Reader Correction
'The African Queen'
Bruce B. was kind enough to drop a pleasant note pointing out my error regarding
'The African Queen'. The film is set during WW I (not WW II). : )
Thanks, Bruce. Damn dirty Huns!
'Bob Woodward vs. John Belushi and Me'
Michael Dare
Michael Dare - 'The Life and Death of Captain Preemo'
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
We're getting into 'Science Project' Season, so missed a bunch of TV tonight. Saw 'Raymond', and I think it has a writer who
has been involved in group sales...LOL.
We had a bit of an earthquake a little bit ago....centered north of here, but, enough that the antennae on the TV moved,
and the cats woke up. It's also raining, and the coldest night of the year, too. Last year at this time we couldn't afford weather like this.
The gas bill (heating) went from $90 to over $500. Electricity went from $80 to over $600.
Nearly puked watching 'The Today Show' this morning....poor Mrs. Enron. Maybe she'll be able to get better
fitting dentures on the dole.
Tonight, Tuesday, programming will be verklempt thanks to dubya's exercise in prevaricatin' to the nation. CBS has a rerun
'JAG', followed by a wonderfully bad movie (at least in the LA-area), 'The Final Countdown'.
NBC has a rerun of 'Frasier', and a fresh '3 Sisters' (which is only good when we can get a good stare at
Dyan Cannon). 'Dateline' follows.
ABC has a fresh 'The Chair', and reruns of 'NYPD Blue' & 'Philly'.
The WB has a fresh night with 'The Gilmore Girls' and 'Smallville'.
Faux has a rerun of 'That 70's Show', followed by a fresh episode of 'Undeclared'. Episodes of 'The Simpsons' &
'King Of The Hill' follow.
UPN has fresh episodes of 'Buffy' and 'Roswell'
AMC has a great movie on in the middle of the night - 'The Manchurian Candidate'. Frank Sinatra was one of the producer's of
this film, and it's release coincided with JFK's assassination. 'The Queen Of Hearts' is not a good card to hold in this movie.
TCM has a bit of a tribute to some really groovy '60's flicks (that still retain a valid fashion-consciousness, among other things)
with 'Blow Up' and 'Darling'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Updated 28 January, 2002
The official BartCop Astrologer, Geneva, always has something interesting to read!
This time, Geneva provides a
comparison between the Watergate and Enron scandals. Astrologically
speaking, this coincides with a Saturn cycle of 27 to 29 years.
Staying Put At NBC?
Conan O'Brien
NBC has no intention of losing talk show host Conan O'Brien to rival Fox or anyone else, the network's chief
entertainment spokeswoman said Monday.
``It's pretty much a safe bet'' that O'Brien will stay, said Rebecca Marks. NBC is negotiating with the ``Late Night''
host on a contract. His current pact expires in the summer.
There were published reports last week that Fox had approached O'Brien about being host of a late-night talk show on
that network. While Fox doesn't have NBC's late-night pedigree, it can offer O'Brien an 11 p.m. time slot as opposed
to the 12:35 a.m. one he's occupying now.
Conan O'Brien
The Home-Town Paper's Spin
Petra & Toby
Senior Toby Hocking arrived at his Foothill High School winter formal Saturday with Playboy Playmate
Petra Verkiak as his date - making his dad proud, his mom nervous and school officials slightly edgy.
The pinup, who at 35 is twice Hocking's age, offered to take the teen to his formal after she read his
college entrance essay and was moved to tears.
Hocking is a straight-A clarinet player who sometimes fences -- not exactly the fast track to popularity.
He wrote about feeling like an outcast - putting up with kids calling him "band-o." But then one day,
lying on his bed chewing his fingernails, he realized it was up to him to turn his fortunes around,
search out some friends and make something of his high school years.
Verkiak explained that she felt like an outcast when she was first named Miss December 1989. Being a Playmate
is a sisterhood, she said. And at first, she felt like she didn't fit in.
"His essay was about wanting to be popular. And then not caring about being popular. And just being
comfortable with who you are," she said.
Popularity probably won't be an issue for Hocking anymore.
