Special Bonus Issue
Disinfotainment Today
By Michael Dare
'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
September 9, 2003
Resident George W. Bush made a televised address to the
nation and declared that Iraq was now the "central front" in
the war on terrorism. He called for national resolve and
national sacrifice and said that he will ask Congress for
$87 billion in emergency funds for the occupation. It was
noted that this new request, which comes on top of $79
billion already approved, will probably push the current
budget deficit up to $600 billion.
A congressional study found that the
occupation of Iraq is unsustainable given the current size
of the U.S. military, and the United States released a draft
resolution calling on the United Nations to create a
multinational peacekeeping force for Iraq that would remain
under American military and political control.
The Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission announced a settlement with energy companies that
benefited from market manipulation in the California energy
crisis two years ago. The companies agreed to pay about $1
million in fines, or about 3 cents for every Californian,
though the energy scam cost the state $8.9 billion, or $250
per citizen.
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
--Roger D. Hodge
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
The Wall Street Poet
The Jobless Recovery
Recovery, recovery, they say the worst is done,
In world affairs we've worked our will, the wars we fought we've won.
Stock markets all have surged ahead and bond rates still are low,
The dollar has recouped its strength, inflation¹s growth is slow.
But poor me! me! me!
I sit at home and sob.
With all this good news coming out
I still can't find a job.
Recovery, recovery, I cheer this rising tide,
Strong numbers fill the papers and I'm sure they're bonafide.
Productivity is soaring, useless fat has burned away,
And those fears 'bout corp'rate profits are receding day by day.
Investors now are happy,
Once more they cut the deck.
But what of those long unemployed
Without a weekly check?
In answer to my questions I am deluged with new stats,
Each more upbeat then the last one, almost none with caveats.
Recession now is well behind, 'bout that we're all agreed,
From doubts that experts once proclaimed, we've now been fin'ly freed.
Exalt ye wise economists!
It must be just a quirk.
Your numbers prove that times are good,
But I can't find no work.
© 2003
**********
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Beginning to feel like fall is on the way.
I really like toys - especially 'visual' ones, like kaleidoscopes. Just came across Custom Kaleidoscopes by Ed the "BearMan". Way cool - never thought about a custom-made one before, but I sure am now.
The local school district maintains a camp/school near Mount Wilson for city-kids to be able to see rivers without concrete sides and trees that weren't chosen by committee. It's also a perk for the 5th graders, and they get to 'camp-out' for 4 days & 3 nights. The kid is so stoked!
Diane L. sent me a wonderful picture day before yesterday - from Montana, of lightning & fire & smoke. Will use it over the weekend. (Thanks, Diane!)
Tonight, Wednesday, CBS opens the night with '60 Minutes II', followed by a FRESH 'Big Brother 4', then '48 Hours'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Dave are Sharon Stone and the Raveonettes.
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers are Stephen Dorff, Loni Anderson, and Rob Cantrell.
NBC begins the evening with a RERUN 'Ed', followed by a RERUN 'West Wing', then a RERUN 'Law & Order'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are Farrah Fawcett, George Wallace, and Fountains of Wayne.
On a RERUN Conan are Kate Hudson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and O.A.R.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Holly Hunter, Seth Green, and Switchfoot.
ABC starts the night with a RERUN 'My Wife & Kids', followed by a RERUN 'George Lopez', then another RERUN
'George Lopez', followed by a RERUN 'Drew Carey', then the Season Finale of 'The Family'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Cheech Marin, Katherine Heigl, and Nick Swardson, with this week's guest co-host Adam Carolla.
The WB offers a RERUN 'Smallville', followed by a RERUN 'Angel'.
Faux has a RERUN 'That 70's Show', followed by another RERUN 'That 70's Show', then a
FRESH 'Parasite Hotel'.
UPN has the Season Premiere of 'Enterprise', followed by the Series Premiere of 'Jake 2.0'.
A&E has 'Biography' (Joan Crawford), 'American Justice', and 'Take This Job...'.
AMC offers the movie 'The bridges At Toko-Ri', followed by the movie 'Von Ryan's Express', and then the movie 'Sands Of Iwo Jima'.
