Issue #44
Disinfotainment Today
By Michael Dare
UNDO THE COUP
'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
March 4, 2003
The National Security Agency has mounted a surveillance
"surge" targeting the communications of United Nations
Security Council members, with special attention directed to
Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, and Guinea. The spy
campaign was outlined in a top secret memo written by Frank
Koza, the NSA's chief of staff for regional targets, that
was leaked to the London Observer. Koza instructed analysts to
focus on "the whole gamut of information that could give US
policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to US
goals or to head off surprises." He also requested that
analysts "make sure they pay attention to existing non-UNSC
member UN-related and domestic comms for anything useful to
the UNSC deliberations/ debates/ votes."
Turkey's parliament
rejected a proposal to allow American troops to use Turkish
bases for the invasion of Iraq, undoing weeks of bargaining
with the United States over a multi-billion-dollar fee.
"What more do you want?" said Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish
leader. "It was a completely democratic result. May it be
for the best."
Members of the Bush Administration hinted that Russia might
have a hard time collecting its Iraqi debts if it fails to
support the American war drive: "What we've said is that if
you are legitimately concerned about recouping your $8
billion of debt, and if you are interested in economic
opportunities in a liberated Iraq, then it would be helpful
if you are part of the prevailing coalition."
American
diplomats were telling Security Council countries that they
risked "paying a heavy price" if they don't vote for war
with Iraq, although Ari Fleischer, the White House press
secretary, denied that the Administration was trying to
bribe countries for war votes: "The president is not
offering quid pro quos," he said. When a French reporter
pressed him on the question, Fleischer said: "Think about
the implications of what you're saying, you're saying that
the leaders of other nations are buyable," whereupon the
assembled reporters all burst out laughing and Fleischer
left the stage in a huff.
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
-- Roger D. Hodge
Reader Suggestion
Chicago Outdoor Film Festival
The Chicago Outdoor Film Festival, a roaring success that attracts as
many as 12,000 movie fans to its Grant Park screenings, has announced
its summer 2003 lineup. From the Marx Brothers to Alfred Hitchcock, with
a stop at the MGM musical, it continues its tried-and-true formula of
Hollywood mainstream classics.
Chicago Outdoor Film Festival
~~ Tim H
Thanks, Tim!
Reader Review
'Rabbit-Proof Fence'
I just saw a very good movie: 'Rabbit-Proof Fence', about three "half-caste"
girls in Australia and what happened to them because of the government
policy (until 1970!) of separating such children from their families in
order to stamp out Aboriginals and make the country safe for whites. The
girls escape from a government camp and walk about 1200 miles to go home.
It's a true story.
The girls are not actors and are excellent. Kenneth Branagh is in it; his
character was a real person, who had the title of "Legal Guardian" for all
Aboriginals, and the power of the state behind him.
Makes you wonder if the whole world is made up of right-wing Republicans.
- Sam
Thanks, Sam!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Rainy day.
The page is very large today. If you're on a crappy dial-up (like I am), you may need to 'refresh' it a couple of times.
Tonight, Wednesday, CBS starts the evening with a FRESH 'Star Search', followed by
'60 Minutes II', then '48 Hours'.
On a RERUN Dave are Kate Hudson and Jack Hanna.
On a RERUN Craiggers are William H. Macy, Paris and Nicky Hilton, and Tyrese.
NBC opens with a FRESH 'Ed', followed by a RERUN 'West Wing', then
a RERUN 'Law & Order'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are David Spade and Missy Elliott.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan is Al Roker.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Tom Arnold and Gabrielle Union.
ABC has a FRESH 'My Wife & Kids', then a FRESH 'George Lopez', followed by the
Season Finale of 'I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Rachel Hunter, Eugene Levy, and Nappy Roots.
The WB offers a RERUN 'Dawson's Creek', and then a FRESH 'Angel'.
Faux has a FRESH 'American Idol', and then a FRESH 'Married By America'.
UPN has a RERUN 'Enterprise', followed by a RERUN 'Twilight Zone'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Members of Brazilian samba school Imperatriz Leopoldinense do a dance in Rio de Janeiro's Sambodrome at the end of the second night of Carnival parading, at dawn March 4, 2003. Brazil's elite samba schools wound up their competition in the world-famous Carnival parade.
Photo by Rickey Rogers
US Leaders 'Possessed of Evil'
Harry Belafonte
Singer Harry Belafonte, long outspoken on civil rights and political issues in the United States, has lashed out at the Bush administration saying it is "possessed of evil" for preparing war against Iraq.
The 76-year-old U.S. singer told Finnish television on Tuesday that global leaders who ignored demonstrations against a war in Iraq did so at their own peril.
