Reader Review
'Smallville'
This newest addition to the series of Superman TV shows has a different spin on it. Clark is shown not as an adult working in Metropolis, but as a young high school student growing up in Smallville.
I absolutely love this series. The acting is wonderful. Clark's mother is played by veteran actor Annette O'Toole. I first remember seeing her in the 1982 film Cat People, although she was also in the film 48 Hours.
The young woman that plays Lana is absolutely adorable. She already has a jock boyfriend, but there's obviously romantic chemistry going on between her and Clark.
The music is wonderful also. Last week's episode featured music from the band 'bush'. The quality of the music and how it's woven into each episode reminds me of the old show 90210.
I have to admit though, that the writing is starting to get predictable. When Clark first landed on Earth in Smallville, parts of his original planet (kryptonite) landed with him and are scattered around Smallville. Each week someone finds some and gets transformed as a result. I wish they would start puting a little more depth into the story line. Still, overall, this is my most favorite of the new shows for this season.
~~ Bill L.
Great job (again), Bill!. More! More! More!
Reader Suggestion
Petition
From ~~ Mad Dog
'' Found this on DU this morning. This has the backing of several music folks
like REM, Beastie Boys, Alanis, BNL, Jackson Browne, etc.. ''
Save Our Environment Petition
This organization is supported by American Oceans Campaign, American Rivers, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, Environmental Defense, Greenpeace, League of Conservation Voters, National Audubon Society, National Environmental Trust, National Parks Conservation Assn.. National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, The Ocean Conservancy, The State PIRGs, The Wilderness Society, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the real WWF, World Wildlife Fund.
Thanks, Mad Dog.
Home page of my favorite 'Mad Dog'
More From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Spent most of the night with 'Thunderball' on in the background.
Tonight, Sunday, as usual, CBS starts off the night with '60 Minutes', and then shows their contempt
for what little audience they have left by regurgitating the movie, 'The Fugitive'.
ABC regugitates 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark', but follows with a fresh 'The Practice'.
The WB starts the night with a rerun of 'Steve Harvey', then follows it with a fresh episode, which is
also the final episode of the 6-year long series. It's followed by 'Jamie Kennedy', a rerun 'Off Centre',
then a fresh 'Off Centre', and a fresh 'For Your Love'.
Faux is fresh for its first 2 hours, with 'Futurama', 'King Of The Hill', 'The Simpsons', and 'Malcolm'.
Then it's an hour of reruns - 'The Simpsons' and 'Bernie Mac'.
UPN reruns 'Enterprise', then has a fresh episode of 'Tracker'.
HBO has Janet Jackson: 'In Concert From Hawaii' at 9 pm (est).
The Learning Channel devotes the night to 'Junkyard Wars'.
AMC has 'The Candidate', which a lot of people really liked, but it isn't one of my favs.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Finally, Authenticated & Confirmed - FOUND!
''Study for 'Over Vitebsk'''
A painting that turned up in a Kansas postal facility last month is a $1 million Marc Chagall that vanished from The Jewish
Museum in Manhattan last June, the museum said on Friday.
"It has been authenticated as the missing Chagall by Bella Meyer, a granddaughter of Marc Chagall," said Anne Scher, the
museum's director of communications.
The unfinished painting, entitled "Study for 'Over Vitebsk,"' is owned by an unidentified private collector in Russia who
lent it to the museum for an exhibition of the Russian-born artist's early work. It disappeared after a reception on June 7.
Authorities said the museum received a ransom note days after the painting was reported missing. It demanded peace between
Israel and the Palestinians before the 1914 gouache featuring a beggar floating over a Russian village was returned.
In January, a postal worker at the facility in Topeka, Kansas, noticed museum labels on the 8-by-10-inch (20-by-25 cm)
painting and contacted the FBI.
Scher did not know when the painting would be returned and said it was in the custody of the FBI in New York. It was not
immediately clear who may have taken the painting.
Finally, Authenticated & Confirmed!
Or see BC Entertainment, Thursday, 24 January.
Hosting Grammy Awards, February 27th
Jon Stewart
When Ellen DeGeneres hosted the Emmys last November, Taliban jokes made the monologue. When Jon Stewart hosts the Grammys
on February 27, Mariah Carey jokes may just do the trick.
The difference? Distance.
As for September 11 sentiment at the Grammys? "I think it's going to be not a factor."
Let the Mariah Carey bashing resume...
Stewart tried out this and other rim-shot material during the interview session to hype the Grammys, slated for Los Angeles'
Staples Center. U2 leads this year's field with eight nominations.
