'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Beautiful, sunny, windy day. The heat wave is over.
Went to a Chinese buffet for lunch - $7 for all you can eat. Wished I'd thought to line my pockets with baggies - they don't allow doggie bags.
Had the pleasure of driving to John Wayne airport at 4:30 this afternoon. Traffic was so good it took only 3 hours to get there & back - it's about 30 miles each way.
Tonight, Saturday, CBS has a fresh 'Touched By An Angle', then a fresh 'The District' followed by a fresh 'The Agency'.
NBC has the movie 'Goldeneye'.
SNL is a RERUN from 5/11/02, with Kirsten Dunst & Eminem.
The late-late SNL is from 12/01/90 with John Goodman & Faith No More.
ABC has the movie 'Any Given Sunday'.
The WB has the movie 'Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit'.
Faux has the ususal fresh 'Cops', then a RERUN 'Cops', then 'America's Most Wanted'.
UPN has the movie 'Top Gun'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Big Dog Watch Salutes Ann Landers
Bill Clinton & Esther ''Eppie'' Lederer
An autographed photograph of former President Bill Clinton and Esther ''Eppie'' Lederer, the columnist known as Ann Landers, is seen at Butterfields auction house
Friday, Nov. 22, 2002 in San Francisco. This photograph and many of Landers' personal memorabilia, clothing, paintings, and furniture will be put on the auction
block Sunday, Nov. 24, 2002 in San Francisco.
Photo by Ben Margot
#3
New Series For Showtime
Penn & Teller
The first of 13 half-hour episodes of "Penn & Teller: Bull Shit!" premieres Jan. 24, billed as an irreverent expose of taboo subjects
that Showtime says "may be too controversial for other networks."
Boisterous Penn Jillette and his silent, diminutive partner, Teller, will use their mastery of magic, carnival tricks and con-artistry, as well as hidden cameras and "blatant
confrontation" to shed light on frauds of fakes of all kinds.
Each episode will include interviews and undercover segments mixed with Penn & Teller's offbeat comedy-magic routine.
Penn & Teller, known for revealing the secrets of their tricks while keeping their audience baffled, are no strangers to network television, having appeared in numerous specials
and as guests on various sitcoms and late-night shows over the years. Their 1985 PBS special, "Penn & Teller Go Public," garnered two Emmy awards.
Penn & Teller
Music & MTV Carry AIDS Message
Nelson Mandela
The MTV pop channel is using its global reach, the sparkle of its stars and the moral authority of South Africa's Nelson Mandela to send a message of AIDS awareness
and tolerance to young people worldwide.
Video footage from a Cape Town concert Saturday featuring stars Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Alicia Keys will be combined with an earlier concert in Seattle to produce
a 90-minute program, likely to reach up to two billion people around the world, MTV executive Bill Roedy told Reuters Friday.
The Cape Town concert -- which the stars will be performing for free -- and the "Staying Alive" special, due for broadcast on World Aids Day, December 1, will feature
a hard-hitting segment with former South African President Mandela, who endured 27 years in prison for his anti-apartheid beliefs.
Mandela, who admits he still finds it difficult to say the word "condom" in public, has become a leading AIDS awareness campaigner in South Africa, the world's worst affected country.
Roedy said the concert, sponsored by computer billionaire Bill Gates through his private foundation and Levi Strauss jeans, was costing more than a million dollars to produce, despite
the artists performing for free.
Nelson Mandela
69th Birthday
Bono & Larry King
Irish singer Bono, left, of the group U2, helps CNN talk show host Larry King celebrate King's 69th birthday Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2002 with birthday cake at the CNN
studios in Los Angeles. Bono will be featured in a profile interview with King on the CNN program 'Larry King Live,' Dec. 1, 2002, marking World Aids Day.
Photo by Rose M. Prouser
Auction News
Ann Landers
There was no one too famous, too rich or too important to escape Eppie Lederer's advice--even when she wasn't officially on duty as Ann Landers.
This weekend, five months after Lederer's death at age 83, practically everything left in her wake that family or friends did not claim is going to auction. From her vast East Lake Shore
Drive apartment -- "Fourteen rooms? Fifteen rooms? No one ever counted," joked her daughter Margo Howard -- comes a collection that demonstrates the eclectic interests of the advice columnist.
The auctions will be held Saturday and Sunday in Elgin, Ill., at Bunte Auction Services, and Sunday in San Francisco at Butterfields Auctioneers, which is conducting its event live at the auction house and on the Internet.
Among the boxes are the faxes and handwritten notes that were sent almost daily between the sister columnists during the '90s dealing with practically any subject on their minds.
