'Best of TBH Politoons'
M Is FOR MASHUP - Jan 15, 2008
Night Of The Illuminoids
By DJ Useo
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Beth Quinn: Seven down, one year to go for America (recordonline.com)
As I watched Americans caucus in Iowa and enter voting booths in New Hampshire these past two weeks, I felt the first stirrings of hope for my country that I've felt in a very long time.
Vote Kucinich in Muddled Michigan Primary (metrotimes.com)
Because of the hopelessly messed-up nature of this year's Democratic primary, this is a perfect opportunity for progressives in Michigan to make a statement without taking any risk. And the way to do that is to vote for Dennis Kucinich.
Jim Hightower: THE FBI'S NEW ID SYSTEM (jimhightower.com)
You can stop worrying that the forces of autocracy in America are going to require all of us to carry national identification cards. That's so old school. Instead of issuing cards, the FBI intends to turn our very own bodies into walking ID systems.
Michele Hanson: 'Presumed consent' for organ donation is a good idea (guardian.co.uk)
'Presumed consent' sounds like a good idea. Then no one needs to make sensible decisions when they're half mad with misery. Much easier to decide in advance.
Melissa Allison: Pouring out a strong cup of Starbucks gossip (The Seattle Times; Posted on popmatters.com)
When Jim Romenesko isn't running the premier Web page about journalism-industry news, he is monitoring two other subjects: unusual news stories at ObscureStore.com and the world's largest coffee-shop chain at StarbucksGossip.com.
Lezlie Lowe: Amateur Porn is Hot (thecoast.ca)
Sites such as YouPorn.com and PornoTube.com are cutting into the traditional porn biz.
Luaine Lee: Lucy Liu returns to television in ABC's `Cashmere Mafia' (McClatchy-Tribune News Service; Posted on popmatters.com)
When actress Lucy Liu was 9 years old she experienced a life-changing moment in a five-and-dime. "I was with my mother and she was asking somebody a question who worked there. And he was very condescending and rude to my mother because she had a very strong accent," says Liu in a conference room of a hotel here.
Jim Abbott: Shock rocker Marilyn Manson is in a (relatively) happy place (The Orlando Sentinel; Posted on popmatters.com)
Marilyn Manson: "Anyone can sell records. Marilyn Manson now is about death toll. How many more things can I be blamed for? If you wanna shoot people, just join the Army. That's the message that America sends you anyway."
Robert Sandall: The second coming of kd lang (timesonline.co.uk)
She doesn't regret touting herself as the poster girl of lesbian chic when she appeared on an iconic 1992 cover of Vanity Fair magazine sitting in a barber's chair being shaved by the supermodel Cindy Crawford. She is proud of her saucy reply to a male journalist who asked what was going through her mind at the time: "Pretty much what would have been going through yours in the same circumstances, I imagine."
David Bruce: "Wise Up: Mishaps" (athensnews.com)
In an NFL football game, Walter Payton went up the middle, was tackled, and lay on the ground and wouldn't get up. A teammate asked, "Are you hurt?" Mr. Payton replied, "No, but I'm not getting up. Go and get the equipment manager." The equipment manager came out, spoke to Mr. Payton, then returned to the bench and got a big towel. Soon, the mystery was explained. Mr. Payton had split his pants and was too embarrassed to get up without a towel to cover his rear end.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Hey Roy - Happy Birthday!
Donates £1 Million To Great Ormond Street
Johnny Depp
Hollywood star Johnny Depp has paid tribute to the London hospital that saved his daughter's life - by donating a massive £1 million out of his own pocket.
Eight-year-old Lily-Rose, his daughter by long-term French girlfriend Vanessa Paradis, is thought to have contracted E.coli poisoning last year during the family's stint living in Surrey while Johnny lensed Sweeney Todd. The bug led to kidney failure and resulted in the youngster spending nine days in Great Ormond Street hospital last March.
This isn't the first time the hunky father-of-two has shown his gratitude to the hospital. He invited five lucky doctors and nurses to join him at the glitzy party thrown in conjunction with the London premiere of Sweeney Todd last week. And in November the actor had his Jack Sparrow costume flown over from LA specially, so he could treat the young patients to bedtime stories dressed as his popular Pirates Of The Caribbean character.
