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TV ALERT
MTV Video Music Awards Tonight
And....Aaliyah's family plans to make its first major public statements about the
death of the R&B singer at the MTV Video Music Awards on tonight.
Aaliyah's brother, aspiring filmmaker Rashad Haughton, plans to address the
crowd at the ceremony following a tribute to his sister, according to the network.
The awards ceremony and tribute will be held at Lincoln Center in New York City
and broadcast live starting at 8 p.m. EDT on MTV.
For a bit more, MTV VMA
Entertainment News
Alex's Entertainment Report
Alex
Actors Jack Nicholson and Julie Andrews, opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, composer Quincy Jones and
pianist Van Cliburn are the winners of this year's Kennedy Center Honors, the center announced on
Wednesday.
(See Below)
`````
Thanks in large measure to a successful series of sequels, the movie industry set a new record for the
summer, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. The $2.95-billion total was 6 percent higher
than 1999's, the previous record-holder, although actual admissions lagged behind that year.
`````
Warner Bros. has denied last week's New York Post report that the studio had planned to release the
Aaliyah starrer "Queen of the Damned" straight to video and now had second thoughts about that decision
in the wake of the enormous news play that the actress-singer's death in a plane crash received. "We had
always planned to release the film theatrically in 2002," a spokesperson for the studio said Tuesday. She
also dismissed as "absurd" another claim appearing in the Post, that the studio was planning to redub
Aaliyah's dialogue with the voice of another actress. In my opinion, anyone who gets their news from
New York Post should be careful.
`````
Also, a new scholarship fund has been established at the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing
Arts in honor of Aaliyah, an alumnus of the school .
`````
The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has called on singer Britney
Spears to call off her plans to appear during Thursday night's MTV Awards with live cheetahs. In a similar
complaint, the Agriculture Society of the US demanded that Britney not use melons during her show also.
`````
Friends star David Schwimmer incurred the wrath of Madonna at a concert in Chicago by taking photos
of the star onstage. The actor wasn't planning to go to the gig, until a friend - known only as Billy - announced
he had two front row tickets. The pair then caused mayhem by insisting on taking photographs of Madonna
onstage with them beaming in the foreground - from their front row seats.
~Alex
Last week, Angelfire wiped out Alex's wonderful personal site.
He has been reconstructing it, bit by bit.
Go see how far he's come!
Alex's Site
The Kennedy Honors
Jack & Quincy & Julie & Van & ......
The White House reception for Kennedy Center Honorees on Dec. 2 will be a first
visit with pResident George W. and First Lady Laura Bush for many of the
participants -- including George Stevens Jr., who produces the show.
The honorees this year are Julie Andrews, Van Cliburn, Quincy Jones, Jack
Nicholson and Luciano Pavarotti. Stevens has known presidents Carter, Reagan,
Bush pere, and Clinton since the awards launched in 1978. The current White
House will continue the tradition of the reception and attendance in the
presidential box.
To read more, Kenedy Honors
And while there, scroll down to the 2nd item, " Oscar-winning screenwriter
Ernest Lehman (85) and wife Laurie (34) are expecting a baby in early April. "
Hooray For Hollywood!
Damn, I love LA!
Egg-Stra, Egg-Stra - Part 1
Press Black-Out
Brit Hume, Managing Editor, Faux News and his wife, Mrs. Kim Schiller Hume,
Bureau Chief, Faux News, Washington, DC, are the only mainpress players invited
to Bush's first White House State Dinner, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
All media players from Big-Three networks -- and all print players -- have been
shut out, according to sources!
All NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST and CNN reporters, editors and bureau chiefs
are left off the list of Bush's official State Dinner activities.
Elsewhere, the president has ordered no live camera feeds during the dinner's
receiving line, opting for a more "intimate" gathering.
Read it for yourself at Part 1
Music News
'Aaliyah'
Fans have found one more way to honor Aaliyah--they put her on top of the charts.
In the week following the R&B singer's fatal plane crash, fans bought her
records in droves, catapulting her self-titled third album 18 spots to number
one. In fact, SoundScan data for sales ended Sunday show the album sold nearly
five times as many copies as the previous week, going from 62,000 copies to
305,000 copies.