BBC -
[6:00 pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'Behind the Screen' - Coupling;
[7pm] 'Ground Force' - Isle of Sheppey;
[7:30pm] 'Changing Rooms' - Merseryside;
[8pm] 'Homefront in the Garden' - South Woodford;
[8:30pm] 'Homefront in the Garden' - Derby;
[9pm] 'My Hero' - Episode 3;
[9:40pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 1;
[10:20pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 2;
[11pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Christian Slater;
[11:30pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Daryl Hannah;
[12am] 'My Hero' - Episode 3;
[12:40am] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 1;
[1:20am] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 2;
[2am] 'Homefront in the Garden' - South Woodford;
[2:30am] 'Homefront in the Garden' - Derby;
[3am] 'So Graham Norton' - Christian Slater;
[3:30am] 'So Graham Norton' - Daryl Hannah;
[4am] 'My Hero' - Episode 3;
[4:40am] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 1;
[5:20am] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 2; and
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'West Wing', 'Reality Of Reality', another 'Reality Of Reality', 'The West Wing', and another 'West Wing'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jon Stewart is Kate Beckinsale.
History is all 'Modern Marvels' all night.
SciFi has 'Tracker', then the movie 'The Flintstones'.
TCM celebrates James Mason on Wednesday nights in September.
[6:30am] 'A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob' (1941);
[8:30am] 'Obliging Young Lady' (1941);
[10am] 'Parachute Battalion' (1942);
[11:30am] 'Powder Town' (1942);
[1pm] 'Fighter Squadron' (1948);
[3pm] 'D.O.A.' (1950);
[4:30pm] 'The Hitch-Hiker' (1953);
[6pm] 'The Rack' (1956);
[8pm] 'Cry Terror' (1958);
[10pm] 'Lolita' (1962);
[12:45am] 'Mayerling' (1968);
[3am] 'Hotel Reserve' (1946); and
[4:30am] 'The Arnelo Affair' (1947). (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sherry Conable flashes a peace sign to supporters after addressing the The Santa Cruz City Council as it considered a measure asking Congress to impeach President Bush inside City Hall in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2003. The council passed the measure. City leaders say Bush violated international treaties by going to war in Iraq, and that the president manipulated public fears to justify the war and undercut Constitutional rights. Santa Cruz is the first community in the country calling for Bush's ouster.
Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Unveil Reunion Plans
Simon and Garfunkel
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel on Tuesday unveiled plans for their first major concert tour since 1983, due to kick off Oct. 18 at the Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit.
The trek, dubbed "Old Friends," will run through mid-December and will visit around 30 markets. Tickets for some shows will go on sale Monday (Sept. 15).
Shows will find the legendary folk/rock duo performing both acoustically and with a full backing band, which will include drummer Jim Keltner and guitarist Mark Stewart, who played on Simon's 2000 Warner Bros. album "You're the One."
Simon and Garfunkel
Returning to Sunday Comic Strips
Opus
Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed is resurrecting Opus the penguin from the 1980s comic strip "Bloom County" for a new series to appear in Sunday comics this November.
The Sunday-only strip, to be called "Opus," begins Nov. 23, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. It will be syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group.
A 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winner for editorial cartooning, Breathed stopped drawing the daily "Bloom County" in 1989 when it was running in nearly 1,300 papers. He began a Sunday strip, "Outland," with many of the same characters — including the penguin's hairball-hacking sidekick, Bill the cat — but quit that in 1995.
Opus
FCC Says Show Is News Program
Howard Stern
The Federal Communications Commission ruled Tuesday that Stern's raunchy radio program is a "bona fide news interview" program.
The decision was in response to a request made by New York-based Infinity Broadcasting Operations Inc., which wanted a ruling that its widely syndicated Stern show is a news program and exempt from equal time requirements for political candidates.
The decision will allow Stern to put actor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the air without having to offer time to the scores of other candidates running for governor in California.
Howard Stern
The Walt Disney Company has begun to sell Disney movies on disposable DVDs in a four city test to see if consumers will pick up a limited life DVD rather than renting and returning to a video rental store. When the Flexplay DVD , shown in this undated publicity photograph, is removed from its packaging and exposed to air, a process begins that renders the disc unplayable after the pre-set viewing period elapses. The disc becomes opaque and thereby unreadable when the disc changes color from red to black. The DVD's will carry a suggested price of $6.99.
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ABC Thinks The Format Is The Problem
'This Week'
ABC is ditching the roundtable, a centerpiece of its Sunday morning political show, "This Week," since David Brinkley started it more than two decades ago.