Stewart is making his second straight appearance on the CBS telecast. Last year, the Daily Show host was a late replacement
for Whoopi Goldberg, who bowed out due to illness. ("They'd gotten down to the S's," Stewart said, explaining how he wound up with the gig.)
This year, he was CBS' first choice. And, accordingly, he's ready to roll.
On a more sober note, Stewart says jokes about President Bush--generally off-limits since September 11--may
again be considered. While the war on terrorism still isn't funny, Bush's controversial "axis of evil" comment is, to Stewart,
"fair game." (And don't be surprised if Enron isn't the punchline to at least one gag.)
Jon Stewart
Going To Canada
The Simpsons
The usually reserved neighbor of the United States, which has been at the focus of a week-long Olympic figure skating scandal,
will be thrust back into the media spotlight on Sunday thanks to an episode of The Simpsons television show.
The episode, entitled The Bart Wants What It Wants, was penned in part by Canadian staff writers Tim Long, of Exeter, Ontario,
and Joel Cohen, of Calgary, Alberta, and takes potshots at most Canadian cliches, from sports to manners to its status as a
haven for Vietnam War draft dodgers.
The show follows the family as it boards a bus to Toronto after Bart falls in love with a girl (voice of Reese Witherspoon)
whose father is in town directing a movie.
But Homer isn't so sure if he wants to visit the Great White North. "Why should we leave America to visit America junior?" he wonders.
"This show looks into all those typical Canadian cliches, like the Mounties and hockey players," said David Hamilton,
vice-president of promotions and publicity at the Global Television Network, which airs The Simpsons in Canada.
The award winning cartoon show is in its 13th season and is seen in about 70 countries. In a recent British poll of youths
aged 16 to 24, the Simpson family was three times more popular than the Royal Family.
''The Bart Wants What It Wants''
Got The Rosie 'Scoop'
Diane Sawyer
ABC said on Friday that news anchor Diane Sawyer has scored the first TV interview with Rosie O'Donnell in which the popular
talk show host is expected to talk about her homosexuality.
TV Guide senior editor J. Max Robins, who will report on Sawyer's coup in the March 3 issue of the weekly, said the
interview was taped on Thursday. He said Sawyer conducted the meeting after beating out bids by fellow ABC news anchor
Barbara Walters and NBC's Katie Couric of the "Today" show.
On the same day that Sawyer held her interview, Walters said on her show "The View" that she had chatted with O'Donnell
on the phone, according to a report in the New York Post.
"What concerns Rosie is that she has three adopted children and a foster child herself and because she is gay, would not
be allowed to adopt this child (in Florida)," the Post quoted Walters as saying on the show.
Robins said that Walters' remarks on "The View," coupled with the fact that Sawyer won the interview, both indicate that
a recent truce between the two television anchors may be over.
Old Girl Fight?
Problems At The Miss America Pageant
Miss America
A stormy, behind-the-scenes power struggle at the Miss America pageant spilled into the public eye on Friday, as reigning beauty
queen Katie Harman emotionally denied being unhappy about her allotment of lucrative speaking engagements.
At a news conference in this New Jersey seaside gambling resort where the prototype of American beauty contests was born in 1921,
Harman said she had no regrets about the pressures of being Miss America despite some highly publicized complaints from her parents.
The letter has become a symbol of revolt against Miss America Organization Chief Executive Robert Renneisen by volunteer
state pageant directors who claim they are being ignored by an increasingly large and well-paid national staff. Renneisen
said bookings for Harman to speak had fallen off during the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks but were picking up.
Forty-five of 51 state directors who make up the National Association of Miss America State Pageants (NAMASP)
approved a resolution critical of Renneisen's national staff and its expenses during a Jan. 25 meeting in Las Vegas.
Renneisen, who says he has problems with only a few state directors, said on Friday that complaints brought to the Miss
America board last week were more severe and far reaching than the resolution approved by NAMASP.
Meanwhile, Miss America vice chairman David Sparenberg said the organization's board would investigate issues raised
by the state directors and Harman's parents, and try to resolve them.
Miss America
Kournikova & Iglesias
Anna & Enrique
Tennis temptress Anna Kournikova has apparently broken it off with Russian hockey honey Sergei Fedorov, and taken up
with pop crooner Enrique Iglesias. The two met filming his video "Escape" several months ago - for which she was paid
a whopping $100,000. Kournikova and Iglesias were spotted canoodling their way down Fifth Avenue the other day, shopping
at several stores along the way.
Anna & Enrique
From The Germany
'cc:' & Her 'Moms'
Das weltweit erste geklonte Kätzchen (rechts mit seiner "Ersatzmutter") haben Forscher in Texas präsentiert (undatierte Aufnahme).