To read a lot more, 'Aaliyah'
In The News
Paula Zahn (Faux Spin)
Faux News Channel has terminated Paula Zahn effective immediately for breach of
contract, Kevin Magee, vice president of programming for the network, announced
on Wednesday.
According to Jack Abernethy, executive vice president of the network, "Faux News
regards breach of contract as a serious and intolerable offense. We consider the
acts of her representatives to be unscrupulous and her actions to be disloyal to
the network."
FNC has announced it will initiate legal action immediately against
N.S. Beinstock, Ms. Zahn's agency. Other legal action is being actively
considered.
To see it all for yourself, Faux News
How dare a woman talk with the 'enemy'--yet, Rupert is in
bed with the mainland Chinese (in more ways than one).
I remember Paula Zahn when she was doing the local news in LA, on channel 2, KCBS....
Figure it to be early to mid - eighties...
Definitely the Reagan years.
At the time, the station hired a new programmer from the hinterlands, and for reasons yet not understood, he was crowned
boy-genius-deluxe. The boy-genius decided that an hour needed to be divided into 4 twenty minute
segments (including commercials, which they are in the business of selling).
The format stunk worse than 3 week old wet spinach...and the numbers tanked. Paula was
scapegoated, and I'm always glad to see her bounce back.
Paula is a survivor.
In The News
Paula Zahn
Paula Zahn is headed to CNN, where she is expected to anchor a new morning
broadcast.
Zahn was fired Wednesday from Fox News Channel, where she was signed through
February 2002, for what that network called breach of contract. Fox News is
charging that Zahn's agent, Richard Leibner, violated that pact by talking to CNN.
Leibner was not immediately available for comment, but his spokesman, Tom
Goodman, said CNN, Leibner and Zahn ``have acted with the highest degree of
professionalism and integrity during this process.''
``I'm looking forward to signing with CNN,'' Zahn said. ``I'm thrilled.''
Zahn, 45, had been with Fox News Channel since March 1999.
For a more rational spin, Paula Z, the more rational spin
In The News
Ellen On Anne
On the eve of Anne Heche's "best-sex-I-ever-had" interview with Barbara
Walters, Ellen DeGeneres refused to talk about her three-year affair with the
actress.
DeGeneres, who held a phone press conference yesterday to promote her upcoming
series and Emmy-hosting duties, spent most of the time deflecting questions her
former lover. "I'm really just staying focused on what I do," DeGeneres said.
DeGeneres, who hosts the Emmy Awards (Sept. 16) and stars in a new CBS sitcom
called "The Ellen Show," is known for incorporating her private-life into her act.
"I don't want to give too much away," she said. "But I'm going to strip the
veneer right off that show. There's going to be no glossy glamour glitzy, its
all going to be the reality of what's going on. The bad breath - everything
that's going on there.
"People are hot, they've been out on the red-carpet for a while, they've been
sweating, hair can fall. And if they don't happen I'll try to make sure it does
happen," she quipped.
For the whole story, Ellen
Book News
Our Man in Honduras By Stephen Kinzer
When a country finds itself at the center of world history, it begins attracting
spies, mercenaries, war profiteers, journalists, prostitutes, and
fortune-seekers. Often they gravitate to a particular hotel.
In Honduras, which was shaken from its long slumber in the 1980s and turned into a violent staging
ground for cross-border war, the Maya was that hotel. Perched atop a high hill
near the central plaza in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, its tinted windows
giving it an air of mystery, the Maya attracted a variety of sinister
characters. Counterrevolutionaries hatched bloody plots over breakfast beside
the pool. You could buy a machine gun at the bar. Busloads of crew-cut Americans
would arrive from the airport at times when I knew there were no commercial
flights landing, spend the night, and then ship out before dawn; they said they
didn't know where they were going, and I believed them. Friends told me that
death squad torturers stopped in for steak before setting off on their night's
work. But in those days, much of what anyone said in Honduras was a lie. That
was certainly true at the Maya, and equally so at the American embassy a couple
of miles away.
