Disinfotainment Election Special
'Hope'
'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Fun Link
from Tim H
#1
'Take Back The Media'
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another foggy morning, sunny day.
Think the 'hedge' that's really a fence problem has been solved.
Tonight, Thursday, CBS opens with a fresh 'Survivor: Thailand', then a fresh 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', and caps it with a fresh 'Without A Trace'.
Scheduled on a fresh Dave are Kid inventors and Tom Brokaw.
Scheduled on a fresh Craiggers are Andy Garcia, Jerry Springer, and Nick Carter.
NBC is trying something different tonight - the 3 sitcoms will all run 40 minutes, instead of 30. So, first up is a fresh 'Friends' that will run til 8:40pm (est), then a fresh 'Will & Grace', which will run until 9:20pm (est), and then a fresh
'Scrubs' that'll run til 10pm (est). The evening wraps with a fresh 'ER'.
Scheduled on a fresh Jay are Dr. Phil McGraw and Sixpence None The Richer.
Scheduled on a fresh Conan is David Cross.
Scheduled on a fresh Carson Daly are Salma Hayek and Xzibit.
ABC starts with the movie 'Galaxy Quest' then 'PrimeTime Thursday'.
The WB has a fresh 'Family Affair', then a fresh 'Do Over', followed by a fresh hour-long 'Jamie Kennedy'.
Faux starts with a RERUN '30 Seconds To Fame', then follows with a fresh '30 Seconds To Fame' and 'Funniest Animals'.
UPN kills the night with 'WWE Smackdown!'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Good News From CA
The Sanchez Sisters
Representative Loretta Sanchez (Center, R) and her sister, Linda Sanchez (Center L), both Democrats, dance on stage with their father Ignasio Sanchez (R) and mother Maria Macias while waiting results of their Congressional districts during an election night rally in Lakewood, California on November 5, 2002. Loretta, who is already a three-term congresswoman, and Linda, could possibly be the first sisters to serve in Congress.
Photo by Adrees Latif
#1
'Take Back The Media'
Showtime Series
Penn & Teller
Comedic magic duo Penn & Teller will expose frauds and fakes in a series that will bow on Showtime in January.
The cable channel has greenlit 13 half-hour episodes under the working title "Penn & Teller." The pair will use their knowledge of con artistry, magic and carnival tricks to unveil
the scams behind such topics as TV psychics, alien abductions and fad religions.
Showtime previously aired the comedy short "Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread" back in 1989.
Penn & Teller
Teamsters Protest Shows
Rolling Stones
Teamsters pledged to shut down two Rolling Stones concerts this weekend at Pacific Bell Park if promoter Clear Channel Communications doesn't agree to use union workers.
"We've been having trouble with Clear Channel for years," said William Cromartie, president of Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 85. "They want to bring in kids to work
for $6 or $7 an hour and give them a T-shirt."
About 50 Teamsters picketed outside Pac Bell Park Monday as tractor-trailers began arriving to deliver equipment for the Friday and Saturday shows. At least three trucks
turned around without making deliveries after Teamsters talked to the drivers.
Bill Graham Presents, San Francisco's largest concert promoter and a subsidiary of Clear Channel, will use its own nonunion workers.
Rolling Stones & The Teamsters
The Rolling Stones Web site
Big Dog Watch Continues
by Tim
Meets Castro
Steven Spielberg
Film director Steven Spielberg paid homage to Holocaust victims on Wednesday during a visit to Cuba, where he was mobbed by fans and talked to President Fidel Castro for eight hours.
On his first visit to the Communist-run island, the maker of the Holocaust film "Schindler's List" as well as blockbusters "E.T." and "Jaws" donned a yarmulke and visited
Havana's largest synagogue to encourage Cuba's small Jewish community to keep its traditions and faith.
Cuba's Jewish community has dwindled to 1,500 members from 15,000 before Castro's 1959 revolution.
Spielberg on Monday called for the ending of a 40-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, saying it was time to bury old grudges from the Cold War and open up cultural interaction between Americans and Cubans.
He dined with Castro, 76, on Monday night. The two men held a lively conversation until 2:30 a.m. that covered art, politics and history, a person present at the dinner said.
Steven Spielberg
Radio Giant Axes 15 Shows
Premiere Radio Networks
Radio programming giant Premiere Radio Networks said Tuesday it will cease production on 15 of its underperforming radio series, including the long-running "Rockline," and lay off roughly 100 employees affiliated with the shows.