Johnny Depp
Studios Cancel Writers Contracts
Corporate Masters
Four major studios have canceled dozens of writers' contracts in a possible concession that the current television season cannot be saved, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
The move means the 2-month old writers strike may also endanger next season's new shows, the Times said.
January is usually the beginning of pilot season, when networks order new scripted shows. But the strike leaves networks without a pool of comedy and drama scripts from which to choose.
20th Century Fox Television, CBS Paramount Network Television, NBC Universal and Warner Bros. Television told the Times they have terminated development and production agreements.
Corporate Masters
More Studios Axe Producers
"Force Majeure"
CBS Paramount Network TV and 20th Century Studios terminated production deals as a result of the Hollywood writers strike on Monday.
"Force majeure" -- or act of God -- provisions in the contracts allow studios to cancel deals with writers and producers idled by the strike, which is now in its third month. These deals usually involve the supply of offices and staffers on the studio lot, and can be both costly and unproductive.
CBS Paramount's list is said to include some high-profile casualties such as actor Hugh Jackman, Rene Echevarria ("Medium"), Barry Schindel ("Numbers"), John McNamara ("Fastlane"), the duo of Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green ("Skip Tracer") as well as Jennifer Levin ("Without a Trace").
At 20th TV, being let go are Paul Redford ("The Unit"), Jonathan Lisco ("K-Ville") and Lawrence Kaplow ("House").
"Force Majeure"
Unplugged On Internets
Katie Couric
When the red light is off, Katie Couric gets annoyed about her microphone, jokes about her husky voice and - the shock! - asks questions of her colleagues. A video of Couric unplugged while on the set covering the New Hampshire primary was posted on comedian Harry Shearer's "My Damn Channel" Web site and quickly made the Internet rounds Tuesday.
They appear to be shots taken in between live reports on Jan. 8, material that is occasionally available to people with powerful satellite dishes.
Most of it is unremarkable footage of a journalist in the midst of a story, asking colleagues about Barack Obama's poll numbers and checking the date of the Michigan primary.
There are also some entertaining asides, and more shots of Couric's famous grin than are usually seen on the air on CBS. She makes a cutting motion to her throat to discuss Rudy Giuliani's chances in New Hampshire and lets loose a stream of expletives about her rush to get everything in one brief report.
And she admits to being transfixed by John McCain's wife's eyes.
Katie Couric
Wife Linda's Photograph Exhibition
Paul McCartney
Singer Paul McCartney announced Tuesday he will stage an exhibition of his first wife Linda's photographs to mark the 10th anniversary of her death.
It will be the first major exhibition of her works in Britain and will span her career from the 1960s until shortly before her death from cancer in April 1998 at the age of 56.
Their photographer daughter Mary helped put together the exhibition, which will run at the James Hyman Gallery in central London from April 24 to June 7.
Paul McCartney
Banned In Afghanistan
"The Kite Runner"
Afghanistan has banned the import and exhibition of "The Kite Runner," a film about the troubled friendship of two Afghan boys, on the grounds that it could incite violence.
The U.S. studio behind "The Kite Runner," based on the 2003 best-selling novel by U.S.-based Afghan author Khaled Hosseini, last year had to get its three young stars out of their homeland before the movie debut to protect them from a possible backlash.
Paramount Vantage released the film last month after delays due to the extraordinary precautions taken to address concerns about the film's depiction of one boy's rape and other scenes of conflict between members of Pashtun and Hazara tribes.
"The Kite Runner"
Her Own TV Network
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is getting her own TV network.
Discovery Communications and Winfrey announced a deal Tuesday where the Discovery Health network will be turned over to Winfrey next year, becoming OWN - the Oprah Winfrey Network.
The cash-free transaction involved Winfrey turning over her Web site to Discovery, while the communications company makes her chairman of the network, which is currently seen in 68 million homes, said David Zaslav, Discovery Communications chief.
Some of Winfrey's stable of regular contributors could be expected to be part of the programming, he said. Winfrey's current talk show, as well as rights to use of reruns, is spoken for until the end of the 2010-11 season.
Oprah Winfrey
2nd Season Pick Up
"American Gladiators"
NBC has picked up a second season of the breakout reality hit "American Gladiators," which debuted January 6 as the network's top new series since "Heroes" in 2006.