The network is debuting a new format this weekend for George Stephanopoulos' struggling show, which is now frequently in third place in a competition it dominated during Brinkley's heyday. NBC's "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert is the Sunday morning king.
ABC is trying to build a show more suited to Stephanopoulos' talents for explaining what is happening in the political world, Bettag said.
'This Week'
Guitar To Be Auctioned
George Harrison
A guitar used by George Harrison at the last Beatles concerts more than 30 years ago is expected to fetch at least 250,000 dollars when it goes up for auction this weekend, officials said.
The instrument, which was also used by the legendary guitarist during the filming of the classic Beatles movie "Let It Be," is the focus of a sale of hundreds of items of entertainment memorabilia to be held in Hollywood.
"It's a custom-made Fender Rosewood Telecaster guitar, and expected to sell for 250,000 dollars or more," said Bill Miller, President of Odyssey Auctions in Los Angeles.
"He played it on January 30, 1969 on the rooftop of Apple Records in London, the last time the Beatles performed together in public," he added.
The instrument is being sold by musician Delaney Bramlett who received it as a gift from Harrison in December 1969.
George Harrison
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
New Photos Released
Wright Brothers
A misty black and white photograph shows Orville Wright taking off in a Wright transitional aircraft in 1910. Another shot from the same year shows a trio of Wright Co. pilots clowning around before a flight.
These and about 200 others make up The Frank Coffyn Collection, an interactive exhibit launched online Tuesday by the Empire State Aerosciences Museum of Glenville, N.Y. It's one of several events celebrating the Wright brothers' 100th anniversary of powered flight.
The exhibit contains the contents of a scrapbook kept by Coffyn, the son of a wealthy South Carolina banker who became fascinated by flight in 1909. Coffyn met Wilbur Wright and began flight instruction in Dayton, Ohio.
Coffyn flew with the Wright Co. for about a year and trained other pilots in Dayton. He later opened two flight schools in Georgia and flew a Wright Model B demonstration flight over New York City, during which he shot the first aerial footage of the metropolis.
Wright Brothers
www.centennialofflight.gov/coffyn
Xin Xin, one of three female Pandas at Mexico City's Chapultepec Zoo, scartches her jaw in her pen August 29, 2003. One of Mexico City's three female pandas will travel to Ueno Zoo in Tokyo to be artificially inseminated with the sperm of male panda Ling Ling. Ling Ling has visited the Mexico City zoo three times to mate with the female pandas, but has failed to procreate.
Photo by Henry Romero
Many Ran Alternate
'Doonesbury'
It was expected that many newspapers wouldn't run this past Sunday's "Doonesbury" mentioning masturbation. But the number turned out to be unusually high.
When contacted by E&P Online, an American Color spokesperson said 84% of its newspaper clients opted to publish a substitute Sept. 7 strip by Garry Trudeau. These 200-plus clients include papers that use American Color prepress services or get their Sunday comics printed by American Color Graphics.
"Doonesbury" runs in about 1,400 daily and Sunday papers, meaning the American Color figures don't represent every Sunday client of the Universal Press Syndicate comic.
'Doonesbury'
Toymaker Sues Paramount
Slip 'N Slide
Wham-O Inc.'s famous outdoor water toy, Slip 'N Slide, figures prominently in Paramount Pictures' newly released film comedy starring David Spade, but the toy maker is not amused.
Wham-O filed suit against the Viacom Inc.-owned studio in federal court on Monday, claiming its trademarked yellow water slide was used in the movie, "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star," without the company's permission.
The suit also names as a defendant the Happy Madison production company owned by Spade's former "Saturday Night Live" co-star Adam Sandler.
Slip 'N Slide
Kathmandu Parade
Kumari
Tens of thousands of spectators crowded into central Kathmandu for a glimpse at a seven year-old girl worshipped as a goddess, who is paraded by chariot once a year.
Accompanied by musicians and a ceremonial army contingent, three chariots carried by men young and old worked their way through the city's principal throughfares carrying the goddess Kumari, a girl who lives in seclusion and is reputed to bring good fortune.
The festival is based on the legend of the god Indra, who descended into the Kathmandu Valley to steal a white flower for his mother but was caught red-handed by residents and detained for the night.
The residents repented when they learned the god's identity and began the annual celebration in his honour.
