Alex's Entertainment Report
Alex
Entertaining & Useful Site!
Great Animations, Too
Got a note from Jeff Crook, asking if I'd been to his site,
Uncommon Sense lately.
Laughed out loud at the borg republicans.
But, nearly sprayed the monitor with beer when I clicked on the singing ashcroft. Now, I believe in free speech, but,
hearing Groucho's voice coming out of the singing asscroft borders on blasphemy!
Isn't that clip from 'Duck Soup', where Freedonia has just declared war on Sylvania? (''All God's Children Got War''?)
Lots of things worth reading, and fun stuff to keep you entertained, too.
Uncommon Sense...Check it out!
The Worried Shrimp
Gone Fishing
The Worried Shrimp is taking a couple of weeks off to go fishing.
Here is his explanation...The Worried Shrimp.
Thanks, Marc....have a great time!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Updated, Again!
Got a note from Michele K, and
In the Kitchen with Bartcop and Friends
has been updated, again!
11 new recipes including a Tequila Tasting Report on El Tesoro Anejo.
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Started the night, pretty much as usual with 'Jeopardy'. There was a category in the 'Double Jeopardy' round
with questions about the Clinton administration, read by the Big Dog himself! The last elected president
is on a game show, and nobody knew.
Had the NBC sitcoms on in the background, and then ended up at 'The Agency'. I'm so old I can remember
when 'Hawaii 5-0' did the plague episode better....book 'em, Dano. On the other hand, didn't realize that Shaun
Cassidy was a producer of 'The Agency'. I guess I'm one of the few who really liked 'American Gothic', so I guess I expected a bit more.
Tonight, Friday, CBS starts the night with a rerun of 'JAG', followed by a fresh
'First Monday' and '48 Hours'.
NBC has a 2 hour 'Dateline' followed by a fresh 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
ABC rolls out a fresh 'Funniest Videos' and then a rerun 'All New Bloopers', and '20/20'.
It's a night of reruns of the WB, with 'Sabrina', 'Raising Dad', 'Reba', and 'Maybe It's Me'.
Faux has reruns of 'That 70's Show' and 'Titus', followed by a fresh 'Dark Angel'.
UPN has the movie, 'Fair Game'.
AMC has 'Raiders Of The Lost Arc' followed by 'Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom'.
Just checked out HBO to see who the guest is on Dennis Miller...and the guest is TBA. Don't think that's
such a good sign, 3 weeks in & nobody wants to do the show?
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Won Return Of Early Master Recordings
Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor has won the return of master recordings made early in his career by settling his lawsuit against a Middlesex County enterprise.
Last spring, Pryor sued Michael Chernow and his Sayreville-based companies, M.B. Music Inc. and San Juan Music Group Ltd., claiming
the defendants infringed on his property rights.
Chernow agreed to return the recordings and refrain from any infringement. He admitted no wrongdoing.
In return, Pryor paid $10,000, Chernow said. That was the sum M.B. Music paid in 1988 for the assets of the bankrupt LaffRecords, which
Pryor had licensed to market some of his recordings, according to findings by U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise.
Pryor's latest album won a Grammy last month for album notes: "Richard Pryor ... And It's Deep Too! The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (1968-1992)."
Richard Pryor
Digitally Enhanced?
Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger must still think it's a drag getting old. The Rolling Stone is said to have used digital wizardry to wipe away some of
his 58 years on the video for his solo single "Visions of Paradise."
Crow's-feet, eye bags, laugh lines — all his famous wrinkles — appear to have miraculously vanished when Jagger comes in for his closeup on the reel.
Jagger's rep said she didn't know how Mick came to look so good in the video. But reps for Michael Jackson acknowledged that producers
of his Madison Square Garden concert broadcast used digital enhancement to give Jacko and Whitney Houston makeovers.
"I don't think enjoying life is an exclusive prerogative of young people," Jagger said in a TV interview last fall. "I think it's stupid to
behave like you're 17. But that doesn't mean to say you have to be an old fart sitting in the pub talking about what happened in the 1960s."
Mick Jagger
Who's The Whore?