Verkiak emerged from her limo Saturday wearing a black Del Rosario gown as Hocking's friends and younger
brother gawked from the sidewalk. "Go away!" Hocking's father, Rick, yelled at the kids from behind his video camera.
Hocking presented a red corsage. "Careful pinning that on," his dad yelled.
Hocking's mother, Lori, had given her son's college entrance essay to a friend to read. That friend then
read it to her friend, who happens to be Verkiak.
When the friend saw that Verkiak was moved, she told her half-jokingly that the boy didn't have a date
yet to the winter formal, a girl-ask-guy dance. Verkiak said that if no other girl asked him, she would.
When the teen heard the offer, he was hesitant. "At first I thought, 'Go to the dance with a 35-year-old?'
But then I realized, she's really hot," he said.
Hocking said he never saw his date's Playboy photos. He was only 5 when she posed. Her Web site says she
stands 5-foot-8 and was voted "sexiest Playmate of the '80s," among other things.
"OK, I think I have to go brush my teeth one more time," Hocking said, running back into the house.
"I'm very proud of this young man," his dad said, giving the thumbs up.
Hocking was taking his date to BJ's restaurant on Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach before the dance at
California State University, Fullerton.
All Right, Toby!
Fund-Raiser In Manhattan
Bill & Hillary Clinton
It was like the good old days for Bill and Hillary Clinton in Manhattan last Saturday night when they attended a
fund-raiser organized by mega-philanthropist John Catsimatidis. The only change was that the money wasn't going
to the former president or the current junior senator from New York. This time it was a cause even closer to the
grocery magnate's heart than the Democratic Party. Catsimatidis is spearheading the drive to restore the Annunciation
Greek Orthodox Church on West 91st Street, where he was an altar boy after arriving with his family from Greece.
(Only 12, John was also reading the Wall Street Journal and plotting his success.) Both Clintons spoke fondly of
their friend and benefactor, as did Gov. George Pataki, who stopped by for cocktails. Other well-wishers included
Bill Fugazy and former Bronx Beep Freddy Ferrer.
Bill and Hillary Clinton in Manhattan
Network Promised 22 Episodes - Stopped At 18
Buh-Bye 'Ellen'
CBS has shut down production of ``The Ellen Show,'' making the struggling Ellen DeGeneres comedy the latest
series to fall victim to network belt-tightening.
A total of 18 episodes had been taped when the lights were turned off Friday; a few months ago, the network
had announced a full-season order of 22 episodes.
The show had already been pulled through the February sweeps. Five remaining original episodes are slated to air
in March and April, and CBS insiders said ``Ellen'' remains a contender to make the net's fall 2002 sked,
which will be announced in May.
In recent weeks, several shows previously greenlit for 22 episodes have seen their orders reduced as networks
look to save money on underperformers.
Fox, for example, cut back on ``Undeclared'' and ``Titus.'' ABC shaved off several episodes of ``Once and Again,''
while the WB shut down ``Nikki'' earlier than planned.
Buh-Bye 'Ellen'
BC Entertainment Favorite Link
''Unauthorized Parody'' - Huh?
`Goldmember'
International superspy Austin Powers has just lost some of his mojo to James Bond.
The title of the upcoming third installment of the hit comedy franchise ``Austin Powers in Goldmember,'' has been ruled ''inadmissable''
by the Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA), following a protest by MGM/UA, home of the Bond films.
MGM and Bond producer Danjaq Prods. had claimed that New Line Cinema's Austin Powers title was an unauthorized parody of 1964's
``Goldmember,'' the third film in the Bond franchise.
In case anyone missed the joke, ``Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me'' echoes the title of the 1977 Bond film ``The Spy Who Loved Me.''
Given MGM's attitude toward its sacred Bond cow, it's hard to believe that it would see fit to abandon its advantage
at this point. New Line could conceivably fight the ruling under fair use in copyright law.
Rappers 2 Live Crew, for example, took their use of the Roy Orbison song ``Pretty Woman'' all the way to the Supreme
Court, which then reached the explicit conclusion that a parody falls within the scope of the fair-use defense. It would,
however, be impossible to market the film as ``Goldmember'' during that process.