Kumari
Lowers Height of Fence
Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell has complied with a village ordinance that required her to lower the height of the fence surrounding her properties in this Rockland County community.
South Nyack Village Attorney Keith Cornell said the comedian and former talk show host was issued violations recently for extending her fence with a fabric attachment beyond the height the village allows. Cornell said the case was resolved when O'Donnell took down the fabric.
Separately, a court hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 3 on several summonses O'Donnell received for cutting down trees on the same properties without a permit.
Rosie O'Donnell
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Faces Suspended Sentence
Guillaume Depardieu
A prosecutor asked Tuesday for a one-year suspended prison sentence, a fine and psychological counseling for actor Guillaume Depardieu, who faces charges of threatening a man with a gun.
The son of celebrated French movie star Gerard Depardieu briefly became ill during the hearing at Lisieux in Normandy, forcing a 25-minute suspension. The hearing resumed after a doctor checked the 32-year-old actor.
Depardieu faces charges of illegally carrying a weapon, violence with a weapon and menacing behavior for allegedly threatening a man with a firearm while at a Normandy bar in August. Police said he drew the weapon and fired it in the air after the man mocked his clothes.
Guillaume Depardieu
The revamped U.S. $20 bill, along with its faint tinge of peach color in the background, will make its way into bank vaults and consumers' pockets in early October, according to the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. The new $20, whose design is shown after its unveiling in this May 13, 2003, file photo, is to be made available to banks on Oct. 9, Marsha Reidhill, assistant director for cash and fiscal agency for the Federal Reserve, said in a recent interview.
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Decries Rapes in Congo
Jessica Lange
Actress Jessica Lange says the conflict in eastern Congo represents the greatest humanitarian crisis on the planet with women and girls the target of an extraordinary campaign of sexual violence.
"The scale of this violence in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) is on a greater level than anyone has ever seen," Lange said in an interview on Tuesday after her first assignment as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the U.N. children's fund.
"It's the greatest humanitarian crisis on the planet right now," Lange said about the 5-year-old war that has claimed more than 3 million lives. "With rampant, lawless violence against women and absolutely no end in sight for it."
Jessica Lange
Launches Viagra Rival Blitz
Mike Ditka
The battle to take on Viagra in the multibillion-dollar anti-impotence market was joined in earnest on Tuesday, when former NFL player and coach Mike Ditka helped launch a campaign on behalf of new rival Levitra.
Given the daunting task of going head-to-head with a drug that has a five-year head start and phenomenal name recognition in Viagra, Bayer AG and GlaxoSmithKline Plc turned to the testosterone-drenched world of the National Football League and the former coach with a tough-as-nails reputation.
The companies, which signed a three-year sponsorship deal with the NFL, unveiled their "Tackling Men's Health" campaign at a news conference at Madison Square Garden. Levitra won U.S. approval from the Food and Drug Administration last month.
"I'm not embarrassed by coming out and saying I have ED (erectile dysfunction). Not to talk about it would have been stupid," said Ditka, sporting a floral print Hawaiian shirt and his Bears Super Bowl championship ring.
Mike Ditka
Proudly Piggish
Silvio Berlusconi
Italy's controversial Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asserted his right to make politically incorrect statements and insisted that he had no intention of changing.
"I am a stranger to politics. I am not and I do not want to become a professional politician," he explained when a Danish journalist enquired whether he was angered that many Europeans could not understand his behaviour.
"I have behaviour that is strange in politics, like telling the truth in certain situations. It is in line with what people think but against what is considered politically correct," he added.
"In fact, I think it is fun to provoke reactions and just for this, I have no reason to change. I will stay myself," Berlusconi concluded.
Silvio Berlusconi
Deemed Threat to Saudi Morality
Barbie
Saudi Arabia's religious police have declared Barbie dolls a threat to morality, complaining that the revealing clothes of the "Jewish" toy — already banned in the kingdom — are offensive to Islam.
The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, as the religious police are officially known, lists the dolls on a section of its Web site devoted to items deemed offensive to the conservative Saudi interpretation of Islam.
"Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful," said a poster on the site.
Although illegal, Barbies, the creation of California-based Mattel Inc., are found on the black market, where a contraband doll could cost $27 or more.
Women in Saudi Arabia must cover themselves from head to toe with a black cloak in public. They are not allowed to drive and cannot go out in public unaccompanied by a male family member.