The layoffs represent about 11% of Premiere's 900-strong staff.
Along with "Rockline," in which fans called in questions to rock stars in the studio, other shows affected include "American Top 40 Flashback: The '80s," "Audio Timeline," "Jim Cramer's Real Money," "Noise Generator" and "Incredible Country," among others.
"Rockline" was one of the Clear Channel-owned company's longest running programs, logging two decades on the air with host Bob Coburn.
Premiere -- the country's third-largest radio programmer -- produces more than 100 syndicated shows including "Rush Limbaugh," "Dr. Laura Schlessinger," "Casey Kasem" and "Rick Dees in the Morning." It services its wares to 7,800 affiliates.
Premiere Radio Networks
Criticizes Music Biz
Elton John
The music business views young artists as nothing more than moneymakers and forces them to put image over music, Elton John said Wednesday.
"We started off as songwriters and there were no videos in those days — you had to work live to get a record contract," John said on Independent Television's GMTV morning show.
"It was all about the song. Nowadays it's so much more about the packaging and the visual aspect of it, the videos," he said. "And the songwriting aspect has gone out of the window a bit."
The 55-year-old offered advice to successful young musicians: "Save your money, make sure you're getting your money, put it in the bank, because you are just a commodity to these people."
Elton John
Hosting SNL
Nia Vardalos
Nia Vardalos, whose "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" has become a surprise box-office hit, is taking on a new role as "Saturday Night Live" host.
Vardalos will appear on the NBC show this Saturday, the network said. The musical guest is hip-hop artist and actress Eve.
Nia Vardalos
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
To Mediate Court Fight
Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli and a Los Angeles couple who sued her over the aborted sale of her stepmother's Beverly Hills mansion agreed on Wednesday to take their court fight to a state mediator.
Mehrdad Saghian and Stephanie Jarin sued Minnelli in Los Angeles Superior Court after the entertainer backed out of a deal to sell the four-bedroom home for $2.75 million, saying that her stepmother did not want to move.
Minnelli's decision to sell the house, in one of southern California's most exclusive neighborhoods, prompted 94-year-old Lee Anderson Minnelli to file her own lawsuit accusing her
stepdaughter of elder abuse and breach of contract.
Anderson Minnelli, the widow of the late director Vincente Minnelli, who was Liza's father, later dropped that complaint. Liza Minnelli's attorney, Arthur Barens, said that the matter had been settled "amicably."
Liza Minnelli
Cover Of The Rolling Stone
The Simpsons
The Simpsons on the cover the Beatle's 'Abbey Road' albumn graces the upcoming cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The magazine pays homage to 'The Simpsons' 14th season with three covers designed by Matt Groening putting the Simpsons on famous album covers. On the premiere of show this Sunday, Nov. 10,2002. on Fox television, Homer goes to rock 'n' roll fantasy camp, where his instructors are Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. All three covers hit the stands on Friday, Nov.8,2002.
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Butler Launches Attacks on Family
Paul Burrell
Former royal butler Paul Burrell launched a vitriolic attack on Princess Diana's family on Thursday, calling them hypocritical, foul-mouthed and jealous.
Burrell wreaked his revenge on Diana's family in the latest round of "What The Butler Said" tabloid revelations in the Daily Mirror.
He was scornful of Earl Spencer's funeral oration for his sister. "My stomach turned. I thought 'Am I the only person here who thinks he is a hypocrite?"'
Burrell said Diana had asked him to listen in to a phone conversation she was having with her mother, Frances Shand Kydd. "It was horrible. She was using the kind of
language you would never expect to hear a mother ever say to a daughter."
He said Sarah, who once dated Prince Charles, was jealous of Diana, telling her on her wedding day: "I thought all this would be mine one day."
Diana's relationship with her family came under a harsh spotlight at Burrell's trial.
Her mother revealed that they had not spoken for four months before Diana's death. Diana and her brother were reported to have fallen out when he rebuffed her request
for a country retreat on his family estate.
Paul Burrell
Found Guilty of Shoplifting
Winona Ryder
A glum Winona Ryder was convicted on Wednesday of shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue's posh Beverly Hills store after a sensational trial in which prosecutors repeatedly
reminded jurors that the rich and famous were not above the law.
A jury of six men and six women convicted the 31-year-old Oscar-nominated actress of slipping out of Saks last December with some $5,500 of designer tops, handbags,
hair bows and socks stuffed in her shopping bags and hidden on her person.
