'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another glorious overcast morning.
Trying a new headline service at the bottom of the page - let me know what you think.
KCET, PBS for LA, has resumed broadcasting 'Classic Arts Channel' late at night. Not that long ago, most LA stations stayed on all night, showing old movies, sitcoms & Cal Worthington commercials. Now, it's just a stinking cesspool of
infomercials, or dead air with a 40-cycle hum. Thank you, KCET & 'Classic Arts'.
Tonight, Thursday, CBS opens the evening with a FRESH 'Amazing Race 4', followed by a RERUN
'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', then a RERUN 'Without A Trace'.
On a RERUN Dave are Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Roger Clemens, and Emmylou Harris.
On a RERUN Craiggers are Robin Tunney and Robbie Williams.
NBC starts the night 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 Colin Quinn and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Jack Osbourne and Jesse Harris.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Brooke Burns, Steve Francis, and the Sounds.
ABC begins the night with the movie 'Picture Perfect', followed by 'PrimeTime Thursday'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel is Regina King with this week's guest co-host Zach Galifianakis.
The WB offers the movie 'Blue Streak'.
Faux has the previously-taped 'Dale Earnhardt Tribute Concert'.
UPN fills the night with 'WWE Smackdown!'.
A&E has 'Biography' ('M*A*S*H'), then 'Columbo: Butterfly In Shades Of Grey'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Comancheros', followed by the movie 'Shane', then the movie 'The Searchers'.
BBC -
[7pm] 'Ground Force' - Newport;
[7:30pm] 'Changing Rooms' - Edinburgh;
[8pm] 'House Invaders' - Northowram;
[8:30pm] 'House Invaders' - Episode 30;
[9pm] 'Faking It' - Sheep Shearer to Hairdresser;
[10pm] 'Faking It' - Painter Turns Conceptual Artist;
[11:00 pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Carrie Fisher, Nigella Lawson;
[11:30pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Dolly Parton;
[12am] 'Faking It' - Sheep Shearer to Hairdresser;
[1am] 'Faking It' - Painter Turns Conceptual Artist;
[2:00 am] 'House Invaders' - Northowram;
[2:30am] 'House Invaders' - Episode 30;
[3am] 'So Graham Norton' - Carrie Fisher, Nigella Lawson; and
[3:30am] 'So Graham Norton' - Dolly Parton. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo offers the movie 'La Bamba', followed by the movie 'La Bamba'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jon Stewart is Carson Daly.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked', and more 'Modern Marvels'.
SciFi has the movie 'Arachnid', followed by the movie 'Webs'.
TCM spends 24 hours celebrating Katharine Hepburn -
[6am] 'Mary of Scotland' (1936);
[8:15am] 'Holiday' (1938);
[10am] 'Woman Of The Year' (1942);
[12pm] 'Adam's Rib' (1949);
[2pm] 'Pat And Mike' (1952);
[4pm] 'The Lion In Winter' (1968);
[6:30pm] 'Katharine Hepburn: All About Me' (1993);
[8pm] 'Bringing Up Baby' (1938);
[10pm] 'The Philadelphia Story' (1940);
[12am] 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' (1967);
[2am] 'Little Women' (1933); and
[4am] 'Undercurrent' (1946). (ALL TIMES EDT)
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Director/actress Salma Hayek, left, expresses her passion for 'The Maldonado Miracle,' film, as actor Peter Fonda listens, Wednesday, July 9, 2003, during the presentation of a Showtime Original Picture for All Ages 'The Maldonado Miracle,' her directorial debut, at a hotel in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles. The movie stars Peter Fonda, Mare Winningham, Ruben Blades and Eddy Martin. The movie debuts October 12, 2003.
Photo by Damian Dovarganes
Subject Of New VH1 Series
Warren Zevon
Terminally ill singer-songwriter Warren Zevon will be the debut subject of a new VH1 series, "Inside Out," which launches Aug. 24.