Faux F's Up Real Good
Apparently there are no watchdogs anywhere at Fox. Over at Fox News (we say "news" loosely), this actually happened: On Feb. 22, a
producer phoned Ray Richmond, a freelance entertainment journalist and co-creator of a humor site called
HollywoodPulse.com, and asked if Richmond would come on, apparently as some kind of media
expert, to talk about Paula Poundstone and whether she was getting preferential treatment in regard to her well-documented legal troubles with her children.
In a brilliant send-up of how guests and experts are chosen for news shows, Richmond said yes, and his interview was taped three days later. The
story aired March 1, with Richmond playing straight guy. Apparently nobody at Fox News bothered to look at HollywoodPulse.com, or the Poundstone
story (did they just Google her name or something?) because the satire was pretty damn clear. The Web site's headline: "Poundstone granted 'supervised' child abuse."
As Richmond wrote in a follow-up on the site, Fox News was "completely unaware of the fact" that he "represented an entertainment Web zine
comprised entirely of satire and spoof. . . . All anyone at the network would have had to do is actually have read the first paragraph of the (Web
site piece about Poundstone) to discover it was 100 percent crap."
A Fox News spokesman replied, "It's a well-known fact that Ray Richmond is a media whore and is trying to extend his five minutes of fame."
Faux F's Up Real Good
Fun Link
The Euphemism Generator
The Euphemism Generator
Hobby That Turned Into A Career
Bonnie Raitt
Legendary rocker Bonnie Raitt is the first to admit that talent had nothing to do with getting a break in the music business. She says she
got her foot in the door because she was a woman who could play lead guitar, "and there's not that many around."
"I did this as a hobby and it turned into a career in college, when I was just trying to make some extra money at some coffee houses," Raitt
told reporters. "My dream was to be able to use music to make the world a better place, and that is something I've held onto."
Raitt, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame later this month and will hit the
road March 30. Her new album, "Silver Lining," is due in stores April 9.
Bonnie Raitt
Thanks To Fud
Hear The 'Trifecta' Statement
(quoting)
'' And we've got a job to do at home, as well. You know, I was campaigning in Chicago and somebody asked me, is there ever any time where the budget might have to go into deficit? I said only if we were at war or had a national emergency or were in recession. (Laughter.) Little did I realize we'd get the trifecta. (Laughter.) But we're fine. ''
Scroll down 31 paragraphs to read it for yourself.
Hear The 'Trifecta' Quote Here.
Many Thanks, to Fud, a loyal bartcopper : )
Hosting 'SNL' This Week
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen is in town to serve as host of "Saturday Night Live" this weekend. He's still working on his opening monologue, but he's playing with
the idea "that I've had enough of being a gay icon! I've had enough of all this hard work, because, since I came out, I keep getting all these
parts, and my career's taken off. I want a quiet life! I'm going back into the closet. But I can't get back into the closet, because it's absolutely
jam-packed full of other actors!"
McKellen was tickled by Ellen DeGeneres' "SNL" monologue last December, in which she proclaimed that she's really not gay and thanked her
husband, "Jerry," for minding the fort while "I'm fruiting around."
"Perhaps I should get married to Ellen!" said McKellen. "Or Rosie [O'Donnell] now!"
In his off-hours, he plays mentor to fans on his Web site, www.mckellen.com.
"I know, particularly for young gays and their families, to be able to just make a little contact with someone whose life seems to be
carrying on normally is an encouragement," he says. "But my rule is I'll only write back once. I'm not going to start a lonely-hearts club."
Ian McKellen
SNL Reruns To Move From Comedy Central
E! Network
In an exclusive, multiyear deal, E! Networks has licensed the entire library of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," most of which has been based
at Comedy Central for more than a decade.
The pact, which insiders said is worth in the $50 million range, represents one of -- if not the -- largest, priciest acquisitions in E!'s history.
All told it will involve some 625 episodes of the late-night comedy showcase. The entertainment cable channel will use "SNL" as a marquee primetime series.
Beginning in September, E! will begin airing episodes from the current 2001-02 season of "SNL"; every fall thereafter, net will get the previous season to air.
The remaining library of "SNL" episodes from the 1975-76 through 2000-01 seasons come to E! by January 2004, with the deal extending through 2008.
