'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
from Mark
una mas etiqueta engomada de parachoques
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Arfing A! We're having a heat wave - hit 92° today!
The History Channel is running a lot of chimpy ads.
Our littlest cat, Nod (sister of Wynken & the previously adopted Blynken), was adopted over the weekend. She's moved up to Lido Isle, with a besotted 7-year old mistress.
The ever-fabulous Michael Dare seems to be running late, so check back tomorrow for his always informative & entertaining Disinfotainment Today.
Tonight, Tuesday, CBS begins the night with a RERUN 'Navy NCIS', followed by a FRESH 'The Guardian', then a
RERUN 'Judging Amy'.
On a RERUN Dave (from 1/14/04), are Bette Midler and Howie Day.
On a RERUN Craiggers are Elvis Costello, Scott Stapp, and Five for Fighting.
NBC opens the night with a RERUN 'Friends' that runs 40 minutes, followed by a 40-minute RERUN 'Scrubs', then another 40-minute
RERUN 'Scrubs', followed by a RERUN 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are Snoop Dogg, 87-year-old party girl Zelda Kaplan, and Ralphie May.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Liv Tyler and Norah Jones.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Andy Dick and Wheat.
ABC starts the night with a RERUN '8 Simple Rules', followed by a RERUN 'I'm With Her', then a
FRESH 'Jim', followed by a FRESH 'Less Than Perfect', then a FRESH 'NYPD Blue'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Ed Begley Jr., Jason Schwartzman, and Alan Gillett, with this week's guest co-host Kevin Nealon.
The WB offers a 2-hour RERUN 'Gilmore Girls'.
Faux has a FRESH 90-minute 'American Idol', followed by the PILOT of 'Cracking Up'.
UPN has a RERUN 'One On One', followed by a RERUN 'All Of Us', then a
FRESH 'America's Next Top Model'.
A&E has 'American Justice', 'Biography' (Jim Jones), and a FRESH 2-hour 'Cold Case Files'.
AMC offers the movie 'Once Around', followed by the movie 'Thelma & Louise', then the movie 'Thelma & Louise', again.
BBC -
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Page;
[7pm] 'House Invaders' - Alvechurch;
[7:30pm] 'Changing Rooms' - Wales;
[8pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Hinton;
[9pm] 'What Not To Wear' - Tribes of Man;
[9:30pm] 'What Not To Wear' - Tina;
[10pm] 'What Not To Wear' - Red Carpet Special;
[11pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Hinton;
[12am] 'What Not To Wear' - Tribes of Man;
[12:30am] 'What Not To Wear' - Tina;
[1am] 'What Not To Wear' - Red Carpet Special;
[2am] 'House Invaders' - Alvechurch;
[2:30am] 'Changing Rooms' - Wales;
[3am] 'What Not To Wear' - Tribes of Man;
[3:30am] 'What Not To Wear' - Tina;
[4am] 'What Not To Wear' - Red Carpet Special;
[5am] 'Cash in the Attic' - Hinton; and
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'West Wing', 'Queer Eye', the Series Premiere of 'Significant Others', followed by another
FRESH 'Significant Others', then a FRESH 'Queer Eye'.
Comedy Central has 'MAD TV', 'Crank Yankers', 'Insomnica', 'South Park', 'Chappelle's Show', and another 'Crank Yankers'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jon Stewart is Ed Gillespie.
FX offers the Season Premiere of 'The Shield'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Judas: Traitor?', 'Tactical To Practical', and 'Modern Marvels'.
SciFi has the movie 'Stargate', followed by 'Tripping The Rift', then the movie 'Star Trek Generations'.