"I'm nervous about the upcoming election," Lederer wrote to her sister on the eve of the 2000 election. "I can't bear the thought of looking at George Bush's smirk for the
next four years--maybe eight. ... The next president will make three, maybe four appointments and I can see Roe vs. Wade and all the good stuff going down the tubes."
Months earlier, she had seen candidate Bush at a dinner gathering, and she told her sister then, "The guy is extremely good looking, but when he opens his mouth, you know that
he is not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree."
Ann Landers
Up For Auction
A Louis Armstrong Cornet
Jazz fans with a lot of disposable income can buy themselves a piece of history for Christmas this year. Louis Armstrong's cornet is up for auction.
The instrument, which Satchmo played in the movie "New Orleans," was discovered in a repair shop in Peoria, Ill., recently. A sharp-eyed Armstrong fan
recognized it from a poster for the 1947 flick. The find has a starting bid of $50,000 at momentsintime.com and is expected to fetch more than $75,000.
A uis Armstrong Cornet
Eagles Royalty Suit Settled
3 Songwriters
Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther and Jack Tempchin claimed that the publishing arm of Warner Music owed them millions of dollars in royalties from the Eagles' "Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)" package,
which included several songs the three helped write.
The three songwriters claimed that Warner Bros. Music, the predecessor to Warner-Chappell, licensed the songs to sister record label Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch under a "sweetheart deal" for use
on the Eagles' 1976 mega-selling greatest-hits collection.
Under that deal, the "mechanical royalty" -- paid to songwriters each time a song is played -- was set at fixed rate of 2.4 cents per song rather than under a formula that would allow it to
rise with inflation over time, the suit said. As a result, the plaintiffs claimed lost royalties in excess of $10 million in more than 25 years since the album's release.
The three plaintiffs earned songwriting credits on a total of four of the album's 10 tracks. Browne, who became a major recording star in his own right, co-wrote the hit "Take It Easy" with the
Eagles' Glenn Frey. Tempchin wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and shared credits for "Already Gone." Souther collaborated with Frey and Don Henley on "Best of My Love."
3 Songwriters
New List Ranks U.S. Producers' Cleanliness
Turkey
This week, American shoppers can for the first time choose Thanksgiving turkeys that US government data say are the least likely to carry Salmonella
bacteria, the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced Thursday.
The group released a list of US turkey producing plants that includes rates of Salmonella contamination on the birds the plants produce. Consumers
can now check the table to choose turkeys from cleaner plants.
CSPI's list shows the results of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) testing of 56 turkey samples at each of 39 plants across the country in 2001.
The cleanest plant was the Perdue Foods plant in Washington, Indiana, the only one to score contamination-free on all 56 samples.
Tests found Salmonella on less than 2% of samples at eight other plants, including two operated by Wampler Foods, one by Butterball and one by
industry leader Jennie-O. Turkeys from dozens of other plants had higher levels.
Consumers cannot choose cleaner turkeys based on brand names because many brands are produced at multiple factories. Instead, shoppers should refer
to the plant identification number included on CSPI's list, available at
www.cspinet.org.
"Go to the store armed with the plant numbers," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, the group's director of food safety.
The plant number usually appears on or around the USDA inspection seal and consists of a "P" followed by a five-digit number. For example, turkeys
from Perdue's Washington, Indiana plant carry the number "P-00286." If the number cannot be found, grocery store personnel should be able to
determine which plant produced the turkey.
Turkey
Why I Love Dish Network
Cablevision
Cablevision Systems Corp., the cable television operator that owns New York sports teams such as the Knicks, on Friday said it plans in 2003 to raise the price of its service by 5.26 percent, on average.
The Bethpage, New York, cable operator, which serves some 3 million homes in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, said the increase reflects higher programming costs as well as spending on customer
service and improvements in its network.
New prices will take effect in most areas in January or February, depending upon a customer's specific location, the company said.
Cablevision
Muncie To Name Alley For Dave
David Letterman
David Letterman, who suggested his Indianapolis hometown name an Interstate after him, finally has something that bears his name: an alley.
City officials in Muncie decided Wednesday to name a downtown alley after the CBS "Late Show" host, who is a Ball State University graduate.
"It will take some time to develop," said Brian Lough, Muncie's downtown development director. But the alley is "the busiest and the best" in the city about 40 miles northeast of Indianapolis.
What the alley will be called hasn't been decided.
The South Walnut Street alley is near a bar and a parking lot and between a comedy club and United American Appraisal. It will be dedicated Dec. 5. Officials plan to install signs and a
camera to broadcast images over the Internet.
David Letterman
Late Night With David Letterman
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Taking 'Tintin' to Big Screen
Steven Spielberg
Tintin, the intrepid young reporter who inevitably finds himself at the center of global adventures, is leaping from the comic book to the big screen.