In addition, E! has struck a separate deal with Michaels' Broadway Video to bring the first five seasons of "SNL" (1975-76 through 1979-80) to the network beginning
April 1 (Broadway Video controls the rights to the first five seasons through the end of 2003).
Beginning April 1, E! will air the 102 classic episodes of "SNL," featuring such original and early cast members as Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin,
Bill Murray and Gilda Radner, Monday-Friday at 7 p.m.
SNL Reruns To Move From Comedy Central
See It For Yourself
Sing Along With John Ashcroft
Sing Along With John Ashcroft
Fun Republicans?
'Blinded By The Right'
Nobody knows how to swing like a secretly miserable Clinton-basher, according to David Brock's new memoir, "Blinded by the Right: The
Conscience of an Ex-Conservative."
Brock is the former American Spectator writer who made his bones attacking Anita Hill after she testified about Supreme Court nominee
Clarence Thomas, and by bringing Paula Jones out of the Arkansas wilderness. He has since found liberal religion, declaring that he knew
his "exposés" to be false when he wrote them.
Now he's dishing about many of the preachy, family-values, right-to-life pundits he met during the '90s.
Among his allegations:
Brock and lawyer Ann Coulter "smoked [and] drank to excess — Ann seemed to live on nothing but Chardonnay and cigarettes — and vented out
our anger and cruelty by hurling all manner of epithets at liberals and the disadvantaged."
Laura Ingraham "confided she didn't believe much of what she was saying on the airwaves." Once in Washington, "Laura, in a drunken stupor,
crawled through [a] packed two-story dance club on her hands and knees, looking for me."
Ingraham and Coulter are declining comment on Brock's book.
Asked why anyone should believe him when he has admitted fabricating in the past, Brock says, "The book has to be judged on its merits.
I made a personal decision to come clean, and I'm happy with that."
'Blinded By The Right'
'Tales From the Black Museum'
Resurrecting Orson
Orson Welles, who died in 1985, is being resurrected to star in a new TV series.
"Tales From the Black Museum" will be narrated by Welles' voice taken from the 1952 BBC radio series of the same name, and features
an actor playing the iconic filmmaker in silhouette. The plot lines are based on true stories taken from Scotland Yard's criminal cases.
Michael York is set to star in the first episode, which begins shooting March 16. U.K. and Canadian investors have ponied up about $7
million to produce the first 13 shows.
Resurrecting Orson
'Life of the Party'
Nathan Lane
Openly gay Nathan Lane played a womanizing heterosexual opera singer on NBC's short-lived "Encore! Encore!" back in 1998. Maybe Lane will
have better luck now that CBS has ordered a new pilot, "Life of the Party," in which Lane plays TV-star-turned-congressman Charlie Lawrence - who
happens to be gay. The show was created by ex-"Frasier" writer Jeffrey Richman and is being heralded by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
"Charlie's sexual orientation is presented matter-of-factly," says GLAAD media director Scott Seomin. "There's no dramatic 'coming-out'
scene. Both Nathan and the script are extremely funny - and I love the idea of a gay congressman."
Lane will receive GLAAD's Vito Russo Award at the 2002 GLAAD Media Awards (April 1) in Manhattan.
Nathan Lane
From 'Clueless' To 'Scrubs'
Donald Faison
If you think some of the scenes in the NBC medical series "Scrubs" are bizarre, actor Donald Faison says, you should see some of the stuff
that doesn't make it into the show. It's one of the compromises of being on network television in prime time.
"A lot of doctors I know are like, 'Listen, if you think that's funny, I've got a story that's better,'" Faison told reporters. "But the
problem is that they're all really nasty, and you don't really want to hear them."
Faison, who plays Chris Turk on the NBC series, said he was probably best known for his work on "Clueless," having appeared as Murray in
both the film and television versions. But that recognition hasn't made him a household name.
He added that sports fans know him better from his work on "Remember the Titans," reciting lines from the movie out of the blue and expecting
him to understand what they're talking about.
Donald Faison
Celebrity Boxing
Go Tonya!
Disgraced Olympic skater Tonya Harding and presidential scandal queen Paula Jones squared off Thursday in a TV boxing match that
featured an undercard of entertainment has-beens.
"Celebrity Boxing," which was being taped at the KTLA * studios for Dick Clark Productions, is scheduled to air next week on Fox.
