing unnamed sources.
The Time article cited an interview Gore gave to the New York Observer newspaper last year, in which he said: "The media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party."
"There's a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media," Gore said in the interview.
Al Gore
Set to Begin
Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp
The latest incarnation of Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp begins this week in New York, and Leslie West of Mountain is ready for the new campers. West is one of the "counselors," along with Roger Daltrey, Ace Frehley of Kiss, Mark Farner of Grand Funk, Jack Blades of Night Ranger, Simon Kirke of Bad Company, Marky Ramone and Levon Helm, among others.
West says it's always an interesting mix of people who sign up for the camp. "People fly in on their corporate jets that signed up for it. You have dentists, doctors and lawyers. They get to play with us, they get to try new equipment," West told AP Radio.
West says one of the things he teaches is how to truly be loud. West says at the Florida camp, he let one of his campers plug into his stack of Marshall amps and it scared the living daylights out of the guy.
Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp
Miami DJs Pull Phone Prank
Fidel Castro
Two radio show hosts who duped Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez into believing he was speaking by phone with Cuban President Fidel Castro now claim to have similarly tricked Castro.
A recording provided by the Cuban-American radio announcers has a man they say is Castro responding for about four minutes Tuesday to snippets of a tape recording of Chavez, a Castro friend.
He catches on to the prank after he is called an assassin and the conversation disintegrates into him denouncing the caller with a stream of obscenities.
The call was played on Miami's WXDJ-FM on Tuesday; disc jockeys Joe Ferrero and Enrique Santos tricked Chavez in January.
"This was a big, big fish that we were trying to get," Ferrero said. "Castro really has his people well-trained to avoid these kind of situations, but we were able to persuade all these people."
Fidel Castro
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
To Receive German Peace Prize
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was awarded the German book trade's prestigious Peace Prize Tuesday for her role as an "intellectual ambassador" between the United States and Europe and for her human rights activism.
"In a world of falsified images and mutilated truth, she has stood up for the dignity of free thinking," the prize jury's citation said.
The 70-year-old writer is to receive the $17,700 annual prize Oct. 12 during this year's Frankfurt Book Fair.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she accused U.S. public officials and media commentators of trying to "infantilize" the public.
Susan Sontag
Stan Lee, creator of comic book character 'The Hulk' (L) and actor Lou Ferrigno, who portrayed 'The Hulk' on television, give their best 'Hulk' pose for photographers at the premiere of the new action film 'The Hulk' in Los Angeles June 17, 2003. The film is based on the popular comic book character stars Eric Bana as the Hulk and opens June 20 in the United States. Ferrigno appears in the film.
Photo by Fred Prouser
Back To The Theater
Patrick Stewart
After 16 years at the helm of the Starship Enterprise, Patrick Stewart is turning his back on the future and boldly returning to what he loves best.
On Wednesday the striking British actor with the bald pate and mellifluous voice takes center stage once more in London's theaterland, starring in Henrik Ibsen's "The Master Builder."
Stewart trod the boards for 27 years in his homeland before taking the science fiction role in Hollywood that made his face instantly recognizable to millions of Star Trek fans.
On a provincial tour with the Ibsen classic before its London premiere, the 62-year-old actor firmly put the past behind him.
The only autographs he would sign for ardent "Trekkie" fans at the stage door were on programs for the play.
For more, Patrick Stewart
Glastonbury Festival
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney has been turned down by Britain's largest and most famous annual music festival, Glastonbury. Organizer Michael Eavis told BBC.com that the legendary former Beatle offered to headline the event, but the alternative rock band Radiohead was already in place for the top spot.
Eavis said, "We tried to work it out with Paul--I offered him the headline on Friday and Sunday, but it was Saturday or nothing. I told him Radiohead [was] already booked but it was no good, so I had to say no to him."
Paul McCartney
Picked Up Potter Book At Health Store
New York Daily News
The New York Daily News said one of its reporters found a copy of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" for sale at a local health food store on Tuesday -- four days ahead of its official release.
The owner of the store, who the newspaper declined to identify, said he had received a shipment of four books on Monday and decided to display them in his window, despite a worldwide sales embargo for June 21.
"I didn't receive notification that I should hold off until the 21st," he said. "I didn't think I'd get them so soon."
The last copy in the store was snapped up by the News reporter and the newspaper offered readers some advance tidbits in its Wednesday edition.
According to the News, the latest tale opens like the others with Harry suffering the trials of life with his noxious "Muggle" guardians, the Dursleys, in Privet Lane.
The newspaper also confirmed author J.K. Rowling's promise that an important character would die in "Order of the Phoenix" but stopped short of revealing the victim's identity.