Steven Spielberg and frequent producing partner Kathleen Kennedy will produce a Tintin live-action feature for Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures.
The studios are currently negotiating the feature rights with Moulinsart, the Belgian company that holds the Tintin properties created by late cartoonist Georges
Remi under the pseudonym Herge.
Tintin, famed for his cowlicked coif, battled international evil with the help of his dog Snowy. His friends and allies included his mentor, Captain Haddock,
famed for his drunken curses; police officers Thomson and Thompson; and Professor Cuthbert Calculus.
The "Tintin" comic strip was first published in 1929 in Belgian newspaper Le Petit Vingtieme and was eventually translated into more than 50 languages. "Tintin"
has already been the subject of several animated adaptations for motion pictures and television.
Steven Spielberg
National Zoo, Washington D.C.
Mei Xiang & Tian Tian
Chinese female 4-year-old giant panda Mei Xiang (Beautiful Frangrance) is followed by 5-year-old male Tian Tian (More and More) as they play at the National Zoo in Washington Friday, Nov. 22, 2002.
Photo by Joe Marquette
Socializing
Jack Osbourne
Jack Osbourne seems to fraternize only with other rock star offspring. Ozzy's teenage son recently gawked at topless models sporting the Rolling Stones' lingerie line with
Keith Richards' daughters Theodora and Alexandra, Lizzy Jagger, Ron Wood's daughter Leah, Roy Orbison's son Alex and Rod Stewart's daughter Kimberly. Last night Osbourne
hosted a party in the Hollywood Hills hyping the Sims Online video game with Orbison, Bijou Phillips (daughter of John Phillips) and Nicole Richie (daughter of Lionel Richie).
Jack Osbourne
Rips ABC/CNN Combo
Rupert Murdoch
Calling the proposed combination of ABC News and CNN "a two-headed monster," Fox Entertainment and News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch dismissed the news channel competition and
waxed confidently to shareholders and the press Thursday about his two companies' prospects for the coming year.
"A CNN-ABC merger would be great" Murdoch told a press conference after the Fox shareholder annual meeting in New York on Thursday. The confident chief ventured that a complicated
combination of CNN and ABC News would weaken both. "It would be very difficult to execute without losing their identify. It commoditizes their product and loses any uniqueness."
Murdoch also defended Fox News chairman Roger Ailes in face of criticism over a letter of advice he sent to President Bush last year in the wake of Sept.11. "(Ailes) sent a patriotic
letter that was in no way partisan, " he said. "He would have sent the same letter to a Democratic president."
Touting Fox's "fair and balanced" news coverage, Murdoch boasted that the upstart newsie had vanquished a hapless MSNBC in recent years.
Sitting pretty with rising ad sales and greatly diminished debt load amid a battered media sector, a chipper Murdoch carried on about a few of his favorite topics (like the bias of
other news channels) while veering clear of touchier ones like ongoing negotiations with Cablevision over Fox Sports and an inevitable bid for DirecTV.
Rupert Murdoch
Sues Estranged Wife
Michael Crichton
"Jurassic Park" author Michael Crichton sued his estranged wife and her lawyer on Thursday, claiming that they violated an agreement to keep details of the
couple's pending divorce confidential.
Crichton claims that attorney Stephen Kolodny earlier this month made statements about the couple's marriage and the writer's relationship with his 13-year-old
daughter on a syndicated television show.
He also claims that Crichton's wife, Anne-Marie Crichton, knew and agreed to Kolodny's plans to discuss the divorce.
Anne-Marie Crichton filed for divorce from her 59-year-old husband in September after 13 years of marriage.
Michael Crichton
BartCop TV!
Bets Are On Iger
Michael Eisner's Successor
The perception is spreading that Walt Disney Co. chairman and CEO Michael Eisner considers company president Robert Iger his heir apparent.
The latest indication comes in the form of an Eisner interview for the Dec. 9 issue of Forbes, in which he confirms writing a letter to the Disney board recommending a successor in case he
gets run over by a truck or such. He wouldn't dish a name to Forbes, but the business magazine reports that Eisner "implies it is Bob Iger" and that "others in the know" confirm it was Iger's
name that Eisner passed along as his successor in the event of an unexpected turnover.
Eisner, 60, recently said he wouldn't disclose a succession plan publicly until much closer to any formal retirement announcement, as detailing such plans would make him a "lame duck" executive
and hamper his ability to operate effectively. But a highly placed Disney insider suggested Eisner is interested in bolstering the public perception of 51-year-old Iger, whom the current chief
views as key to efforts to surmount fiscal challenges at the Burbank-based firm.