The diplomat who presided over that embassy from 1981 to 1985, John Dimitri
Negroponte, was a great fabulist. He saw, or professed to see, a Honduras almost
Scandinavian in its tranquillity, a place where there were no murderous generals,
no death squads, no political prisoners, no clandestine jails or cemeteries. Now
that President Bush has nominated Negroponte to be United States ambassador to
the United Nations, his record in Honduras is coming under new scrutiny.
To read the rest of this great book review, Our Man In Honduras
Also see bcEntertainment-Wed-90501, and look under 'Weekly Review'.
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Museum News
Viva Las Vegas
No one comes to Las Vegas to see classical sculpture, Florentine portraiture
or Abstract Expressionist painting. There is no museum of science or natural
history. Some are working to change that, but for the moment, the museums here
reflect the obsession with fantasy that is the essence of Las Vegas.
Part of what attracts people to Las Vegas is its role as a center of the cult
of celebrity. Two museums here are devoted to celebrities who played key roles
in shaping this city's entertainment identity.
The Liberace Museum is, like its namesake, a focus for excess so lavish that it
far surpasses self-parody. Its displays include more than a dozen of the
outlandish pearl-and-rhinestone cloaks that Liberace wore on stage, together
with glittering mirror-paneled cars, jewelry dripping with diamonds, and
several cases full of gifts, medals and plaques that Liberace received from
admirers.
The most professional museum in Las Vegas may be the one devoted to the city's
secular saint, Elvis Presley (who met Liberace here and apparently picked up a
few ideas about showmanship from him). Perhaps nowhere in the world is Elvis as
pervasive a presence as in Las Vegas. This is a place where people dress like
Elvis to do their grocery shopping, where couples come to be married by Elvis
impersonators who sing "Don't Be Cruel" as part of the ceremony.
For more, Las Vegas Museums
Film News
Paul McCartney As A Frog
Paul McCartney's famous voice now belongs to, of all things, a frog.
McCartney and Dustin Hoffman provide the voices for ``Tuesday,'' British
director Geoff Dunbar's animated short film at the Venice Film Festival.
``Tuesday'' is the story of a group of frogs that fly across the United States
on their lily pads to reach the ``Late Night With David Letterman'' show.
For more, Paul 'Froggy' McCartney
New!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Michele
"In the Kitchen with Bartcop and Friends" is an electronic recipe file.
These pages will attempt to catalog the best recipes from Bartcop and his
readers.
This idea was spawned by Bartcop's excellent Train Station Chicken
recipe -- if you haven't tried it, you must! It's foolproof, perfect fried
chicken.
We need more recipes like that; the dish that you always make for family gatherings, the one thing people rave about and demand you make for them. Please email them to recipes@pdxnet.net and she will review and post them.
Don't worry about the HTML, just send text, or rich text, or a Word document, photos, video, whatever you have, and Michele will take care of making it web-ready. Don't hesitate to write with any questions you may have and bring on the recipes!
To check out 'Train Station Chicken', and more, In The Kitchen With BartCop
In The News
Disney - Kellogg Alliance
The Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday said it formed a multi-year alliance with
cereal maker Kellogg Co., under which Kellogg will have exclusive rights to
make breakfast foods based on Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and Buzz
Lightyear.
The companies will market the characters on Eggo waffles, Pop-Tarts and
Kellogg's cereals, and sell the themed breakfasts at restaurants in Disney
theme parks and resorts.
Disney and Kellogg said they will develop a ``wide range of promotional
programs'' using Disney's entertainment properties, including film, television
and theme parks, and Kellogg's character rights.
Need more details? Mouse Foods
In The News
She Hears Dead People?
During a morning devotional message, a Georgia state legislator told her
House colleagues that she can communicate with the dead and has been "visited"
by missing intern Chandra Levy.
Rep. Dorothy B. Pelote told fellow lawmakers that she has psychic abilities.
"The last person who visited me was - I don't know if I need to call her name,"
the Savannah Democrat said from the speaker's rostrum. "Maybe I should not,
because it's a controversial death now. She's missing. You know who I'm talking
about. She has visited me. She has."