The program will chronicle the veteran musician's struggle to complete "The Wind," his forthcoming album for Artemis Records, due Aug. 26. Zevon was diagnosed with the terminal lung cancer mesothelioma in August 2002.
"Inside Out: Warren Zevon" will feature appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Brown, Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood, and is hosted by actor Billy Bob Thornton. Following Zevon through his personal journey with the illness, the program also explores the creative process behind the upcoming album, shares poignant interactions with many of his fans, pulls excerpts from his personal diary and contains clips from his last live performance on "The Late Show With David Letterman."
Others appearing on the premiere episode of "Inside Out" include Jorge Calderon, co-producer of "The Wind," as well as Zevon's two children, including his daughter Ariel, who was pregnant with twins during filming.
Warren Zevon
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Senate & Radio Consolidation
Dixie Chicks
They may have been thousands of miles away, but the members of Dixie Chicks were the stars of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday examining the effects of consolidation in the radio industry.
Senators used the femme trio as an example of what can go wrong when a single media company controls hundreds of stations across the United States.
The country group was banned from radio stations owned by Cumulus Media Inc. and Cox Communications after lead singer Natalie Maines told an audience at a March concert in London that the band was "ashamed the resident of the United States is from Texas."
While Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he disagreed with Maines' sentiment, the fact that giant radio groups could ban a group's music because of a political statement was an "incredible, incredible act" that serves as an example of how radio industry consolidation is causing the "erosion of the First Amendment."
What troubled McCain and several of the other senators is not that a decision was made to keep the band off the air but rather that the decision was made in a corporate headquarters miles away from the station to stop playing the group's music.
Cumulus chairman and CEO Lewis Dickey Jr. defended the radio group's action, telling McCain that the decision to stop playing Dixie Chicks was not made unilaterally. The decision was made only after program managers at the 50 country music stations the company owns reported a "hue and cry" from their listeners.
But even as Dickey attempted to paint the company's 250 radio stations as a "confederation" of independent operators, he was forced to admit that the decision to keep the Dixie Chicks off Cumulus' 50 country stations was made in the company's headquarters.
Dixie Chicks
Rips British Authorities
Roger Daltrey
Roger Daltrey has blasted British authorities for the way they dealt with Pete Townshend and his child pornography arrest in January. Daltrey told the U.K. newspaper the Daily Telegraph that his Who bandmate "didn't deserve to be treated like a criminal because that's the last thing he is...There was a huge breach of his civil liberties, and I don't think we should sit back and watch that kind of thing happen without fighting it."
Daltrey said that police examined 14 computers belonging to Townshend and found nothing on them, causing him to ask, "What are we becoming? The f--king Taliban? Pete's an artist and may have been naive, but he did nothing wrong and told the truth from the start. But he was treated as though he was guilty of the worst crimes and crucified without a trial by people with no accountability. It's a f--king disgrace. Everything they did to him was appalling."
Daltrey added, "If [Townshend] had told a pack of lies, they wouldn't have come after him. But he didn't hide anything and paid a price for being honest. He has a long history of working to help abused people, and has spent a lot of time thinking about the problem. That's just a fact. But nobody wanted to listen to his explanation, and now--too late--they find he's guilty of doing nothing."
Daltrey saluted the way Entwistle went out, in bed with a stripper. He said, "Ask any man what he would prefer--to live to a ripe old age and die alone or to go out shagging your b-lls off with strippers in Vegas? Come on, let's be honest. It's not a death that any man should be ashamed of."
Roger Daltrey
Jim Guimarin examines a document containing a rare signature by James Bowie, one of the famed martyrs of the Alamo, at his shop in San Antonio, Wednesday, July 9, 2003. The signature was discovered on a four-page prenuptial agreement filed with Mexican authorities in 1831.
Photo by Eric Gay
Opening For Itself
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam will play an extra hour-long set prior to opening act Sleater-Kinney at its show Friday (July 11) outside Boston.
It's the third of three non-consecutive performances at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Mass., during which Pearl Jam is attempting to play each of the nearly 100 songs in its current repertoire without repeats.