The taping was closed to the media.
The show also featured '70s TV stars Danny Bonaduce — Danny Partridge from "The Partridge Family" — versus Barry Williams, oldest
brother Greg from "The Brady Bunch."
Rapper Vanilla Ice was to battle Todd Bridges, Willis from TV's "Diff'rent Strokes," in the night's third fight.
Fox did interviews with the women during the weigh-in but wouldn't let other reporters talk to them. Earlier this month, the 5-foot-3 Jones
joked that fighting the 5-foot-1 Harding might ruin her new look.
The women's weights also weren't disclosed. Harding looked buff in blue stretch pants and a white tank top, her blond hair in a ponytail,
while Jones wore big hoop earrings and gray stretch sweats. Later, both laughed and smiled as they posed in boxing gloves and satin robes.
Celebrity Boxing
* KTLA is owned by the Tribune Syndicate, channel 5, and part of the WB. Faux in LA is channel 11. Danny Bonaduce
works for Dick Clark Productions, and he & Dick, himself, are seen daily on 'The Other Half', which is on NBC affiliates across the nation (and
channel 4 in LA). Danny also does a radio show in LA...Talk about cross-promotion potential!
His Own 20 Car Garage
Jerry Seinfeld
As master of his televised domain, Jerry Seinfeld handled all manner of urban headaches — the dearth of parking spaces, the abundance of construction noise.
Now the comedian has found a permanent solution to problem No. 1 while contributing to problem No. 2: He's building a private Manhattan parking garage.
Seinfeld's 20-car Upper West Side garage, which would house his collection of Porsches, first was reported Wednesday in The New York Observer.
Located on West 83rd Street, three blocks from the former "Seinfeld" star's apartment, the garage already is two years in the making and is scheduled for
completion in June. And some neighbors are less than amused by the heavy drilling this week to complete digging of a basement.
According to The Observer, the new garage would cost about $1.4 million and would have 20 parking spaces for Seinfeld's decade-old Porsche collection. Most
of the cars are in storage near his Santa Monica, Calif., home or in a garage at the Southampton, N.Y., estate he bought in 2000 from singer Billy Joel.
Jerry Seinfeld
Rochester International Jazz Festival
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin will be the headliner at the first Rochester International Jazz Festival.
Franklin will be the grand finale singer at the festival, which will run June 3-9. More than 50 jazz and contemporary music artists
are scheduled to appear, including Dr. John, Sonny Rollins, Dianne Reeves, The Blue Brothers Band, The Rippingtons and The Average White Band.
Performances will range from formal concerts to free appearances at museums and grocery stores.
Aretha Franklin
Rochester International Jazz Festival Web site
Interesting Link
Tin Foil Hat Time?
A French Theory
Look Who's 'The Cat in the Hat'
Mike Myers
Mike Myers will play the title role in a live-action movie version of the Dr. Seuss classic "The Cat in the Hat," putting him back in business with the studio
and producers he was at war with two years ago, Universal Pictures said on Thursday.
The film about the lanky, rambunctious feline in a striped stove-top hat will mark the second Seuss character brought to the big screen by Universal and production
partner Imagine Entertainment, which teamed up for 2000's top-grossing holiday hit "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
It also returns Myers to the Universal-Imagine fold for the first time since the three-way settlement of their legal feud over an aborted attempt to develop a movie
based on Myers' "Saturday Night Live" character "Dieter."
"The Cat in the Hat," first published in 1957, remains one of the best-selling hardcover children's books of all time.
The film is expected to follow the story line of the fast-talking cat who tries to bring cheer to two bored children on a rainy afternoon while their mother is out, only to turn
the house upside down with a series of wild games with two ill-mannered playmates, Thing One and Thing Two.
Mike Myers
Moved To The Back Of The TV Refrigerator
The Chair
ABC's new game show "The Chair" has been zapped from the airwaves, after a move to Monday nights failed to electrify its ratings.
An ABC spokeswoman said on Thursday the program starring former tennis bad boy John McEnroe has been temporarily pulled from the network's schedule.
She added there are "plans to bring it back," but declined to be more specific.