The jury panel, which included former Sony Pictures studio head Peter Guber and at least two others with Hollywood connections, found her guilty of grand theft and
vandalism but not guilty of commercial burglary.
That charge would have required proof that she had deliberately gone to the store with intent to steal, legal experts said.
Winona Ryder
Bedroom Series
Steven Bochco
Veteran TV producer Steven Bochco is hopping into bed with HBO to create an hourlong drama series that will be set entirely around the bedroom area of a married New York couple.
The cable channel has given a 13-episode on-air commitment to the project, which is expected to begin production next year with an eye toward an early 2004 premiere date.
Bochco and Alison Cross, who worked together last season on ABC's short-lived legal drama "Philly," are teaming again to create, write and executive produce the series.
In a bid to save money and add a unique creative conceit, all scenes in the show will be set in the couple's bedroom, bathroom or walk-in closet area. While others will "barge in"
to the action, the cameras will never leave those three rooms.
"If you purposely frame the action of your story inside the confines of that limited space, it really forces an intimate, sometimes intense, very honest relationship to play out,"
Bochco told Daily Variety. "It's almost voyeuristic."
Steven Bochco
Questions Medical Procedure
Merle Haggard
Country music legend Merle Haggard believes he may have been one of the patients who received unnecessary procedures at a Redding hospital, which FBI agents raided last week.
Federal authorities are investigating whether Dr. Chae Moon, director of cardiology at Redding Medical Center, and Dr. Fidel Realyvasquez Jr., chairman of the center's
cardiac surgery program, ordered costly surgeries for healthy patients and then billed Medicare. Neither physician has been charged.
Haggard, 65, returned home to Redding after being on tour and found the town in an uproar over the allegations. The musician said he had a pair of heart stents put
in by Moon and was suspicious of the operation at the time.
Haggard, whose hits include "I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can," said he underwent angioplasty in 1995 in Nashville, Tenn., to open his clogged arteries. Afterward,
doctors gave him a clean bill of health, so he was surprised when he went to Redding Medical Center two years later and Moon told him his heart was failing.
Haggard said he had emergency surgery the same day he consulted with Moon but always felt something was amiss.
The musician said he talked again with Moon, who told him he should be placed on blood-thinning medication, and said he'd be a candidate for open-heart surgery in
five years. Haggard declined to take the medication.
Merle Haggard
'Cooter' Loses Bid for House Seat
Ben Jones
Republican Rep. Eric Cantor won a second term Tuesday, overcoming a Southern-fried campaign by Ben Jones, the former congressman who played good ol' boy mechanic Cooter on television's "The Dukes of Hazzard."
Jones' star power and his down-home appeal as a moderate added a bit of color to a drab election that favored Cantor and 10 other House incumbents in Virginia.
Jones — twice elected to Congress from Georgia beginning in 1988 — portrayed himself as a "NASCAR Democrat" who sought to "take care of mama 'n' them and make sure
the kids get a good education."
Cantor was the hand-picked successor to former House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas J. Bliley. In eight years in the state House, Cantor was a strongly pro-business conservative.
Ben Jones
BartCop TV!
Serial Philanderer's Film Location Protested
Rudolph Giuliani
With a movie about former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani set to start shooting in Montreal on Thursday, a Brooklyn congressman called for tax credits to offset the Canadian film industry's competitive advantage.
"Today, somewhere in Canada, a network called USA Network is making a movie about the mayor of the city of New York," Rep. Anthony Weiner said Wednesday. "I guess they're going to show him
watching baseball games at the SkyDome or eating pommes frites rather than eating at Patsy's."
Members of the Screen Actors Guild and other film industry unions joined Weiner, a Democrat, in front of City Hall to urge federal legislation that would provide producers with a 25 percent
tax credit for wages if they film in the United States.
Canada offers wage-based incentives that can cover 35 percent of labor expenses. Entertainment industry executives estimate that those credits have cost the United States 25,000 jobs
and $10 billion annually for each of the past three years.
Rudolph Giuliani
Jakarta, Indonesia
Hassan II Mosque
Indonesian chefs put the finishing touches on a replica of the Hassan II mosque from Morocco made entirely from chocolate at a hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2002. The replica, was made from 150 kilograms (331 pounds) of chocolate to commemorate the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The holiday is marked on a lunar calendar and begins at the first sighting of the crescent moon, which should take place on Wednesday in the United States, according to Khalid Shaukat, a lunar observation consultant for major Islamic groups.