Pelote did not mention Levy's name on the House floor but confirmed later to
The Macon Telegraph that she was referring to the 24-year-old California woman
who has been missing since April 30.
For the rest, Uh-Oh
Egg-Stra, Egg-Stra - Part 2
Speading 'The Message'
President Bush and senior advisers intentionally snubbed major media players
Wednesday night by not inviting them to the new administration's first official
White House State Dinner, well-placed sources reveal.
"Sure, there is a message here," said one White House insider who demanded
anonymity. "This president is about doing the business of the nation, not
seducing reporters and their bosses."
Not one print reporter was invited to Bush's first dinner.
Only Brit Hume, Managing Editor, FOX NEWS and his wife, Kim, Washington Bureau
Chief, FOX NEWS, won a seat at the table inside of the executive mansion.
"The president loves Brit, watches him all the time," said one White House
source. "The president's father also developed great respect for his reporting
throughout his years at the White House."
[NBC's Andrea Mitchell attended the dinner, but as a guest of her husband,
Fed Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan.]
(Besides, she's a girl...)
When asked if there is a danger of alienating reporters who cover the president
by withholding invitations en masse, one Bush adviser said it was a risk well
worth taking.
"Listen, there really should be a fence between those in government and those
who cover those in government," the adviser said on Wednesday.
To read the whole piece, Part 2
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In The News
Mother Teresa Exorcised?
Mother Teresa had an exorcism performed on her while hospitalized in 1997, the
Archbishop of Calcutta said Wednesday.
The disclosure by Archbishop Henry D'Souza came as hundreds of people in this
eastern Indian city paid homage to the renowned caregiver on the fourth
anniversary of her death.
Catholic experts said it would be highly unusual for Mother Teresa to have
undergone an exorcism.
After Mother Teresa died, Pope John Paul II waived the customary five-year
waiting period to start the process leading to possible sainthood.
The Calcutta archdiocese's formal investigation into Mother Teresa's life and
virtues was completed last month and submitted to the Vatican.
For the rest, Mother Teresa
BartCop TV Is Here!
Visit the site at BC TV
The 'Vidiot', has updated, again!
There is even more to check!
The Vidiot.
You'll find an amazing amount of information, on an amazing variety of TV shows,
thanks to our Vidiot.
TV News
'Bob Patterson'
"They were calling for a 17- or 18-year-old, short, overweight
couch potato. I thought, 'Well, I fit that description.' So I said: 'Let me try.
Maybe I'll wind up in Hollywood.' ", said James Guidice.
After a quick series of auditions and screen tests that have dazed the teenager
and his family, he is playing Jeffrey, the son of Bob Patterson, who is
portrayed by Mr. Alexander. Bob Patterson is a celebrity self-help guru who has
helped and inspired thousands of acolytes but whose personal life is a mess. The
ABC show's premiere is on a Tuesday night, Sept. 25, from 9 to 9:30.
Mr. Alexander said that many young and seasoned actors tried out. "We were
getting pretty desperate because we couldn't find the kid," Mr. Alexander said.
"Then we had the open audition. We saw James's face. And we heard that thick
New York accent. We flew him out. He'd never been on a plane before. Nothing
rattles this guy. He walked into a meeting with network executives. He killed
everybody. There was no choice."
The young actor, whose parents are divorced, has been accompanied to Los Angeles
by his father, James, on leave from his job as a truck driver for Drake
Bakeries. "I'm more nervous than he is," the elder Mr. Guidice said with a
laugh, as father and son sat in the teenager's dressing room at Walt Disney
Studios, where the show is being filmed. The actor's mother, Carla, and younger
sister, Charlsey, have visited him.
He showed up at the casting call with more than 200 other young men. "They
were all like me, short and overweight," he said.
Mr. Guidice had at least one advantage. "The casting lady looked at me and
said, 'Finally a genuine 17-year-old.' A lot of the others were 20 or 25."