''Unauthorized Parody'' - Huh?
This fight ain't done yet!
Snow Festival In Sapporo
Mickey Mouse
Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force members work on a snow sculpture of Mickey Mouse for the Snow Festival in Sapporo,
northern Japan, on January 28, 2002. About 2.3 million people are expected to visit the winter festival, which will
be held February 5-11, with 312 snow and ice sculptures attracting visitors at three venues in the northern city.
Photo by Kimimasa Mayama
Wedding Notes
Minnelli-Gest
Liz Taylor wants a private plane to get her and her entourage to Liza Minnelli's wedding, or the bride may have to
do without a matron of honor. Minnelli is set to tie the knot with husband No. 4, much younger TV producer David
Alan Gest, on March 16 at the Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue. Whitney Houston will sing "Here Comes the
Bride," and there's a reception afterwards at the Regent Wall Street. Minnelli asked Taylor to be her matron of
honor, and La Liz quickly accepted. But now she has informed Minnelli that she requires a private plane to get
herself and her retinue of 10 - including hairdresser, masseuse, secretary, etc. - to New York, as well as luxury
accommodations for them all.
Meanwhile, Gest's best man, Michael Jackson, is said to have his own lengthy list of demands, as well. "I
can't really comment on that," says Jackson's rep.
Minnelli-Gest Wedding Notes
Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals
Bruce Willis & Sarah Jessica Parker
The actor who thwarted terrorists in the ``Die Hard'' trilogy and the actress who chronicles her sex life on HBO's
racy ``Sex and the City'' series were named man and woman of the year by Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals.
Bruce Willis and Sarah Jessica Parker will receive the traditional brass ``Pudding Pots'' given by the nation's oldest
undergraduate organization next month, university officials said Monday.
The Hasty Pudding awards go to performers who have made ``a lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment.''
Parker will be honored on Feb. 7, while Willis will go to Harvard on Feb. 14.
According to tradition, Parker will lead a parade of a men dressed in drag through Harvard Square. That's followed by a
roast of her career, followed by the ``Pudding Pot'' presentation at the Hasty Pudding Theater.
Willis visits before the Harvard troupe's opening night performance of ``Snow Place Like Home.'' The 46-year-old will
dress in drag when he's roasted and receives his award.
Past Hasty Pudding recipients include Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise and Harrison
Ford. Last year's winners were Drew Barrymore and Anthony Hopkins.
Bruce Willis & Sarah Jessica Parker
Making Movie Debut
Craig Kilborn
Late night talk show host Craig Kilborn is making his movie debut opposite Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell.
Kilborn plays the philandering boyfriend of Ellen Pompeo in the DreamWorks comedy "Old School," which starts shooting
this week. Meanwhile, Kilborn's nighttime nemesis Conan O'Brien is startling art house audiences with a surprise cameo
in Todd Solondz's "Storytelling." Craig and Conan couldn't fare worse in Hollywood than David Letterman, who made his
first and last big-screen appearance in the disappointing 1994 Chris Elliott vehicle "Cabin Boy."
Craig Kilborn
Post-Super Bowl - Mud-Wrestlin' Moms?
Jane Kaczmarek & Susan Sarandon
Since the Super Bowl provides television's single biggest predictable audience, playing piggyback with the quarterbacks
can mean extra ratings yardage for a show.
The debut episode of ``Survivor II,'' for example, aired after last year's Super Bowl and ended up scoring at the
most popular entertainment program of the 2000-01 season.
Fox, home of the Super Bowl on Sunday, has anointed as the game's beneficiary ``Malcolm in the Middle,'' the
sitcom about a genius kid (Frankie Muniz) and his endearingly loopy family.
A one-hour episode - with a mud-wrestling match between series star Jane Kaczmarek and Susan Sarandon among the
highlights - will follow the New England Patriots-St. Louis Rams game (at approximately 10 p.m. EST).
This year, as befits its proximity to a sports extravaganza, ``Malcolm'' is pulling out the stops. Besides Sarandon,
other drop-in celebrities include model Heidi Klum, basketball great Magic Johnson and Bradley Whitford of ``The West
Wing'' (Kaczmarek's real-life husband).