TCM spends all day celebrating the short, but fruitful, career of director
S. Sylvan Simon (today would have been his 94th birthday), and then has fun with 'clock' movies all night.
[6am] 'Spring Madness' (1938);
[7:15am] 'The Kid From Texas' (1939);
[8:30am] 'Sporting Blood' (1940);
[10am] 'Keeping Company' (1940);
[11:30am] 'Dulcy' (1940);
[1pm] 'Washington Melodrama' (1941);
[2:30pm] 'Tish' (1942);
[4pm] 'The Bugle Sounds' (1942);
[6pm] 'Bad Bascomb' (1946);
[8pm] 'The Devil At 4 O'Clock' (1961);
[10:15pm] '3:10 To Yuma' (1957);
[12am] 'High Noon' (1952);
[1:30am] 'Midnight' (1939);
[3:15am] 'Two O'Clock Courage' (1945);
[4:30am] 'The Clock' (1945). (ALL TIMES EST)
Actress Mary Tyler Moore (C) poses with cast members Ed Asner, Valerie Harper, John Amos, Moore, Cloris Leachman, Betty White and Gavin MacLeod (L-R) after accepting the Ground Breaking Show award for her series 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' during a taping of the second annual TV Land Awards in Hollywood March 7, 2004. The awards show, which honors classic television series and their stars, will be telecast March 17 on the TV Land cable television channel in the United States.
Photo by Jim Ruymen
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Viacom Pulls CBS
EchoStar
Viacom will pull 10 of its nationally distributed stations such as MTV, Nickelodeon and CBS in 16 local markets and from EchoStar's satellite service as of midnight Pacific Time tonight, as the two companies failed to come to an agreement over program pricing EchoStar said.
EchoStar sued Viacom in January, charging it with illegally forcing it to carry additional Viacom-owned cable networks it does not want in order to gain permission to retransmit CBS signals.
EchoStar
Yep - Viacom has pulled some channels from my beloved DISH® - there's a black screen, with cheesy music, and a cheesier chyron page stating: "DISH network sincerely regrets that this channel, owned and operated by Viacom, is currently unavailable. Viacom has demanded rate increases which are
unreasonable and would contribute to a higher monthly bill for you. We continually strive to control costs on behalf of our customers, and are hopeful that this matter will be resolved quickly.
For More Information, see www.dishnetwork.com/programming or call 888 - 200 - 0451."
Affected/missing channels in the Chaos household are Comedy Central, BET, MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon.
Weirdly, TV Land is still there.
'Reality' Show Isn't
'The Last Comic Standing'
At least two big-name comedians, Drew Carey and Brett Butler, are fuming that the joke was on them when they served as talent judges for a new edition of the NBC reality show "The Last Comic Standing."
"I thought it was crooked and dishonest," Carey, star of the ABC sitcom "The Drew Carey Show," told entertainment trade paper The Hollywood Reporter.
Separately, Butler, the former star of "Grace Under Fire," posted a message on her Web site saying the judges were "both surprised and disappointed at the results and ... we had NOTHING to do with them."
Questions also were raised about business ties between the show's producers and some of the comics chosen as the 10 finalists. One executive producer, Barry Katz, also manages two of those performers -- Gary Gulman and a comic who goes by the stage name of Ant -- as well as host Jay Mohr.
NBC said it was up to network brass and producers to decide who made the cut, weighing the opinions of the celebrity panel as just one factor. An NBC spokeswoman said a disclaimer to that effect airs as part of the show's credits.
But one contestant who spoke on condition of anonymity said that regardless of who made the decision, "One thing for sure is it wasn't about who was the funniest.... It wasn't a big misunderstanding. It was a big deception."
'The Last Comic Standing'
New President of PEN American Center
Salman Rushdie
When author Salman Rushdie was forced into hiding because of a death decree in response to The Satanic Verses, a leading supporter was PEN, the international writers' organization.
Now, with Rushdie calling that time "ancient history" and determined to help other artists in distress, he has been named president of the PEN American Center.
The 56-year-old Rushdie, a native of India whose other novels include Midnight's Children and The Moor's Last Sigh, lives in New York. He said he has a couple of goals as president. One is to attract more young people to PEN; another is to focus more on concerns within the United States.
Salman Rushdie
Video in May
`Return of the King'
"The Return of the King" comes to DVD and VHS May 25, New Line Cinema announced Monday. That's about three months quicker than parts one and two of the fantasy trilogy, both of which hit video in late summer.
The announcement comes a week after "The Return of the King" bulldozed its way through the Academy Awards, earning a record-tying 11 Oscars, including best picture and director for Peter Jackson, and sweeping every category in which it was nominated.
New Line also plans an extended version of "The Return of the King" on home video around the holidays, similar to the longer cuts of the first two films. The three extended versions will push the saga's running time to more than 11 hours.