Die dreifarbige Katze sei fast zwei Monate alt und sehe gesund aus, berichtet das Fachjournal "Nature".
The cat on the left is the egg-donor mom. The cat on the right is the surrogate mom. 'cc:', a tricolor calico is over 2
months old & seemingly healthy is pictured with her surrogate/birth mom.
No TV Reunion Shows In Her Future
Bea Arthur
Fans may be nostalgic, but Bea Arthur has no plans to do a reunion show for her two hit sitcoms, "Maude" and "The Golden Girls."
"I absolutely refuse to do a reunion," Arthur told AP Radio. "Why do a reunion? It'll never top what we did before."
Here's something else she won't do: another TV series.
"When you do a series, oh God, which I will not do again, it's your life, there's no other life, you neglect the
family, you don't think you do, but you do," she said.
She chats and sings in "Bea Arthur on Broadway — Just Between Friends," which opens Sunday at the Booth Theatre and
will run through March 24.
Bea Arthur
Hey, Alex! Didn't you go see this show? How was it? ; )
Liberal Radio !
Erin Hart
Liberal radio - what a concept!
Join Erin Hart this Saturday and Sunday night on 710 KIRO, www.710kiro.com
From 9 p to 1 a PST; 12 midnight to 4 a EST
David Pelletier and Jamie Sale are awarded the gold medal by the IOC for pair skating in wake of judging scandal--is this justice delayed or denied?
And what of the Russians--pair and judge? And what should happen to the French judge? Has this story overshadowed all else? We check in with reporter
Steffan Tubbs in Salt Lake.
And cats are cloned?? Would you clone a precious pet? Would you pay more than $800 to save pet cells for future cloning? It's mad dogs and cloned
cats in the weekend dark.
Sooo Sherron Watkins is my hero in the Enron scandal. Finally, somebody who actually remembers particulars AND answers direct questions about the scandal
surrounding the largest bankruptcy in US history. And locally, anybody burned by Znetix?
All that, the Bush Bash on the Environment, Iran, Iraq and everybody else; Where in the World IS. . .Dick Cheney (think bellicose, Iran); and Secretary
of State Colin Powell is PRO condom use to prevent AIDS!!! Hooray for honesty--how long do you think his tenure will last?
Erin Hart at regulation time (9 pm to 1 am [pst] Sat & Sun ) on www.710kiro.com or www.kiro710.com (It's
a browser thing).
And there's a chatroom, too!
For more details, visit Erin's fan page, http://www.erinistas.com/, or to join her mailing list, drop a
note to erinistas@aol.com
New Cartoon Series For 'Showtime'
''Queer Duck''?
Showtime, which airs "Queer As Folk," has upped the ante with "Queer Duck," a cartoon show featuring the flamboyant voices
of Jim J. Bullock and RuPaul. "Queer Duck" follows "the outrageous adventures of a duck who works as a male nurse." The duck
and his animal pals - Openly Gator, Bi Polar Bear and Oscar Wildcat - "all lead openly gay lives and mix in a plethora of
double-entendres and comic situations that always have the duck in a stew," says a Showtime press release. The animated antics
will air every Tuesday following "Queer as Folk."
''Queer Duck''?
Putting Out The Welcome Mat?
Seoul
Protesters march in central Seoul during an anti-U.S. demonstration February 16, 2002. About 400 protesters marched to
oppose U.S. President George W. Bush's planned visit February 19-21.
Photo by Lee Jae-Won
Dropped From The BBC
'Naked Chef'
The BBC says it has dropped its star television cook Jamie Oliver, whose Naked Chef show is broadcast in 34 countries,
after being unable to agree terms for a new contract.
Oliver has become a multi-millionaire after being discovered by the BBC working as a chef in London's trendy River Cafe.
"The BBC has today withdrawn from negotiations for a new series with Jamie Oliver after being unable to agree terms,"
the British Broadcasting Corporation said on Friday.
'The Naked Chef'
Texas Denies License Application
Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson's application to box in Texas was denied Friday, the latest setback in the former heavyweight champion's attempt to get a
sanctioned bout against Lennox Lewis.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation Executive Director Bill Kuntz said his decision was based on Tyson's history in the ring and
disciplinary action by other states. He noted Tyson's past license suspensions in Nevada and Michigan.
Tyson has refused prefight drug tests, ignored referees and assaulted ring-side law enforcement officials during the last five years, Kuntz said.
Georgia officials, meanwhile, have granted Tyson's application to fight there. However, the state also requires a promoter's license and a show
permit, neither of which has been granted.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Saturday that Tyson adviser Shelly Finkel said he is no longer interested in efforts to
stage the fight at the Georgia Dome.