Kaczmarek said it was a delight working with the Academy Award-winning Sarandon. The rest of the experience, smothered
in faux Hollywood mud with plastic packing pieces added as texture, was memorable in its own way.
``One surprise was to have Susan Sarandon's muddy butt in my face, and the other was that there were packing peanuts
all over,'' said the breezily blunt Kaczmarek.
Post-Super Bowl - Mud-Wrestlin' Moms?
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
2 Year Atlantic City Contract
Don Rickles
Comic Don Rickles will be hurling insults in Atlantic City for at least two years.
The 75-year-old King of Zing who has roasted and toasted the famous for decades signed a two-year contract with the
Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City. During the length of the contract, he'll have to do at least 15 shows.
Rickles also has a contract with Boyd Gaming Corp. to perform at the Stardust Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
Don Rickles
Master Of Re-Gifting
Michael Douglas
He may be loaded, but Michael Douglas isn't above the dubious practice of "regifting." When "Usual Suspects" star
Kevin Pollack celebrated his 44th birthday last October, his old pal Douglas sent him a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck
champagne wrapped in a Jean-Paul Gaultier corset. Months later, at a Piper-Heidsieck-sponsored event, Pollack commented
on the gift to a Piper exec, who told him where Douglas had gotten the rare bubbly. Douglas had been sent a case of the
Gaultier-designed champagne for his wedding to Catherine Zeta-Jones and now is apparently recycling it, one bottle at a time.
Michael Douglas
Wants More Kids
Meg Ryan
Already the mother of a 9-year-old son, Meg Ryan says she'd definitely like to have more children.
``Oh, yeah. I'd love to have a daughter,'' the actress told Reader's Digest for its February issue.
``I'd like to have another boy, too, but I'm glad I had a boy first. I think I'm a much more intact woman now than I
was nine years ago when I gave birth to Jack. I think I'd be a better mom to a girl now than I would have been then.''
Jack is Ryan's son with ex-husband Dennis Quaid, from whom she's divorced after nearly a decade of marriage. Ryan,
40, said ``there's some acrimony'' with Quaid now that they're raising the boy apart, ``but it's not overwhelming.''
Meg Ryan
A Very Special Bonus
From BartCop
Special Bonus From BartCop
At MSG For Phoenix-Knicks Game
Chris Rock Sighting
The crowd at the Garden for the Knicks-Phoenix game the other night gave a huge cheer for Ron Darling, who pitched
for the Mets in their 1986 world championship season. Knicks officials cleverly seated Darling courtside next to new
Mets pitcher Shawn Estes, who told Ron how thrilled he is about getting to play in New York. Others in the crowd enjoying
the Knicks return to form included Woody Allen, Kevin Kline, Chris Rock and Howard Stern's radio foil, Robin Quivers.
Chris Rock Sighting
''To the Moon''
Jackie Gleason
An upcoming TV movie based on the life of Jackie Gleason will not be sweetneess and light for the "The Great One."
The movie - to be called "To the Moon" - will be based, at least in part, on interviews with people who knew
Gleason - including actor Paul Newman.
Newman, who co-starred with Gleason in the 1961 classic "The Hustler," said: "I'm pretty sure Gleason hustled me on
the picture," according to Festinger.
"We played five games of pool while we were making it; he suggested we play for 5 cents a game. At the end it was 3-2
and he suggested we play a final, sixth game for $100.
"He wiped the floor with me! I gave him the $100 bill, he folded it carefully, put it in his pocket, didn't say a word
and just walked to his dressing room."
''To the Moon''
Updated (Nearly) Daily!
BartCop TV!
Open Auditions
Limp Bizkit
Taking a cue from the band's "Significant Other" album, Limp Bizkit is asking fans to "Show Me What You Got."The hard
rock/hip-hop fusion band's 22-city search for a guitarist to replace Wes Borland stops in Queens today, where scores
of wannabe rockers are expected to strum their stuff.
"We're going to comb the globe in search of the illest guitar player known to man," frontman Fred Durst says on the band's Web site.