`Return of the King'
Jean Moulton, 72, of Boston, displays a new credit card in Boston, Friday, March 5, 2004, with a graphic of stars and stripes and a donkey that shows an affinity to the Democratic Party. In Massachusetts the party is pitching the new Mastercard that returns a half-cent for every dollar charged back to the party.
Photo by Steven Senne
Honored at Aspen Festival
Diane Keaton
Oscar winner Diane Keaton was honored over the weekend at the annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. But she says she's not that funny.
Keaton spoke about her career and her romances with Woody Allen, Al Pacino and Warren Beatty. Pacino, she said, "was always so terrified to be in public. You'd have to hold his hand and drag him everywhere."
Keaton said her humor has less to do with the things she says than with how she says them. "I don't underline the right word," she said.
Diane Keaton
'CSI: New York'?
Gary Sinise
Gary Sinise is being courted for the lead role in a new incarnation of "CSI" that CBS is planning for next season.
Sources said the network has had on-again, off-again talks with Sinise during the past few weeks. The prospect of the Emmy-winning actor signing on to star in "CSI: New York" seemed dim a week ago, but the discussions picked up again Thursday and Friday, sources said.
Gary Sinise
Simpsons-Related Column Pulled
Dear Abby
Well, it probably wasn't Bart Simpson's handiwork, but he'd no doubt approve of the prank that forced Dear Abby's editors to pull next Monday's advice column, which included a letter that mirrored an episode of "The Simpsons."
The syndicate sent the column to newspaper subscribers last week. A day later, a newspaper editor called after noticing one of the letters to Abby sounded "awfully familiar," said Sue Roush, one of the column's editors.
The column is titled "Wife meets perfect match after husband strikes out." In the letter, the writer describes herself as a 34-year-old mother of three who has been married for 10 years to a man who is "greedy, selfish, inconsiderate and rude."
After the letter raised the suspicions of the newspaper editor, Universal Press Syndicate did some research and discovered that Gene seemed a lot like Homer Simpson's thoughtless character in an episode titled "Life on the Fast Lane."
Jeanne Phillips, who writes Dear Abby, told "Stuck" to tell her husband why she strayed. "To save the marriage," she wrote, "he might be willing to change back to the man who bowled you over in the first place."
Dear Abby
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Dumped by CBS, UPN
'Martha Stewart Living'
Martha Stewart's syndicated television show, "Martha Stewart Living," was taken off the air Monday on Viacom-owned CBS and UPN stations.
There was no immediate word about the show's future from King World, the show's syndicator, but the Viacom-owned stations in major media markets were considered its most important customers, said Bill Carroll, an expert on syndication for Katz Television.
While "Martha Stewart Living" was considered a dependable performer in some markets, it was shunted off to undesirable time slots elsewhere — airing at 2:05 a.m. in New York City, for example.
Even before Stewart's conviction Friday in her stock trading case, her TV show's future was in question. King World was not actively trying to renew contracts in markets where the show aired.
'Martha Stewart Living'
Italian chief art restorer Cinzia Parmigoni adjusts a mimosa garland on the head of Michelangelo's David at Florence March 8, 2004. The David was adorned with mimosa on Monday to celebrate International Women's Day.
Photo by Max Rossi
Woman With An Opinion
Jane Fonda
Thrice-wedded Oscar winner Hollywood actress Jane Fonda said her marriages had prevented her from becoming a 'complete woman', but that she had become enriched through her involvement in famed off-Broadway play, "Vagina Monologues".
Speaking before performing in a production of the play at Bombay's posh Tata theatre, timed to coincide with International Women's Day, Fonda said she had had to "please" the men in her life despite being rich and successful.
"I have been married thrice. I have fame, money and success but behind the closed door of my marriages I have always given up my power to please the man I was with just so I could be acceptable to him," said Fonda.
"I have said many times that I am a feminist, but I didn't embody it because I felt the need to please men," she told reporters.
"Earlier I was a feminist in my head, but now I am feminist embodied throughout."
Jane Fonda
Acted Odd to Gain Control of Career
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp, whose role in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" earned him a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination, said he has disliked conformity since his career began.
Depp told the latest edition of Time magazine that in the 1980s he was so desperate to get out of playing heartthrob detective Tom Hanson on Fox's "21 Jump Street" that he purposely wore odd clothes and spoke in tongues on the set.