Gov. Roy Barnes said Thursday that he had asked the Georgia Boxing Commission to rescind the license for Tyson, whom Barnes called a "sexual predator."
Lewis' U.S. promoter, Main Events, released a statement from the champion in which Lewis said he looks forward to fighting in June but that
Tyson "must get some psychiatric help before we go forward."
Mike Tyson
'Do As I Say, Not As I Do'?
Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson is setting the record straight about whether his father moved his family from Peekskill to Australia so his
sons could dodge the Vietnam draft.
"That's not totally true," says Gibson, whose new movie, "We Were Soldiers," depicts an early battle in that war.
"My dad is a sane man who fought for this country during World War II. Maybe because of that fact, my father was never a fan of war."
But Gibson, who was 12 when they moved, said the family headed Down Under because "my father had hurt himself [on the job] and we
had friends and family in Australia who could make it easier for us to live while he recovered."
"You could still be drafted in Australia," Gibson said. "My brother got called up, but flunked the preliminary tests and didn't have to go."
Mel Gibson
At The Reagan Library (Where Else?)
'Spies Secrets from the CIA, KGB and Hollywood'
Hollywood loves a good spy and the feeling is mutual.
Now the studios and "The Company," as the CIA is sometimes known, are marking more than a half-century of mutual fascination with the largest public
display ever of spy gadgets, both real and imagined.
The exhibit, which opens at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Los Angeles on Saturday, ranges from the whimsical to the deadly, everything
from the shoe phone made famous by Don Adams in the TV show "Get Smart" to a KGB umbrella used to shoot poison-tipped darts of a kind once used to
assassinate a Bulgarian dissident in London.
The show, "Secrets from the CIA, KGB and Hollywood," also includes the tarantula that threatened James Bond in "Dr. No," Emma Peal's leather pants from
"The Avengers," and a 19th century spy camera designed to be strapped to a pigeon.
The blend of fact and fiction is fitting, given the way that the Cold War clandestine productions sometimes followed the lead of the celluloid spooks
and sometimes anticipated them in ways that their Hollywood creators never imagined.
"Many of the people who work for the CIA grew up on these spy shows just like I did," said Danny Biederman, a screenwriter, whose lifelong fascination
with the genre prompted the collection of more than 4,000 props and gizmos on partial display.
Now, the CIA museum (motto: "The Best Museum You've Never Seen") has taken that show to the public at the Reagan Library, along with a sampling of
spy artifacts from the National Archives and the private collection of Keith Melton.
The real-world spy gear on display ranges from a hollowed-out bullet used during the America Revolution to hide secret messages to a replica of
an elaborate carved seal presented by the Soviet Union to the U.S. Ambassador shortly after the Second World War, complete with hidden listening device.
Or consider that the CIA's real-life Office of Technical Services, where covers are created and a new generation of spy
gadgets made, has a creative motto that would make any movie studio proud: "Imagine what is possible -- then prepare to be amazed."
'Spies Secrets from the CIA, KGB and Hollywood'
Isn't It Romantic?
When The Moon Hits Your Eye...
Thousands of couples take part in a mass wedding ceremony at South Korea's Olympic stadium in Seoul, February 16, 2002.
About 3,500 couples from 186 countries around the world exchanged wedding vows in what the Unification Church billed as
one of its largest weddings ever.
Shifting Ads, Messing With Nielsen Numbers
The Olympics On NBC
When is a 17.5 rating really a 16.9? When you don't count the least-viewed part of the telecast. That is precisely what NBC
did for its Wednesday night Winter Olympics coverage from Salt Lake City.
In an effort to give national advertisers a lift, NBC took the unusual step of eliminating national spots from the evening's first half-hour (8-8:30 p.m. EST)
and inserting local avails in their place. Then the network placed the national ads in the breaks it seized from local stations during the next 45 minutes -- a
more-heavily viewed part of the night.
The maneuver created some headaches for NBC's local station affiliates, who were forced to juggle their local/national ad breaks at the last minute.
Local station executives were upset not only about their ads being moved to less-watched time slots but also that NBC failed to inform them about the shift beforehand.
Basically, local ads -- normally spread over four breaks running 75 minutes, or through 9:15 p.m. EST -- were squeezed into 28 minutes, according
to unhappy station sales managers, who added that they were caught unaware by the maneuver that shifted their spots to earlier, less-viewed time periods.
"It's hard to say whether they had this planned all along," said one major-market sales manager, who requested anonymity. "It creates problems
for us. If you sell to an advertiser who has more than one spot running, if you have one in the first break and one in the third break, you thought
they would be 50 minutes apart -- and suddenly they're 10 minutes apart."