Asked if he thought leaders of his own country were misguided, Belafonte, said: "Absolutely. I not only think that they are misguided, but I think they know exactly what they are doing and I think that they are men who are possessed of evil."
"I don't think that (U.S. resident) George Bush...is a man of honor," added Belafonte.
"I think he has a very selfish, arrogant point of view. I think he is interested in power, I think he believes his truth is the only truth, and that he will do what he wants to do despite the people," he said during a break on his Finnish tour.
Harry Belafonte
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Specter Of McCarthyism
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) said a slew of hate-mail directed at actors who have taken a public personal stand against war, along with calls for boycotts of movies and albums on the nation's talk radio airwaves and Internet
message boards, "suggests that the lessons of history have, for some, fallen on deaf ears."
"We deplore the idea that those in the public eye should suffer professionally for having the courage to give voice to their views. Even a hint of the blacklist must never again be tolerated in this nation," SAG, the nation's
largest actors' union, said in a statement.
The SAG statement was issued in response to a growing tide of abuse toward American celebrities who have spoken out against a "rush to war" on nationally televised award shows, through interviews, anti-war TV ads or by taking part in mass protests.
SAG said suggestions that "well-known individuals who express 'unacceptable' views should be punished by losing their right to work" was a "shocking development" which recalled the 1950s House Committee
on Un-American Activities under Senator Joseph McCarthy.
More than 320 people, including Arthur Miller, Orson Welles, Dashiell Hammett, Paul Robeson and Charlie Chaplin were placed on a blacklist that stopped them working for the entertainment industry because
of views considered left-wing or unpatriotic.
SAG called it a "shameful period" for the entertainment industry, saying the industry today had a duty to guard and cherish U.S. constitutional principles of free speech rather than "prostrate itself
before smear campaigns and witch hunters" as it had 50 years ago.
Screen Actors Guild
British pop legend Peter Gabriel performs inside a giant ball representing the maternal womb, during the opening night of the 'Festival di Sanremo' Italian songs contest, in Sanremo,
Italy, Tuesday, March 4, 2003. Peter Gabriel is one of the international guest stars featured at the 53rd edition of the Sanremo song festival, Italy's premier week-long musical
showcase followed by millions of people on national television.
Photo by Luca Bruno
Piercing Party
Britney Spears
Britney Spears threw Hollywood's MOST titillating Valentine's Day bash -- a nipple-piercing party for her entourage of about 50 dancers, backup singers, stage crew, producers, etc., at
the new hot spot Wild Orchid. Amazingly, nearly every boy and girl grinned and bared it for the piercing pros Britney had hired. Giggling Britney cheered them on -- and to ease the pain,
gifted everyone with solid gold and silver hearts to dangle from their new nipple rings. Finally, a pal turned to the busty pop tart and said, "Now it's YOUR turn!" Laughed Britney: "I already have one!"
Britney Spears
Ex-Bandmate Gives to Library
Dylan's Guitar
When legendary folk singer Bob Dylan made his debut with his first band at a local talent contest, the audience laughed at him. But they're not laughing now.
Larry Fabbro is donating the guitar he played in Dylan's band to the public library in Hibbing, Minn., for its collection of Dylan memorabilia.
As sophomores at Hibbing High School, Dylan joined forces with Fabbro and fellow classmates Bill Marinac and Chuck Nara to form "The Cashmeres."
Dylan played piano, while Nara was on drums, Marinac handled bass duties, and Fabbro served as guitarist. Fabbro says their image consisted of wearing pink shirts, sunglasses, and slicked-back hair.
Dylan's Guitar
Returns to London Stage
Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen, one of the world's most famous cinema wizards, took to the London stage on Tuesday to weave his theater magic as the star of August Strindberg's "Dance of Death."
McKellen, who cut this theatrical teeth on Shakespeare's most demanding roles, now feels as much at ease with cinema acting and Hollywood has recognized the prowess of the slender and wiry actor with two Oscar nominations.
He famously "outed" himself live on radio in 1988 and feels that his career, far from suffering from his gay admission, has in fact prospered. He can even boast a knighthood for his acting prowess.
Now a fervent activist for gay rights, McKellen said: "When people like teachers and politicians come out, their prospects will suffer. What has happened to me, certainly in films, is that my career has taken off.
Ian McKellen
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Eagles, More
Summer Tours
The Eagles tour is set to kick off at Richmond, Va.'s Coliseum on May 9 and continue at least through mid-July.
The outing reunites the "The Long Run" version of the band with Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit sans Don Felder to reprise the group's cadre of mega-hits such as "Hotel California"
and "Take It Easy." (Felder is suing the band after being ousted in 2001.)