The show, in which contestants are strapped to a chair and electronically monitored and made to answer questions while trying to keep their heartbeat
in check, got off to a lukewarm start when it debuted on Jan. 15, pulling in an average 9.3 million viewers in its first seven outings on Tuesday nights.
The show's descent into ratings oblivion followed a similar fate for rival Fox game show "The Chamber," which premiered on a special night about the same
time and lasted only a single episode in its regular time slot before being canceled.
The Chair
Special Guest - Greg Palast - 16 March
Erin Hart
Saturday, March 16th at 10pm PST, Greg Palast visits with 710 KIRO-Seattle talk show host Erin Hart,
and discusses his new book on globalization, ''The Best Democracy Money Can Buy''.
For more details, visit Erin's fan page (courtesy of 14Dem), http://www.erinistas.com/, or to join her mailing list, drop a
note to erinistas@aol.com.
Or drop me a note at one of the addy's below....after all, I am Erin's 'LA Producer'.
Not A Laughing Matter?
Drew Carey
The question of whether airport security is a complete joke is creating friction between ABC sitcom star Drew Carey and the network.
An upcoming episode of "The Drew Carey Show" features Carey's ditsy sitcom buddies Lewis and Oswald (played by Ryan Stiles and Diedrich Bader)
as airport security guards.
ABC wanted at least one competent character included in the security force and intimated the script would be pulled if producers didn't comply,
Carey told the Los Angeles Times.
"I've never had a threat like that from the network. ... If you can't satirize authority institutions, what's the point," Carey was quoted in the Times on Wednesday.
"I think we have a pretty good track record of not being serious on the show," Carey responded. The episode was expected to be taped Wednesday with the
network-requested changes in place, the ABC source said. It's set to air next month.
Drew Carey
Woman With An Opinion
Sandra Bernhard
Reports of Sandra Bernhard's mellowing have been greatly exaggerated.
No less an authority than the New York Times, for instance, recently declared: "Perhaps because Ms. Bernhard is older now (she's 46) and the mother
of a 3-year-old, she isn't quite as dangerous nowadays."
As if to prove that she remains as dangerous as ever, she had this to say about President Bush and his performance post 9-11:
"It's pretty dismal and pretty scary," she said.
Of course, we suggested, Bernhard would say that as a liberal person from New York City.
"I'm an intelligent person from America," she riposted and launched a heated blast. "I was born in Michigan and raised in Arizona, and
while I do reside in New York, I travel the country extensively. Any thinking person who lives in the world would be disturbed at what's
going on right now. I think Bush is amateurish and self-serving, and frankly it's disgusting. I think everybody is covering their [posteriors]
with the Enron scandal and it was very convenient that Sept. 11 came along to deflect the fact that they should never have been in the White
House in the first place. What happened in the election was completely corrupt."
Sandra Bernhard
Tired Of Her 'Image'
Meg Ryan
At the age of 40, Hollywood star Meg Ryan is tired of her cutie-pie image.
In London to publicize her latest movie "Kate and Leopold," she told Friday's Independent newspaper: "I was locked into it. It starts to
get irritating, you know. It's not been easy wearing the mantle of America's sweetheart for so long."
And she admits her time may be running out in that particular Hollywood role: "I have realized for some time that there is a limit to
how long a girl can continue to play the cute and adorable card."
Meg Ryan
Identical Road Accidents
Twins Killed
Finnish twin brothers, aged 71, were killed in identical bicycle accidents along the same road two hours apart, police said Wednesday.
"This is simply a historic coincidence. Although the road is a busy one, accidents don't occur every day," police officer
Marja-Leena Huhtala told Reuters.
"It made my hair stand on end when I heard the two were brothers, and identical twins at that. It came to mind that perhaps
someone from upstairs had a say in this," she said.
One twin was hit by a truck and killed while out cycling early Tuesday on the west coast of Finland.
Before police had identified the body and informed family members, his brother was killed on his bicycle by a second truck a
half-mile down the road.
Twins Killed
Thanks, Alex!
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Freshly Updated!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
'Bob Woodward vs. John Belushi and Me'
Michael Dare - 'The Life and Death of Captain Preemo'
BartCop TV!
From BartCop
The Bush Rap (Sheet)
Special Bonus From BartCop