Other items listed as violations on the site included Valentine's Day gifts, perfume bottles in the shape of women's bodies, clothing with logos that include a cross, and decorative copies of religious items — offensive because they could be damaged and thus insult Islam.
Barbie
www.hesbah.gov.sa
Letterman Bids Farewell
Warren Zevon
Singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, received a warmhearted and poignant farewell from talk-show host David Letterman.
The star of CBS's "Late Show" spent several minutes of Monday night's broadcast reminiscing about his friendship with Zevon and his admiration for his music. Soon after Zevon announced last year that he was dying, Letterman turned over an entire program for a visit with him, and he showed clips from that show Monday.
"He was a poet and a storyteller and a good friend of ours," Letterman said. "We all knew this was coming, hoping that it wouldn't, but yesterday afternoon in California the inevitable happened. So we're very sad about that."
He noted that Zevon had appeared as a guest on the program and Letterman's old NBC "Late Night" show more than a dozen times and had filled in for bandleader Paul Shaffer nearly two dozen times.
"People are always asking me what do I like about his music," Letterman said.
"It was just thundering and exciting and rhythmic and complicated and unusual rock 'n' roll," he continued. "It was not the kind of rock 'n' roll you would hear much of. And then the lyrics, oh my God, the lyrics were so vivid. Just very evocative and each song that you listened to was like watching a motion picture."
Shaffer and the band played Zevon's songs throughout the show, which ended with Letterman speaking to the camera, saying, "Goodnight, Warren, we'll see ya."
Warren Zevon
Jackson Browne Pays Tribute
Warren Zevon
Jackson Browne has been deeply moved by the death of Warren Zevon on Sunday (September 7) at the age of 56. Browne told LAUNCH that the loss of his old friend is made that much worse by the loss of Zevon's gift for songwriting.
Browne also told LAUNCH that Zevon should be regarded as one of the best songwriters ever. "He doesn't have to write any more songs to have written some of the best songs anybody's ever written--funny songs, you know, that are very true about life," Browne said. "This is all there will be of that particular thing, and that is a real sad thing to me."
Browne was one of Zevon's early champions, producing his first two albums and making frequent guest appearances on his recordings--including Zevon's latest release, the Wind.
For more, Warren Zevon
Dave Barry Pays Tribute
Warren Zevon
He was also fascinated by writing. One of his closest friends was The Herald's Carl Hiaasen, a fellow twisted mind whom Zevon sought out at a book signing after Hiaasen mentioned him in his book Native Tongue. Through Hiaasen, Zevon became an honorary member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band of writers (I'm one) who periodically attempt, without success, to play rock 'n' roll. In 1998, at Hiaasen's urging, we invited Zevon to perform with the band; to our shock, he agreed, and flew to Miami to join us on stage for a performance at the Miami Book Fair.
We did several of his songs, including Poor, Poor Pitiful Me; the hilarious Hula Hula Boys; and the legendary Lawyers, Guns and Money. We also did Werewolves of London, but Zevon insisted that it had to be sung by Stephen King. King happily agreed, belting out a truly frightening version of the song, much to Zevon's delight.
That was typical of Zevon, happily playing second fiddle to a bunch of talent-impaired authors. He was anything but the ego-crazed, self-important rock star. One night the band gathered at my house, and after a couple of hours, one of Zevon's songs, by random chance, popped up on the CD changer. Zevon jumped up, raced to the stereo, and turned it off. He was relentlessly self-deprecating about his life, his career; you could not give the man a compliment. To me, it always seemed as though his friends and his fans loved him far more than he loved himself.
For the rest, Warren Zevon
Private Services Planned
Warren Zevon
Family and friends are planning a small private memorial service for singer-songwriter Warren Zevon.
His manager, Brigette Barr, says at that time Zevon's ashes will be scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
A public memorial service may occur at a later date.
Warren Zevon
In Memory
Leni Riefenstahl
Leni Riefenstahl, whose hypnotic depiction of Hitler's Nuremberg rally, "Triumph of the Will," was renowned and despised as the best propaganda film ever made, has died. She was 101.
Riefenstahl died Monday night at her home in the Bavarian lakeside town of Poecking, mayor Rainer Schnitzler said.
A tireless innovator of film and photographic techniques, Riefenstahl's career centered on a quest for adventure and portraying physical beauty.