"I don't care what you look like, I don't care if you're a girl or a boy, I don't care what age you are. I just care
if you speak your soul through the strings on your guitar."
The band kicked off its quest Jan. 10 in Fresno, Calif. Each audition - held at Guitar Center stores, a national
chain - has attracted from 150 to 200 guitarists and up to 1,500 fans.
The contest ends in Hollywood Saturday.
Limp Bizkit
Defining Offensive?
Draping History
About three weeks ago, I received a tip. The attorney general was fed up with having his picture taken
during events in the Great Hall in front of semi-nude statues.
He had ordered massive draperies to conceal the offending figures. But initially not only could the story not be confirmed — it was strongly denied.
Draping History
BCEntertainment - Sunday, 27 January, 2002
The Nays & The Yeas
Ashcroft
It's Not the Black Cats You Have to Watch Out For
Calico Cats & John Ashcroft
Shortly after becoming Attorney General, John Ashcroft was headed abroad. An advance team showed up at the American
embassy in the Hague to check out the digs, saw cats in residence, and got nervous. They were worried there might be
a calico cat. No, they were told, no calicos. Visible relief. Their boss, they explained, believes calico cats are
signs of the devil. (The advance team also spied a statue of a naked woman in the courtyard and discussed the possibility
of its being covered for the visit, though that request was not ultimately made.)
Read the rest, Calico Cats & John Ashcroft
Lethal Weapons At Bachelor Party
Kandy Kane
A fun-filled bachelor party at a strip club turned deadly when a 32-year-old groom-to-be who was enjoying the attentions
of a well-endowed stripper suffocated while his face was buried in her breasts.
The mind-boggling drama unfolded, say cops, while Daniel Greene was attending his bachelor party at the Pretty Kitty strip club.
According to investigators, Greene was enjoying a lap dance when disaster struck: One of the strippers, Kandy Kane, got too
into her performance and suffocated the man between her 72-DD breasts.
When the song "I'm Too Sexy" began to play, Greene became excited and began to dance on the tabletop, hooting and hollering,
pals said, "like an idiot."
Miss Kane, apparently pleased to see someone enjoying her choice in music, moved in closer.
When Greene took his seat, she began giving him a lap dance, shaking her breasts in his face.
The more she shook, the deeper Greene got lost in her cleavage.
"Daniel was having so much fun," partygoer John Gillman said.
"Who could have known that when he was waving his hands around, he was signaling for help?"
Now Greene's family is suing Miss Kane and the Pretty Kitty for wrongful death.
Greene's father, George, won't specify the amount they are suing for, but claims that it isn't about the money.
"Those breasts were lethal weapons," he told reporters.
Lethal Weapons At Bachelor Party
Name Change
Zipardi Duda
My oh my it's a wonderful day for a man from northern England who changed his legal name to Zipardi Duda.
Anthony Duda, from the town of Whitby on England's North East coast told a newspaper he'd taken on the off-beat name to
promote a charity for children in Tanzania that he set up.
Duda told the Daily Star that his family name had for years prompted jokes from friends and that in the end he
had given in. His new name echoes the title of the song ''Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah'' which featured in the 1946
Disney film Song of the South.
The paper said that Duda had received permission from Walt Disney Co. for the change.
Zipardi Duda
In Memory
Astrid Lindgren
Popular Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren, creator of the freckle-faced, free-spirited Pippi Longstocking,
died Monday at age 94.
Lindgren died at home after a brief illness caused by a viral infection, her daughter Karin Nyman, who as a child
dreamed up the name of her mother's most famous character, was quoted by Swedish media as saying.
Generations of children around the world have grown up with Lindgren's young heroines and heroes, notably the
headstrong, redheaded Pippi Longstocking.
Lindgren wrote 88 works, including books and plays, many of which have been made into films, television series,
radio shows and cartoons. Her works have sold more than 100 million copies in 80 languages.
She was voted the most popular Swede of the century in 1999. Swedish national television interrupted regular
programming with a special broadcast about her death.
Lindgren, born Nov. 14, 1907, made her breakthrough with Pippi Longstocking in 1945.
Astrid Lindgren
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