At the first two shows last week, the Eddie Vedder-led group was restricted to a total of 50 songs due to an area noise curfew. According to a source, the additional Friday set will likely be a more stripped-down affair than usual, potentially allowing for revamped versions of rarely played tracks from Pearl Jam's vast back catalog.
Pearl Jam
Outpaced Inflation
Cable TV Rates
Cable television rates rose faster than inflation last year, the Federal Communication Commission said in its annual report on the industry's prices.
The FCC said the average consumer's cable bill, including programming and equipment, rose by 8.2 percent during the 12 months ending last July, from $37.06 to $40.11. During the same period, the inflation rate was 1.5 percent.
The FCC report, released Tuesday, found rates were lower in areas where two or more cable customer companies competed for customers. The average monthly charge in competitive areas was $37.84, compared with $40.26 for cable monopolies, a 6.4 percent difference.
During the past five years, cable rates rose an average of 7.1 percent annually. During the same period, the annual rate of inflation averaged 2.3 percent.
Cable TV Rates
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
French Strike Halts Movie
Jack Nicholson
French show business workers striking over unemployment benefits halted an overnight film shoot of a movie starring Jack Nicholson and shuttered the famed Avignon film festival for a second straight day Wednesday.
On location in Paris, Nicholson had begun a Tuesday evening shoot on a bridge over the Seine River when a group of French protesters walked onto the set and refused to leave, police said.
The French television station LCI showed Nicholson picking up a bullhorn to ask protesters what the problem was. Told that artists rights were threatened, the actor voiced his support.
"The struggle continues!" Nicholson said in broken French, wearing his trademark dark sunglasses.
After discussions with the protesters, the production crew decided to pack it in for the night, police said. The movie, which apparently has not yet been named, co-stars Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves. A Paris-based spokesman for the film was not immediately available for comment.
Jack Nicholson
Anti-war coalition members march to Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa to protest resident Bush's visit to the country Wednesday July 9, 2003. Bush is in Pretoria, South Africa, on the second leg of his five-nation African trip.
Photo by Trevore Samson
Concert Tours This Year
Attendance Up
Concert attendance jumped by 24 percent in the first half of the year as acts like the Dixie Chicks, Cher and the Rolling Stones helped reverse a two-year slide in ticket sales.
Fans bought 13.1 million concert tickets to the top 50 concert tours from January to June, compared to 10.6 million sold during the same period last year, according to Pollstar, the industry trade magazine. Gross receipts were up 26 percent to $678 million, up from $538 million in 2001.
Baby boomer acts such as the Stones, Fleetwood Mac and Cher represented half of the top 10 concerts for the first six months of the year. But country acts such as the Dixie Chicks, Kenny Chessney and Tim McGraw also performed strongly.
"The Dixie Chicks were one of the few acts that seemed to do great business just about everywhere they went," Bongiovanni said of the female trio, which wasn't hurt by the Bush-bashing controversy that engulfed them earlier this year.
For more, Attendance Up
Hollywood's Slump Continues
Box-Office
This year's movie superheroes are getting licked by last year's.
While "The Matrix Reloaded," "X2: X-Men United," "The Hulk" and "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" had big weekend openings, Hollywood revenues lag behind the record pace of 2002, when "Spider-Man" and "Star Wars" ruled the summer.
Since early May, when "X2" kicked off the summer blockbuster season, domestic revenues are at $2.11 billion, down 3.3 percent from summer 2002, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
For the year, revenues are $4.65 billion, a 4.5 percent drop from 2002, when movie grosses hit an all-time high of $9.32 billion.
The picture is even worse factoring in this year's higher ticket prices. With an average admission cost of $6.03, up from $5.80 in 2002, Hollywood has sold about 772 million movie tickets this year, off 8.2 percent from 2002.
Box-Office
Will Challenge Gilbert
Kent McCord
Kent McCord said he'll run against Melissa Gilbert for president of the Screen Actors Guild in upcoming elections.