Shortly after the audition, Mr. Guidice and his father were told that
Mr. Alexander wanted to see them. "Jason's first words were, 'Your life is just
about to change,' " the young Mr. Guidice said. "That's when I knew I had the
part. I was in shock. I hugged Jason; I hugged my father."
To read the whole story, couch potato
Music News
Long-Term Recording Contracts
Long-term recording contracts unfairly tie down artists, a group of singers
told a legislative committee Wednesday, while the recording industry said the
system takes big financial risks while providing entertainment worldwide.
Don Henley, a solo artist and former drummer for the Eagles, singer-actor
Courtney Love and country artist LeAnn Rimes painted pictures of a mega-industry
that locks in hungry, naive artists with contracts that bind them for their
entire careers.
``I just turned 19 last month,'' Rimes told the state Senate's new Select
Committee on the Entertainment Industry. ``If I record one album every two
years, which is the industry average, I will be 35 when my contract is up.''
For all the details, RIAA
Check it out at BC Astrology.
Have you ever checked out Eric Clapton or Chet Atkins' horoscope?
Pretty cool stuff!
Oscar News
New Producer For Oscar
Former studio chief Laura Ziskin will produce the 74th annual Academy Awards,
the first woman to take on solo producing reins for Hollywood's biggest night
of the year.
The announcement will be made at a news conference Thursday at Academy of Motion
Picture Arts & Sciences headquarters. The 74th Oscarcast will be held on
March 24, the first such show at the Kodak Theater in the new Hollywood-Highland
Ave. complex.
For more details, Oscars
Egg-Stra, Egg-Stra - Part 3
The 'Secret' Fireworks
Taxpayers may have footed the bill, but White House officials wanted no
pre-publicity for a massive fireworks display on The Mall Wednesday night
celebrating President Bush's first State Dinner.
The common man was not invited to view the 20-minute fireworks display -- launched
from The Ellipse. Officials feared tens of thousands of residents and
visitors would gather to watch the show if word leaked out, creating a
"security concern" around the executive mansion.
The secret fireworks show, described as one of the most dazzling in the city's
history, caught residents by complete surprise.
The president and invited guests watched the fireworks from the White House's
South Balcony.
The cost of the display could not be determined.
To read more of your tax dollars at work, Part 3
In The News
Paula Poundstone Update
The lawyer for comedian Paula Poundstone, who is facing child molestation
charges, said on Wednesday he saw no value in making details of the case public
before a full trial.
Cron has said the popular comic is not a child molester and is not guilty.
Poundstone, who appeared regularly on the game show ``Tell the Truth'', stood
beside Cron but said nothing.
Prosecutors have declined to elaborate on the charges but say they all relate
to a single child, a girl. The molestation is alleged to have taken place on
specific dates in May and June.
For more of this sad story, Paula P
Democratic Fundraiser
Footloose In Seattle?
Erin Hart
Join Senator Mary Landrieu of Lousiana at the Eastside Democrats
Dinner and Fundraiser September 9, 2001 at the Bellevue Hyatt. Special
guests include Washington Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
Erin Hart of 710 KIRO is the Emcee.
For more information, visit Erin's site (Erin Hart),
and say 'hi' to Brian, the webmaster.
(Or, Erin Hart for Netscape Users)
Erin Hart is regularly scheduled Saturday & Sunday evenings, 9pm - 1am (pdt),
on KIRO, in Seattle (but, with Mariners games, she may be pre-empted). The
audio streams, the chatroom is interesting, and the topics run from liberal
to progressive.
Besides, I know Erin. A long, long time ago, she set me up on
a date with a Reagan speech writer, and I still speak to her!
LOL -- remember that one? *!*
Then there was the Hollywood record producer...
...heh heh heh...
~~Marty
In Memory
Rev. Gesner Jean
The father of hip-hop star Wyclef Jean died after becoming pinned between his
garage door and one of his son's cars in what investigators believe was a
bizarre accident, police said.
The Rev. Gesner Jean, 60, a Newark minister, suffered severe chest injuries
and died at a hospital Monday night.
For all the sad details, Rev. Gesner Jean
Still MISSING
Marc Chagall's "Study for 'Over Vitebsk'"