New York Daily News
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
New York Daily News
Scholastic Sues
The publisher and author of the Harry Potter novels on Wednesday sued New York's Daily News after the tabloid published brief excerpts from the much-anticipated book, giving away the plot to fans.
Publisher Scholastic Inc. and author J.K. Rowling on Wednesday filed the lawsuit in the federal court for southern New York, accusing the newspaper of copyright infringement.
In an article published on Wednesday, the newspaper reported how it obtained a copy of the book at a Brooklyn store. The Daily News then went further, telling readers that the teenage wizard-in-training becomes locked in a battle for control of his own consciousness in the fifth episode of the series.
The book is set to be released at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, with events planned for New York, London and Australia and many points in between. No advance copies were made available to the media as the publisher had hoped to keep the plot of the book under wraps until its release, stoking the curiosity of Potter fans everywhere.
Scholastic Sues
Naturists Stephane Deschenes, (L), sons Marc (2nd L), Philip, and Linda Deschenes look from the window of a motorhome adorned with their picture in Toronto June 18, 2003. A fellow naturist will drive the motorhome across the country, visiting all of Canada's 54 naturist resorts to promote the lifestyle.
Photo by Peter Jones
Sued By Ex-Managers
Michael Chiklis
The ex-managers of Michael Chiklis have sued the Emmy-winning actor for $1 million, charging that success went to his head and he is tougher on them than his rogue cop TV character is on crooks in the hit TV series "The Shield."
In a suit filed on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the personal management firm Evolution Entertainment claims Chiklis has refused to pay commissions due on income generated from the FX cable television drama.
Alleging breach of contract and fraud, the suit also describes the actor as an egomaniac, saying: "The more successful Chiklis became, the more and more abusive he would get toward agents and others."
The lawsuit says that in addition to twice dumping his management company, Chiklis fired two agents in the last two years and at one point demanded that Evolution try to get the actress who plays his wife thrown off the show.
Michael Chiklis
Wife Files for Divorce
Jimmy Kimmel
The wife of late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has filed for divorce after more than 13 years of marriage.
Gina Kimmel cited irreconcilable differences in court documents filed Monday in Superior Court. The couple will share joint custody of their two children, an 11-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son.
Jimmy Kimmel
Weekly Rant For Fox
Dennis Miller
Emmy winner Dennis Miller has closed a deal with the Fox News Channel to join the cable channel as a commentator.
Under the pact, Miller will have a weekly segment on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" debate show. His sarcastic commentaries will run on the Friday editions of "Hannity & Colmes" beginning June 27 and rerun on "Weekend Live With Tony Snow" on Saturdays.
Dennis Miller
Sports Flop
ABC
The climactic games of the two major winter professional sports did little to bolster the ratings fortunes of ABC last week.
The network finished third behind rerun-dominated NBC and CBS in the prime-time ratings.
ABC broadcast the last three games of the National Basketball Association's championship series last week, culminating in the San Antonio Spurs' Game 6 title win against the New Jersey Nets. The NBA Finals, which moved to ABC from NBC this season, drew its lowest ratings overall in at least 27 years, according to Nielsen Media Research.
A ratings point represents 1,067,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 106.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
ABC
Going On Display
First 'America' Map
The first map to name America as a separate continent will be put on display in July by the Library of Congress, which has finally collected $10 million needed to complete its purchase.
This is the only known copy to survive of the 1,000 printed from 12 separate woodblocks. It was done in 1507 by Martin Waldseemueller, part of a project launched in St. Die, France. In mint condition, the 12 sheets put together cover 36 square feet.
The name honors Amerigo Vespucci, the Venetian explorer, using data from his voyages of 1501-02.
Originally the map belonged to Johann Schoener of Nuremberg, Germany, an astronomer and geographer who also drew maps. For more than 150 years it was in the castle of the family of Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg at Wolfegg in southern Germany. It was rediscovered there in 1901.
Congress backed the decades-long effort to buy it, and the map has been in the library's custody for the past two years while additional money was collected from the Discovery Channel and other donors to meet the $10 million price. Special permission for the purchase had to be obtained from the governments of Germany and the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
First 'America' Map
A hungry baby wren opens wide for a snack wiggling in the beak of its nurturing parent perched on a birdhouse in Fairfax County, Va., west of Washington Wednesday, June 18, 2003.
Photo by J.Scott Applewhite
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
Set in the Himalayas, researchers investigating a glacier bound shipwreck quickly learn it's not Noah's Ark.
Driven inside, the group must journey through Hell itself to get back to the 21st century world.
Tomorrow, Hitler returns as our adventurers fall back from the end of time and land in the heart of the Inferno.
'The Osbournes'
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