The current SAG treasurer and former star of early 1970s cop show "Adam-12" opposed Gilbert's push for a reorganization of the 70-year-old actors union and unification with its rival. The unification plan failed in a vote.
McCord said he'll team with Esai Morales of "NYPD Blue," who will run for the newly merged position of secretary-treasurer.
Kent McCord
Chicago Theatre Expands
Steppenwolf
In an attempt to better match the play to the playing space, Steppenwolf
Theatre is adding some flexibility to where it presents its productions.
As part of this rethinking, the theater will rename its ground floor
mainstage proscenium space "Steppenwolf Downstairs" and its third-floor
Studio space "Steppenwolf Upstairs."
The biggest changes will manifest themselves during the 2004-05 season,
when one of the company's five subscription plays will be presented in
the more intimate Upstairs theater. Although additional productions will
be scheduled in the Upstairs space, as well as in the more experimental
Garage space located just south of the main theater building, this
revised use of spaces will give Steppenwolf a bit more breathing room.
As it now stands, a "mainstage" hit can only be extended, at most, by a
couple of weeks before it runs into the next scheduled show. By opening
one full slot, the theater will expand the number of weeks open to
single ticket sales as opposed to subscriptions, and in the process the
company also hopes to expand its audience base, currently "maxed out" at
23,500 subscribers.
Steppenwolf
Thanks, Tim H!
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
New Love Interest
Blair Underwood
Blair Underwood is joining "Sex and the City" for four episodes, but producers and his publicist won't say which of the characters he'll romance.
Underwood, 38, will make his first appearance around the ninth of 12 episodes airing this summer, Daily Variety reported Tuesday. Another eight episodes of the HBO comedy, now in its final season, are set to air early next year.
Blair Underwood
www.hbo.com/city/
The Pride of Baltimore sails ahead of the pack during the 'Parade of Sail' of Tall Ships, Wednesday, July 9, 2003, on Lake Erie near Cleveland. Eighteen tall ships from as far away as India, the Netherlands and the Cayman Islands will dock at the Port of Cleveland from Wednesday through Saturday. Throughout the summer, 25 ships are scheduled to participate in the Tall Ships Challenge, a race that's part of the event.
Photo by Tony Dejak
Sues Pam Anderson Over Show
Ex-Stripper
A former stripper is demanding an end to the new cable television show "Stripperella," an animated series featuring Pamela Anderson as the voice of a stripper who moonlights as a superhero.
Janet Clover filed the lawsuit Monday against Anderson and comic book legend Stan Lee, who created "Stripperella" as well as "Spider-Man" and "The Hulk." Also named as defendants are Viacom TV Networks doing business as TNN.
Clover, 37, claims she's Stripperella's "true creator," according to the lawsuit filed in Daytona Beach circuit court.
Clover, an unemployed Palm Coast resident who identifies herself in the lawsuit as "Sensual Entertainer's Home Studio Founder," said she wrote and filed the lawsuit without the advice or assistance of an attorney.
"This office challenges Lee to produce proof of his creative work, as true authorship belongs to Tanga's Jazz", she wrote, referring to an adult club in Tampa where she claims she asked Lee about the concept of "Stripperella" a year ago during a private dance session.
Ex-Stripper
Picture of Janet Clover
Thanks, EJ2E!
Silent Film Festival - Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder Colorado
Thanks, Tim H!
Home For Sale
Clark Gable
The last home belonging to actor Clark Gable is up for sale.The estate at the Bermuda Dunes Country Club (Indio, CA) has an asking price of $735,000 or $795,000 furnished.
Gable moved into the home in May 1960 with his fifth wife, Kay Williams Spreckels, and her two children. The actor, who won an Oscar award for "It Happened One Night" and played Rhett Butler in "Gone With The Wind," died in November 1960. He was 59.
The 3,852-square-foot house has four bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms with stained glass windows on the front doors. The home was recently refurbished into a classical, Mediterranean styled residence.