There is no decision yet on the number of episodes for the second season or when it will premiere. NBC's original order was nine episodes. The renewal of the update of the 1990s syndicated series had been expected.
Meanwhile, the show's co-producer, MGM, which owns the rights to the franchise, will on January 28 launch a broadband Web site (http://www.AmericanGladiators.com) paying homage to the original series. It is also eyeing a national tour and a cartoon series.
"American Gladiators"
Says Hospital Misled Him
Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid said staff at the prestigious Cedars-Sinai Medical Center misled him while his newborn twins were being treated there, telling him the children were "fine" even as doctors scrambled to reverse a blood thinning medicine overdose.
Quaid told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published Tuesday that he called the hospital the night of Nov. 18 and was assured that his children with his wife, Kimberly, were "fine."
But about two hours before that call, nurses had noticed his daughter oozing blood from an intravenous site on her arm and a spot on her heel, state records show. The Quaids said no one notified them, and they feel betrayed and misled.
Dennis Quaid
Unauthorized Biography
Tom Cruise
A biography and 4-year-old video of Tom Cruise are calling attention to the actor's belief in Scientology. Andrew Morton, author of "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography," published Tuesday by St. Martin's Press, alleges that the 45-year-old actor ranks second in command in the Church of Scientology.
"This is a fair, evenhanded treatment of Tom Cruise's life," Morton said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. "He's a man who deserves attention."
The church responded with a 15-page statement, calling the book "a bigoted, defamatory assault replete with lies" and saying Cruise "is a Scientology parishioner and holds no official or unofficial position in the Church hierarchy."
The book's publication comes as a 2004 video of Cruise extolling Scientology's virtues made its way to the Internet. The video was still on gossip Web site Gawker.com on Tuesday.
Tom Cruise
Ads Must Comply With Campaign Finance Law
Anti-Clinton Film
A conservative group must abide by campaign finance laws if it wants to run ads promoting its anti-Hillary Rodham Clinton movie, a federal court ruled Tuesday.
Citizens United had hoped to run the television advertisements in key election states during peak primary season. The court ruling means the group must either keep its ads off the air or attach a disclaimer and disclose its donors.
Lawyers for the group had argued its 90-minute "Hillary: The Movie" was no different from documentaries seen on television news shows "60 Minutes" and "Nova." That prompted skepticism and, at one point, outright laughter from the judges during a hearing last week.
A three-judge panel unanimously disagreed. The film does not address legislative issues and was produced solely "to inform the electorate that Senator Clinton is unfit for office, that the United States would be a dangerous place in a President Hillary Clinton world, and that viewers should vote against her," U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote.
Anti-Clinton Film
Files Lawsuit
Garrison Keillor
Humorist Garrison Keillor and his wife have filed a lawsuit intended to stop their next-door neighbor from building a two-story addition they say would block their access to light and air.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in Ramsey County District Court by Keillor, the host of "A Prairie Home Companion" and creator of fictional Lake Wobegon, and his wife, Jenny Lind Nilsson.
They want neighbor Lori Anderson to stop building the 1,900-square-foot addition to the home she has owned since 1999. She lives there with fiance Paul Olson.
"My wife and I live in a historic St. Paul house in a historic neighborhood, and this gives us an obligation to defend the house and the neighborhood against violations of the beauty of Ramsey Hill.
Garrison Keillor
Another Musician Murdered
Mexico
A Mexican singer has been shot dead in the northern state of Sinaloa, the latest in what appeared to be a growing list of folk musician slayings by organized crime gangs, local government officials said.
Sinaloa's justice department said Jorge Antonio Sepulveda, 20, was found dead in the early hours of Tuesday on a road near the city of Guasave, 102 miles northwest of the state capital Culiacan.
Sepulveda, who was not well-known nationally, had been shot at least a dozen times with high-caliber guns. A nearby car that authorities believe belonged to him was burnt to a shell.
Around half a dozen Mexican musicians have been killed over the past two years as hitmen who once targeted performers of "narcocorridos," or ballads about drug kingpins, broadened their aim to include more mainstream folk singers.
Mexico
Abstinence Only Success Story!
U.S. Baby Boom
Bucking the trend in many other wealthy industrialized nations, the United States seems to be experiencing a baby boomlet, reporting the largest number of children born in 45 years.