The producers, though, didn't buy the nutty routine.
"It was a weird thing not to be in control of your own image," he said. "I remember saying to myself, Man, when I'm free of this, I'm going to do only the things that I want to do. I'm going to go down whatever road I decide."
Johnny Depp
Producer Says No Movie
'Sex and the City'
Don't expect a "Sex and the City" movie, said the TV series' executive producer, Michael Patrick King.
"Nothing we did in the series was altered to save something for the movie," King said at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.
"This is exactly the way we wanted to end the series," he said Friday. "We're proud of what we did."
The HBO series, which aired its last new episode Feb. 22, will live on in syndication.
'Sex and the City'
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Faces New Misdemeanor Charge in L.A.
Courtney Love
Prosecutors in Los Angeles on Monday filed a new misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct against rocker Courtney Love, and a judge set a hearing for next month on a motion by her lawyer to suppress evidence in the case.
The new charge in Los Angeles accuses of Love of putting herself or others in danger while being in public under the influence of drugs, said Jerry Baik, assistant supervising attorney for the City Attorney's Office.
He said the disorderly conduct charge was added to the original complaint as a fail-safe charge because it carries an easier standard of proof -- prosecutors are not required to specify the type of drug involved.
Courtney Love
Andy Griffith, Jim Nabors, Don Knotts and George Lindsey (L-R), cast members in 'The Andy Griffith Show,' pose backstage after accepting the Legend Award for their series during a taping of the second annual TV Land Awards in Hollywood March 7, 2004. The awards show, which honors classic television series and their stars, will be telecast March 17 on the TV Land cable television channel in the United States.
Photo by Jim Ruymen
More Republican Family Values
Neil 'Silverado' Bush
Residential brother Neil 'Silverado' Bush, who divorced his wife of 23 years in a messy split last year, has married a former volunteer for former first lady Barbara Bush.
Bush married Maria Andrews on Saturday night in Houston in the mansion of longtime Bush family friends Rania and Jamal Daniel, the Houston Chronicle reported in its Sunday editions. They became engaged in December after Bush proposed in a French chateau.
Close to 150 guests joined the newlyweds after a small family ceremony that included former President George H. Bush and Barbara Bush. Resident Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush did not attend.
Two of Neil Bush's children — 17-year-old Pierce and 14-year-old Ashley — stood with their father for the nuptials. Joining Andrews in the ceremony were her two older children, Elizabeth, 12, and Pace Andrews, 10.
Neil 'Silverado' Bush
Where was Lauren, the Bush-girl model, and daughter of the herpes-ridden Neil 'Silverado' Bush?
Ad Parody Against Kerry
David Bossie
A conservative group headed by one of former President Clinton's harshest critics is airing an ad that pokes fun at presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry's haircut, designer clothing and property holdings.
Citizens United, headed by former Republican congressional aide David Bossie, began airing the ad — a parody of MasterCard's "priceless" commercials — on cable and broadcast channels Sunday in select presidential battleground states.
It's the start of what the group says will be a months long advertising effort leading to November that's designed to counter ads critical of resident Bush.
David Bossie
Has Weak Ankles
David
He's not in bad shape considering he celebrates his 500th birthday this year, but Michelangelo's David is suffering from weak ankles.
A team of art restorers, halfway through giving the white marble statue his first bath in more than a century, said on Monday they wanted to give David a scan to assess the damage.
"The ankles are one of the most fragile parts of the sculpture, they are full of cracks," Cinzia Parnigoni, the restorer in charge of the clean-up at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia, told Reuters. Perhaps not the sturdiest foundation for the almost six-ton marble statue -- the symbol not only of masculine beauty but of Italy's rich artistic heritage.
David has survived lightning, medieval riots, and a dousing in acid, however, and Parnigoni sees no need for alarm.
David
In Memory
Frances Dee
Frances Dee, a dark-haired beauty who co-starred in the 1930s and '40s with Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Ronald Colman and her husband, Joel McCrea, died Saturday, her son Peter McCrea said. She was 94.
Dee achieved stardom in 1930 opposite Chevalier in one of the first talkie musicals, "The Playboy of Paris." Her beauty earned her leading roles in comedies and dramas, notably in the 1931 "An American Tragedy" as Sondra Finchley, the role played by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1951 remake "A Place in the Sun."