Clark Gabl
Doll With A Willy
Hulk
Six-year-old Leah Lowland checked out a mystery bulge on her Incredible Hulk doll — and uncovered a giant green WILLY.
And when she peeled off the green comic-book character's ripped purple shorts, she found the two-inch manhood beneath them.
Horrified Leah immediately ran to mum Kim and reported the find. And last night Kim called for a ban on the saucy toy. She said: "A hulk with a bulk like this just shouldn't be allowed.
"Considering the doll is only 12-inches tall it's amazing how big his willy is.
"And it's definitely not an extra piece of material left on by mistake."
For the rest, Hulk
Sues Over 'Charlie's Angels'
Robert Wagner
Actor Robert Wagner has sued Sony Pictures Entertainment claiming he is entitled to half the profits from the two "Charlie's Angels" movies for his role in developing the 1970s television series on which the films were based.
Wagner and his late wife, actress Natalie Wood, became financially linked to ABC's original "Charlie's Angels" series when they agreed to star in a 1974 TV movie called "Love Song" for producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, the lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, said.
Their contract for "Love Song," later retitled "The Affair," gave the actors part interest in proposals for five TV shows that Spelling-Goldberg Productions pitched to ABC for the 1974-1975 season, the suit said.
One of those ideas became the series, "Charlie's Angels," about a mysterious millionaire who ran a private detective agency staffed by three beautiful former police officers. The show originally starred Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith and ran from 1976 to 1981.
In his lawsuit, Wagner said Sony, which has since assumed all rights to the series from Spelling's production company, has refused to pay him his share of the profits from the 2000 film "Charlie's Angels" and its 2003 sequel "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle." Both films starred Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz.
Robert Wagner
Rage & Remorse In Documentary
Mike Tyson
Former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson is full of rage and remorse in a new two-hour documentary and hints that his self-destructive behavior could be part of a death wish.
"Maybe in my next life, I'll have a better life," Tyson says in Fox Sports Net's "Beyond The Glory" program, to be aired next Wednesday.
And the pugilist added darkly, "That's why I'm just looking forward to go to the other world." Later in the show he says, "I'm gonna live my life. I understand this society that I live in hates me" and "I'm gonna live it 'til they kill me."
For a lot more, Mike Tyson
Depicts Female Genitalia?
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a massive fertility symbol, according to Canadian researchers who believe they have finally cracked the mystery of the ancient monument in southern England.
In the arrangement of the stones, the researchers say they have spotted the original design: female genitalia.
The theory is laid out in a paper entitled "Stonehenge: a view from medicine" in the July issue of Britain's Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
"To the builders of the henge, the most critical events in life were birth and death," Anthony Perks, a retired professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of British Columbia, wrote in the paper.
Viewed from above, Perks suggests Stonehenge's inner bluestone circle represents the labia minora and the giant outer sarsen stone circle is the labia majora. The altar stone is the clitoris and the open center is the birth canal.
Stonehenge
Having A Heat Wave
Anchorage
Hot summer weather is setting records in Anchorage.
The high of 84 degrees Tuesday set a new mark for July 8, breaking an 84-year-old record. It also turned out to be the warmest day ever recorded in Anchorage for the month of July, topping the 83 degrees reached July 11, 1953, said Dave Vonderheide, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
Tuesday was the fourth warmest day in Anchorage's recorded weather history, although it shares that distinction with three other days, all in one June or another, Vonderheide said.
The hottest day ever recorded in Anchorage was June 25, 1953, when it hit 86 degrees.
Anchorage
One of the several outriggers belonging to the Hui Nalu Canoe Club is silhouetted against the seashore, after a late afternoon practice at Hawaii Kai Beach in East Oahu, Hawaii, on July 8, 2003. The outriggers are a common sight along the coast of the island.
Photo by Lucy Pemoni
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'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
The Ark Group bids a sad farewell to one of their number as they contend with Purgatory's lowest courtroom.
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