Photo by Tatan Syuflana
Dons New Hat as TV Producer
Don Johnson
Actor Don Johnson has co-founded a TV production company that is developing a miniseries, a reality show and several pilots, including a drama in which he might star.
DJS Prods., which the "Miami Vice" and "Nash Bridges" star launched with producer Scott Steindorff, has optioned the Jeff Shaara novels "The Glorious Cause" and "Rise to Rebellion," which will form the basis for a miniseries
or movie about the American Revolution.
Johnson and Steindorff are in talks to option the Mark Victor Hansen/Robert Allen bestseller "The One Minute Millionaire," which they hope will propel a reality show they are describing as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" meets "Survivor."
Their pilot projects include "Border Patrol," a New Mexico-based drama that will be developed as a potential star vehicle for Johnson. He said he will wait for a pilot script before committing to it as an actor.
DJS also will include the pilot "Casino Eye," a drama about a Las Vegas-based surveillance expert being written by Gary Scott Thompson ("The Fast and the Furious") for NBC and DreamWorks.
Johnson's film venture, Don Johnson Prods., will remain separate. Its development slate includes the Disney-based animated film "The Mysterious Tadpole," which Johnson is developing with "Stuart Little" director Rob Minkoff.
Don Johnson
Agonized Over Suit
James Brown's Daughters
James Brown's daughters said they agonized about suing their father over songs for which they claim they deserve royalties.
Lumar, 29, and Deanna Brown Thomas, 33, filed the lawsuit in September in federal court in Atlanta, contending they co-own the copyrights to 23 songs, including the 1976 hit, "Get Up Offa That Thing."
The lawsuit against Brown and his record labels, Warner Chappell Music and Dynatone, seeks more than $1 million and alleges breach of contract, negligence and racketeering.
The musician and his record labels, in court papers filed Monday, denied the allegations and asked for dismissal of the complaint. They noted that a similar lawsuit that Brown's
daughters filed in Michigan was dismissed in the spring.
James Brown's Daughters
Donating To Pay Plant Debts
Worker Sperm
Workers at a Romanian car factory have decided to donate sperm to get the debt-ridden plant out of the red, private television ProTv reported on Tuesday.
"Our feasibility study shows that if 1,000 workers donate their sperm for several months, we can get enough funds to pay part of the plant's debts," Ion Cotescu,
trade union leader at ARO Campulung, told ProTv.
He said the decision came after reports in the local media said a fertility clinic in the western city of Timisoara offered donors the equivalent of $50 a visit.
The monthly average wage in Romania is around $150.
Cotescu told Reuters the sperm donation scheme also amounted to a protest against the government's privatization authority APAPS which had failed to find a strategic investor for the plant.
"They always told us to come up with a solution. Now, we have found one that even the best economists have never thought of. I hope APAPS will like it," he said.
Worker Sperm
In Memory
Keith Wester
Sound engineer Keith Wester, who won an Emmy in 1986 for "An Early Frost" and was nominated for six Academy Awards, died Friday. He was 62.
Wester died of cancer at his home in the San Fernando Valley, said friend Paul Petersen.
He was nominated for numerous Emmys and Academy Awards. He shared Oscar nominations for sound for "Black Rain," "Waterworld," "The Rock," "Air Force One," "Armageddon" and "The Perfect Storm."
Wester was known for his innovation, creating new ways to record various sounds and transferring them to film and television. One of his tougher challenges was "The Perfect Storm," in which he
had to contend with on-set 100 mph fans and wave machines and then record dialogue between characters.
Working in his studio, Wester put together a small microphone, electrical PVC tubing, acoustic foam, hot glue and a condom to record all of the sounds for the film.
Wester was born in Seattle and was a ham radio operator by 13. He received his bachelor's degree from California State, Los Angeles and a master's at University of California, Los Angeles.
He worked on sound engineering for about 2,500 commercials before turning his attention to television and film.
His final project was the film "Cradle 2 the Grave," expected to be released next year.
Keith Wester
Linguaglossa, Italy
Mount Etna
Eruptions continue on Mount Etna, in Linguaglossa, near Catania, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2002. The area around Mount Etna registered some 15 light earthquakes since
Thursday night as the volcano continued to sputter hot rock and ash.
Photo by Antonio Calanni
'The Osbournes'
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