Michael Eisner's Successor
Golden Bambi Award
Halle, Boris & Michael
Michael Jackson, shows off his Golden Bambi Award during the awards ceremony in Berlin Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002. He received the German Media prize for his lifetime
achievement. At left is actress Halle Berry who received the Bambi in the category International Film. At center is German tennis star Boris Becker.
Photo by Roberto Pfeil
Moving From Nigeria To London
Miss World Pageant
Organizers of the Miss World pageant said Friday they were moving the event from Nigeria to London after more than 100 people died in Muslim protest riots in the West African state.
"Miss World Organization and Silver Bird Productions Limited, organizers of the 2002 Miss World pageant, have decided to move the grand finale to London, England," the organizers said in a statement.
Pageant spokeswoman Stella Din said the London pageant would take place on December 7, the same date as had been originally scheduled for the event in Nigeria.
The statement made no specific reference to the riots, which were sparked by an article in a Nigerian newspaper suggesting the Prophet Mohammad would probably
have married one of the Miss World beauty queens.
Miss World Pageant
Wants 'Truth to Come Out'
Jeffrey Jones
Actor Jeffrey Jones, who played a principal in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and a Puritan in "The Crucible," broke his silence on Thursday on the child pornography charges he faces, saying he wants "the truth to come out."
Appearing with his lawyer outside a Los Angeles courthouse after his arraignment was postponed to Jan. 9, Jones said he has cooperated with the police department and prosecutors "from the beginning."
Jones, 55, who remains free on $20,000 bail, was charged last Friday with hiring a 14-year-old boy to take sexually explicit photos. He faces up to three years in prison and would have
to register for life as a sex offender if convicted on a felony charge of using a minor for sex acts and a misdemeanor count of possessing child pornography.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said the charges do not involve any sex act being performed or any video or film being taken.
Jeffrey Jones
Can't Relate To Having Mistress
Michael Caine
In his latest movie, "The Quiet American," Michael Caine plays a British journalist in Vietnam with a mistress half his age, something he says he couldn't relate to at all.
"I've been married to the same woman for 30 years," Caine said.
Caine said he felt he really understood the burned-out British journalist he plays in 'The Quiet American,' which is based on a book by Graham Greene.
Most of the movie was shot in Saigon but some was shot in the countryside. Caine said that's where your marital status is the first thing people want to know.
"In Vietnam, you've got the villagers, they all come out if you are the man. The first question all the girls say is 'Are you married?' because they want to get out.
It's tough in some of those villages. And they're not even hookers, you know?"
Caine, by the way, said he'd always answer truthfully that he's married.
Michael Caine
Mystery
Mummified Bodies
For more than three years, no one checked on the small white house with the unruly yard in this sprawling southwestern Florida suburb.
But when a former caretaker for the home grew suspicious and went inside Wednesday, he made a gruesome discovery: two partially mummified bodies he identified as those of a German
woman and her son, as well as the remains of their German shepherd.
Heinz Rubin, who has known the family since 1988, said the bodies were those of Liz Fuchs, 70, and her son Josef Fuchs Jr., 34. Authorities declined to release the identities of the
dead and said they did not know how they died.
Rubin said he checked on the house because Josef Fuchs had not answered letters he had sent to Germany, where the family had once lived. When Rubin last saw the Fuchs in January 1999,
they told him of plans to return to Germany.
With a locksmith's help, he and his wife entered the house. Rubin said there was an overwhelming stench.
He found the woman dressed in a housecoat, lying on the floor in a fetal position. Her right side was partially skeletonized and she looked as if she had fallen out of a chair. She still wore a watch and rings.
The man's body was in bed, partially mummified under the covers. The dog's remains were next to the man's body.
The house remained air conditioned at a temperature of 75 degrees. The cost of utilities had been automatically deducted from the mother's bank account.
For the rest - Mummified Bodies
Scientist Burns Penis
Laptop Warning
Laptops have always been a hot item but a 50-year-old scientist didn't realize to what extent until he burned his penis.
The previously healthy father of two remembered feeling a burning sensation after he had been writing a report at home for about an hour with the computer on his lap.
"The ventral part of his scrotal skin had turned red, and there was a blister with a diameter of about two centimeters (0.8 inches)," Claes-Gorn Ostenson, of the Karolinska Institute
in Sweden, wrote in a letter published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday.
Ostenson noted that the computer manual did warn against operating it directly on exposed skin but said the patient had lap burns even though he had been wearing trousers and underpants.
"This...story should be taken as a serious warning against use of a laptop in a literal sense," he added.
Laptop Warning
St.Petersburg's Zoo
Polar Owl
A polar owl looks out of its cage at the St.Petersburg's Zoo, November 21, 2002. A snowstorm hit the Russian second biggest city, which will host the summit of the U.S. resident
George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin this Friday.
Photo by Alexander Demianchuk
'The Osbournes'
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