The nearly 4.3 million births in 2006 were mostly due to a bigger population, especially a growing number of Hispanics. That group accounted for nearly one-quarter of all U.S. births. But non-Hispanic white women and other racial and ethnic groups were having more babies, too.
An Associated Press review of birth numbers dating to 1909 found the total number of U.S. births was the highest since 1961, near the end of the baby boom. An examination of global data also shows that the United States has a higher fertility rate than every country in continental Europe, as well as Australia, Canada and Japan. Fertility levels in those countries have been lower than the U.S. rate for several years, although some are on the rise, most notably in France.
Experts believe there is a mix of reasons: a decline in contraceptive use, a drop in access to abortion, poor education and poverty.
U.S. Baby Boom
Hastiest Pudding
Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton is heading to Harvard. The 26-year-old actress-socialite has been named Harvard Lampoon's "Hastiest Pudding of the Lampoon Award," the comedy magazine said Tuesday.
She will visit Harvard on Feb. 6 to accept her award, said Regent Releasing, the company that's distributing her new comedy, "The Hottie & the Nottie."
Hilton, whose body of work includes "House of Wax" and TV's "The Simple Life," and the internet-video classic, "One Night In Paris," stars as the attractive best friend to an ugly duckling in the new comedy, slated for release Feb. 8.
Paris Hilton
Songwriters Get Secret Settlement
Avril Lavigne
A pair of U.S. songwriters who accused Avril Lavigne of ripping off one of their tunes now say the punky songstress did nothing wrong.
Last summer, Tommy Dunbar and James Gangwer alleged that Lavigne's boppy track "Girlfriend" sounded suspiciously like the Rubinoos 1979 single, "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend."
On Tuesday, Lavigne's record company Nettwerk issued a statement from Dunbar and Gangwer in which the two men said: "We are satisfied that any similarities between the two songs resulted from Avril and Luke's use of certain common and widely used lyrics."
Rubinoos lawyer Nicholas Carlin said last week that a confidential settlement had been reached in the matter. He could not comment further.
Avril Lavigne
Spread Syphilis
Christopher Columbus
New genetic evidence supports the theory that Christopher Columbus brought syphilis to Europe from the New World, U.S. researchers said on Monday, reviving a centuries-old debate about the origins of the disease.
They said a genetic analysis of the syphilis family tree reveals that its closest relative was a South American cousin that causes yaws, an infection caused by a sub-species of the same bacteria.
"Some people think it is a really ancient disease that our earliest human ancestors would have had. Other people think it came from the New World," said Kristin Harper, an evolutionary biologist at Emory University in Atlanta.
"What we found is that syphilis or a progenitor came from the New World to the Old World and this happened pretty recently in human history," said Harper, whose study appears in journal Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Christopher Columbus
In Memory
Pete Candoli
Pete Candoli, a longtime mainstay in the trumpet sections of American big bands and the recording and soundstage world of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, has died January 11 in the Los Angeles suburb of Studio City. He was 85.
Candoli had been featured with the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Stan Kenton, Les Brown, Count Basie, Freddy Slack, Tex Beneke, Jerry Gray, Charlie Barnet and Woody Herman -- in all, more than 27 of the top-name bands of that long-ago era.
It was with Herman's First Herd that Candoli became known as Superman With a Horn. He dressed in that outfit and played screech notes. "They called me Superman in Woody's band because I could open windows that nobody else could lift up," he said. "So they thought I should wear a Superman suit as a part of the act."
In a more sober vein, he played first trumpet for Igor Stravinsky's complex "Ebony Concerto" written for the Herman orchestra.
As a first-call lead trumpeter in the studios, Candoli played for the orchestras of Alex Stordahl, Gordon Jenkins, Nelson Riddle, Frank Comstock, Don Costa, Michel LeGrand and Henry Mancini. He worked more than 5,000 record dates, composing, arranging and conducting for Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee, among others.
Candoli was married to Betty Hutton and later to Edie Adams, with whom he often toured.
Pete Candoli
In Memory
Brad Renfro
Brad Renfro, the young actor whose film career began at age 12 with "The Client" before dissolving as he struggled with drug and alcohol problems, has died. He was 25.
His body was found in his Los Angeles home early Tuesday, his lawyer Richard Kaplan said. The cause of death was not immediately known.
His other credits include "Ghost World" and "The Jacket."
Brad Renfro
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