The break formats "have been changing from night to night," he said. "We're kind of doing it on the fly, which is a little problem. ... I've
been home every night (talking) with the air ops, moving spots back and forth."
By eliminating national ads from the first half-hour of its Olympics coverage, NBC effectively boosted its average rating on the night
by more than half a point to a 17.5. The fast affiliate Nielsen report shows that the telecast earned a 14.1 rating during the 8 p.m.
half-hour, or about 22 million viewers. That compares with 27 million viewers from 8:30-11:11 p.m. EST. From 8:30-9 p.m., 24.9 million people
watched the telecast. During the 9 p.m. half-hour, 28.1 million tuned in.
Nielsen rules allow NBC to begin its ratings coverage at 8:30 p.m. if it does not air national ads during the preceding half-hour.
Olympic Nielsen Numbers May Not Be What They Seem
Skin & Sin Are Back On The Vegas Strip
Adult Playground
The glimmering curtains at the La Femme Theater sweep open, revealing 12 anatomically perfect young women standing rigidly at attention. Like female
versions of the guards at Buckingham Palace, they wear tall black hats and military-style boots, and they stare ahead, unflinchingly.
Unlike the guards, however, they don't wear much of anything else. Rounding out the ''uniform'': black garters, black stockings and metal-studded neck
collars, with leather straps dangling between their naked breasts. The straps connect to large white tassels, the kind the Buckingham guards wear above
their Scottish tartans, that rest ever-so-strategically between their legs.
The fireworks are just beginning. When the music starts, the women salute smartly and begin to march in place, causing the tassels to sway tantalizingly from side to side.
Never before has so much skin been seen at a casino on the Strip.
Remember all that talk about the new ''family-friendly'' Las Vegas? As the mobsters who once ran this town might say, Fuhgeddaboudit. After nearly a
decade of more-or-less behaving, the Las Vegas casinos are rediscovering their naughtier sides with a new wave of shows, nightclubs and bars aimed
squarely at an adult-only crowd.
In short, the sin is back.
Indeed, in the past two years, more breasts have popped up on stages across town than the typical frat boy sees in four years of college:
For the rest, Las Vegas Returns
CFR Diverts Big Advertising Bucks
Newspapers Benefit
If the sweeping campaign-finance reform bill passed Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives becomes law, it could divert
advertising dollars into newspaper coffers.
Among other things, the reform bill bans unions, non-profits, and corporations from buying many late-campaign broadcast ads.
The prohibition kicks in 60 days before a general election, and 30 days before a primary. It affects radio as well as
broadcast, cable, and satellite TV transmissions.
But that leaves several possible routes for late-campaign spending. "There would be so much money to spend that you would do
the mail, do the phones -- and you do the newspaper," said Peter Fenn, a principal of Fenn and King Communications, a major
Washington campaign consultancy. "The newspaper guys would love it, because this is a good revenue stream."
Newspapers now get only a fraction of broadcast's share of political campaign spending. According to the Washington-based
Alliance for Better Campaigns reform group, TV outlets took in more than $10 million in each of 23 metropolitan area markets
in the 2000 presidential election year. Estimates of overall TV campaign spending in 2000 range from $750 million to $1 billion.
Newspapers Benefit
Sunday Cheesecake
Valentine's Day, auf Deutsch
Weißrussische Modeschöpfer widmeten sich dem Valentinstag, dem Tag der Liebe, in besonderer Weise: mit einer speziellen
Dessous-Kollektion, die am Mittwoch in Minsk vorgeführt wurde.
Photo by Vasily Fedosenko
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Services Held Friday
Waylon Jennings
Country singer Waylon Jennings was laid to rest Friday following a private graveside service in this Phoenix suburb.
Jennings, whose hits included "Good-Hearted Woman" and "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," died
Wednesday at his Arizona home after a long battle with diabetes-related health problems. He was 64.
Jennings' spokeswoman Schatzi Hageman said the singer was buried after the graveside service. She declined to provide
details, saying that Jennings' final wish was for a quiet funeral without fanfare.
Jennings' widow, Jessi Colter, said through Hageman that she hoped to disclose plans next week for a public memorial
service in Nashville.
Jennings and Colter sold their home in Nashville more than a year ago and moved to suburban Chandler.
Waylon Jennings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More NEW Recipes Just Added!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
'Bob Woodward vs. John Belushi and Me'
Michael Dare - 'The Life and Death of Captain Preemo'
BartCop TV!
Watergate v$ Enron!
From BartCop
The Bush Rap (Sheet)
Special Bonus From BartCop