Peter Gabriel, who toured the U.S. late last year, will play amphitheaters in 16 U.S. cities beginning June 7 in San Francisco.
Annie Lennox, whose album "Bare" will be released June 10 by BMG's J Records, will play 18 cities between March 26 and April 30, including intimate gigs at New York's Apollo on April 14 and UCLA's Royce Hall on April 29.
More dates will be announced for shows after the release of "Bare."
Matchbox Twenty and Sugar Ray are teaming for a 49-concert run in arenas that starts in Little Rock, Ark., on April 26. (Matchbox Twenty will play a solo show the day before in New Orleans). The double bill, which will
feature Maroon 5 as the opening act through May 31, is booked through early July with a stop June 14 at L.A.'s Staples Center.
Summer Tours
Actor John Goodman and jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain march with Fountain's 'Half Fast Marching Club,' Tuesday morning, March 4, 2003, in New Orleans. Fountain is in his 43rd year leading his club through the streets of the Crescent City helping to kickoff the last day of the Carnival season.
Photo by Bill Haber
Launches Talent Search
Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin has found a way to feed off "American Idol" and mark time until co-host Kelly Ripa returns from maternity leave.
"Live With Regis and Kelly" has launched a talent search for a co-host that will culminate in the winner working as Philbin's partner on the April 16 edition of the talk show.
The winner also gets a $10,000 contract with Buena Vista Television to work on possible TV projects and a one-year contract with talent agency N.S. Bienstock.
Regis Philbin
"Live With Regis and Kelly"
Reflects on Image
Kelly Osbourne
While Kelly Osbourne never played to the cameras during the taping of the hit MTV series, "The Osbournes," she does admit to playing dress-up.
"I'd put makeup on and put together snazzy outfits (first thing in the morning)," she told AP Radio. But after a while, she couldn't maintain the facade. "I (was) too tired, and
I couldn't be bothered with it. Most of the time you see me, I have on yesterday's makeup and some pajamas."
If Osbourne had kept up her routine, maybe she would have liked the dolls created in her likeness a little bit more. "Everything with my face on it is so gross. All those Kelly
Osbourne dolls look like Ken dolls in drag. They're the worst!"
Kelly Osbourne
MTV Banking On Variety Show
Snoop Dogg
The TV network that brought you "The Osbournes" is banking on Snoop Dogg as a variety host, a practical-joking Ashton Kutcher and surfer girls.
MTV's new series for the spring and summer include "Doggy Fizzle Televizzle," the rapper's variety show. A pilot that aired in December featured Snoop Dogg working as a substitute
teacher and at a fast-food restaurant's drive-through.
Kutcher ("That '70s Show") will be the host of a comedy show where he plays practical jokes on celebrity friends, while the reality series "Surf Girls" will follow amateur surfers
competing for a sponsorship deal at some of the world's hottest surfing spots.
Snoop Dogg
Recovering At Home
Bridget Fonda
Actress Bridget Fonda was recovering at home after being hospitalized with a back injury from a car crash late last week.
Her publicist, Nancy Seltzer, said Monday that Fonda "suffered a slight fracture of two thoracic vertebrae," and was expected to make a total recovery.
The 39-year-old actress, best known for the films "Single White Female" and "Jackie Brown," flipped her Jaguar on a rain-drenched section of the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu on Thursday. She
was alone in the car and no other vehicles were involved, authorities said.
Bridget Fonda
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Article Claims More Weirdness
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson paid a witch doctor to place a curse on DreamWorks partners David Geffen and Steven Spielberg, and wears a prosthetic tip on his nose, claims an article in Vanity Fair magazine.
Titled "Losing His Grip," the article also includes an interview with an unnamed California prosecutor who investigated child molestation allegations against the pop star. The prosecutor said Jackson befriended
young boys "and as soon as they started sprouting whiskers — whoosh — they were out the door."
The Vanity Fair article adds to the media frenzy surrounding the 44-year-old singer. In February, ABC broadcast the highly rated British documentary "Living With Michael Jackson," in which Jackson was interviewed
by journalist Martin Bashir; NBC's "Dateline" did a two-hour special on the singer; and Fox broadcast behind-the-scenes footage of Bashir's interview, allowing Jackson to strike back after he found Bashir's documentary unflattering.
Jackson allegedly paid a witch doctor $150,000 in 2000 to put a hex on several Hollywood figures. Spielberg was allegedly included because he did not allow him to star as Peter Pan in "Hook." He blamed Geffen for sabotaging his career, the magazine said.