Even as she turned 100 last year, she strapped on scuba gear to photograph sharks in turquoise waters. She had begun to complain recently that injuries sustained in accidents over the years, including a helicopter crash in Sudan in 2000, had taken their toll and caused her constant pain.
Despite critical acclaim for her later photographs of the African Nuba people and of undersea flora and fauna, she spent more than half her life trying to live down the films she made for Hitler and for having admired the tyrant who devastated Europe and all but eliminated its Jews.
Even as late as 2002, Riefenstahl was investigated for Holocaust denial after she said she did not know that Gypsies taken from concentration camps to be used as extras in one of her wartime films later died in the camps. Authorities eventually dropped the case, saying her comments did not rise to a prosecutable level.
Speaking to The Associated Press just before her 100th birthday on Aug. 22, 2002, Riefenstahl dramatically said she has "apologized for ever being born" but that she should not be criticized for her masterful films.
"I don't know what I should apologize for," she said. "I cannot apologize, for example, for having made the film 'Triumph of the Will' — it won the top prize. All my films won prizes."
Biographer Juergen Trimborn, who wrote "Riefenstahl: A German Career," said she could not apologize because the Nazi films were the centerpieces of her career.
"One can't speak about Leni Riefenstahl without looking at her entire career in the Third Reich," Trimborn said. "Her most important films were made during the Third Reich — 'Triumph of the Will,' 'Olympia,' — that's what's she's known for."
Riefenstahl said she had always been guided by the search for beauty, whether it was in her images of the 1934 Nuremberg rallies with thousands of goose-stepping soldiers and enraptured civilians fawning for their Fuehrer, in her dazzling portrayal of the 1936 Olympic athletes in Berlin, or in her still photographs of the sculpted Nuba men.
"I always see more of the good and the beautiful than the ugly and sick," Riefenstahl said. "Through my optimism I naturally prefer and capture the beauty in life."
Born Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl in Berlin on Aug. 22, 1902, she was the first child of Alfred Riefenstahl, the owner of a heating and ventilation firm, and his wife, Bertha Scherlach.
Riefenstahl's artistic career began as a creative dancer until a knee injury led her to switch to movies.
After she saw one of Arnold Fanck's silent films set in the mountains, Riefenstahl presented herself to him as his new star, and he accepted, as much for her blue-eyed, high-cheekboned beauty as her daredevil spirit.
She climbed rocks barefoot for the camera and was buried in an avalanche for the death scene in the 1926 film "Mountain of Destiny." Soon, she was making her own films, fairy tales such as "The Blue Light" celebrating Germany's Alpine mystique, in which she was star, screenwriter and director.
She heard Hitler speak for the first time at a 1932 rally and wrote to him — again offering her talents. In her memoirs, Riefenstahl describes her first impression of Hitler's charisma.
Though she said she knew nothing of Hitler's "Final Solution" and learned of concentration camps only after the war, Riefenstahl said she confronted the Fuehrer about his anti-Semitism, one of many apparent contradictions in her claims of total ignorance of the Nazi mission.
Likewise, she defended "Triumph of the Will" as a documentary that contained "not one single anti-Semitic word," while avoiding any talk about filming Nazi official Julius Streicher haranguing the crowd about "racial purity" laws.
Many suspected Riefenstahl of being Hitler's lover, which she also denied. Nonetheless, as his filmmaker, Riefenstahl was the only woman to help shape the rise of the Third Reich.
She made four films for Hitler, the best known of which were "Triumph of the Will" and "Olympia," a meditation on muscle and movement at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
She married once, in 1944 to army Maj. Peter Jacob, but the couple split three years later. She had no children, and her only sibling, Heinz, was killed on the eastern front during World War II.
Riefenstahl spent three years under allied arrest after the war, some of the time in a mental hospital. War tribunals ultimately cleared her of any wrongdoing but suspicion of being a Nazi collaborator stuck. She was boycotted as a film director and sank into poverty, living with her mother in a one-room apartment.
She reclaimed her career in the 1960s when she lived with and photographed the Nuba.
She next turned to underwater photography, diving in the Maldives, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and off Papua New Guinea. She learned to dive when she was 72, lying about her age by 20 years to gain admittance to a class.
At age 100, she released a new film based on her dives, "Impressions Under Water."
A funeral was planned for Friday in Munich.
Leni Riefenstahl
The Art Of Leni Riefenstahl
'The Osbournes'
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