In 1933, Dee appeared with McCrea in "The Silver Cord." They married that year and co-starred again in "Wells Fargo" (1937) and "Four Faces West" (1948). She appeared in occasional movies in the 1940s and '50s and retired after "Gypsy Colt" in 1954.
McCrea died in 1990. Dee rarely appeared in public in recent years, but in her 90s she was honored with retrospectives of her career at film festivals.
Frances Marion Dee was born Nov. 26, 1909, in Los Angeles, where her Army officer father was stationed. He was transferred to Chicago, where she grew up.
She studied at the University of Chicago, and as a lark while visiting relatives in Hollywood, worked as an extra in movies. That led to a contract with Paramount.
Frances Dee
In Memory
Paul Winfield
Oscar-nommed and Emmy-winning thesp Paul Winfield died Sunday in Los Angeles of a heart attack. He was 62.
Winfield's last role was in the 2003 telefilm remake of "Sounder." He was nominated for an actor Oscar for his role in the original 1972 "Sounder."
In recent years Winfield was the sassy narrator of A&E crime docu series "City Confidential."
Los Angeles-born thesp's career began when he was the first African-American to win best actor in a regional high school drama competition and then played Jesus in an L.A. religious pageant. He attended the U. of Portland, Stanford and UCLA, and was then cast by Burgess Meredith in controversial plays "The Dutchman" and "The Toilet."
After a short stint as a contract player at Columbia Pictures, Winfield returned to legit, joining the Stanford Repertory Theater and L.A.'s Inner City Cultural Center Theater.
He then began a busy career on television and in films, as well as continuing to appear onstage at the Mark Taper Forum. He appeared in the notable 1977 telepic "Green Eyes," about a Vietnam vet returning to the country to seek out the son he fathered.
He won an Emmy in 1992 for his guest role as a judge in a racially charged pair of episodes of "Picket Fences" and was Emmy-nommed for his roles in "King" and "Roots: The Next Generation." Among the TV series, telefilms and miniseries in which Winfield appeared are "Julia," "L.A. Law," "Touched by an Angel" and "Strange Justice," in which he played Thurgood Marshall.
He also appeared in more than 40 features, including "Damnation Alley," "A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich," "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan," "White Dog" and "Mars Attacks!"
Winfield received the NAACP Image Award for best actor and was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
He is survived by his sister.
Paul Winfield
In Memory
Spalding Gray
Actor and storyteller Spalding Gray, best known for writing and starring in the autobiographical film monologue, "Swimming to Cambodia," was confirmed dead on Monday after going missing for nearly two months.
The body of the 62-year-old Gray was pulled out of the East River off Brooklyn on Sunday.
Gray was reported missing by his wife, Kathleen Russo, last seen on Jan. 10 near his apartment in New York's Soho neighborhood. He had left his wallet and credit cards at home.
He had a history of depression and suicide attempts. Gray was involved in a severe automobile crash in Ireland in 2001 and his recovery had been difficult, his wife had said.
The night he disappeared, he called his 6-year-old son to say, "I love you," his wife told local media.
Gray got his start in show business as a teenager when he staged a one-man show about his angst-ridden youth in Rhode Island.
Long involved with experimental theater, Gray and actors Willem Dafoe and Jill Clayburgh were among the 1970s founders of the Wooster Theater Group in New York, staging new works and interpretations of classics at The Performing Garage.
His monologues were entertaining, introspective stories in which Gray would expose his intimate feelings, neuroses and fears in a vulnerable and captivating style.
Gray made his "mainstream" Broadway stage debut as the Stage Manager in the 1988 revival of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," an experience that inspired "Monster in a Box."
Gray also frequently played character roles in films including "Kate & Leopold," (2001), "Beyond Rangoon" (1995), "The Paper," (1994), and David Byrne's "True Stories" (1986).
Gray is also survived by three children and his brother, Rockwell Gray, an English professor.
Spalding Gray
Merissa Osmar, 9, from Ninilchik, Alaska, daughter of Iditarod musher Tim Osmar, pets Tarzan, one of her father's sled dogs, before the official start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Sunday, March 7, 2004. A record 87 mushers are entered in the 1,100-mile race to Nome.
Photo by Al Grillo
'The Osbournes'
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