Michael Jackson
Poster Sets Record at Auction
'The Outlaw'
An original movie poster for the film
"The Outlaw," featuring Hollywood star
Jane Russell in a provocative pose, sold for more than 52,000 pounds ($82,200) Tuesday, Christie's auction house said.
The poster shows the actress lying on a bed of straw in a revealing outfit and holding a gun to promote the
Howard Hughes 1943 western.
But the film was only shown for a week before censors withdrew it due to its sexually explicit nature. It was later released in 1950.
'The Outlaw'
Says She's a Square
Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Even Dr. Ruth blushes. At least that's what the sex therapist told a few hundred people, mostly college students, at the University of Minnesota.
She recalled a recent talk where her son introduced her and then seated himself front-row center. During that speech, she stopped mid-sentence and announced that she was blushing
and asked her son to move to the side.
"I'm actually very old-fashioned and a square," Ruth Westheimer said repeatedly throughout her hourlong talk Sunday night.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Man With An Opinion
Gore Vidal
Literary lion Gore Vidal says the U.S. would lose a war with Iraq. "I don't see us winning the war," Vidal told WABC Radio the other day. "We have made enemies of one billion Muslims . . . Whatever
Saddam has that might be atrocious — mustard gas, pox, viruses — we will ensure that he uses it."
"As dumb as this administration is, they don't look ahead," Vidal sneers. "They don't know where any
countries are. They don't know how to make deals. They don't really know much about anything. There is no plan . . . Now you have people [in Washington] who have no interest in the country at all.
They're interested in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil."
Vidal, who is planning to move back to Los Angeles, also blasts the press, complaining, "The media [have] never been
more disgusting in my lifetime. Every lie out of Washington — they're out there doing war dances."
Gore Vidal
Charleston Black Expo
Russell Simmons
Black entrepreneurs in South Carolina will hear from music mogul Russell Simmons at a cultural event here this weekend after filmmaker Spike Lee canceled because of a family emergency, event sponsors say.
Lee had been scheduled to be the guest speaker at the Charleston Black Expo on Saturday but sponsors were told last week he could not attend, said Darrin Thomas, vice president for Thomas-McCants Media/Black Pages USA, which is hosting the expo.
"We've definitely replaced him with Russell Simmons," Thomas said Monday.
Russell Simmons
Relishes Pregnancy
Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields has good reason to be in an animated state.
Not only is the actress pregnant with her first child, she's the star of her first Nickelodeon animated special, "Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids." Shields provides the voice of Miss Spider.
In an interview with AP Radio, Shields reveals she's due to give birth to a girl in May. "I haven't picked out a name yet — there's just too many cooks in the kitchen. When you start showing
the list to your family, everybody has something to say about it. Hopefully, when we see her, one of the names we have will stand out."
Brooke Shields
Exhibit In Toledo
Van Gogh
It was in the flowing fields of wheat and flowering gardens that Vincent van Gogh found respite from the demons that haunted him.
The paintings and drawings inspired by these landscapes shape a new exhibit at The Toledo Museum of Art. "Van Gogh: Fields," featuring 27 landscape paintings and drawings from museums and private collections worldwide, will be on view until May 18.
The show traces the roots of van Gogh's early landscape drawings and meanders through the fields of France, ending with a dark, foreboding painting finished just days before he took his own life in 1890.
For the rest, Van Gogh
www.toledomuseum.org
Contraceptive on Sale Again
'Spongeworthy'
The Today Sponge contraceptive is back on the market, eight years after it disappeared from U.S. drugstore shelves in an alarming turn famously depicted on a "Seinfeld" episode.
Originally made by a pharmaceutical giant now called Wyeth, it was taken off the market in 1995 after problems were found at the company's Hammonton factory. The FDA said the sponge's safety and effectiveness were never questioned. Wyeth simply stopped selling it rather than pay to upgrade its plant.
In a 1995 "Seinfeld" episode, Elaine runs around New York seeking the sponge, her favorite birth control. She finally locates a whole case at a pharmacy, and stretches the supply by deciding whether a boyfriend is "spongeworthy." She makes her boyfriend scrub his bathroom and pass other tests before she will have sex with him.
The episode was apparently more than a work of imagination: Plenty of real women ran store to store, buying up all they could. Dawson was living in New York City in 1995, and went hunting for sponges.
For the rest, 'Spongeworthy'
Allendale Pharmaceuticals
Global Health Options
Internet Today Sponge
Feel Best
Two polar bears play in the Moscow Zoo, March 4, 2003, as they enjoy spring's first sunny days. Sunny weather and mild temperatures have arrived in the Russian capital.
Photo by Adlan Khasanov
'The Osbournes'
Freshly Updated - 'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
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'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
