A STEMMY CELLY SUNDAY

1. All the talk shows are covering the story with guests galore. Everybody from the "God Squad" to the White House Chief of Staff are on television talking about it. They're stemmin'.
2. . . . Those God Squad guys sure have a good business going. They're constantly being booked all over TV on all kinds of issues.
3. STILL TOGETHER. Peter, Paul & Mary are. They're in their 41st year. They did Wolf Trap outside Washington this weekend-2 nights-and their fans were there, cheering, singing along, standing up and applauding. NOTICED: When they perform, the order as you look at them is Mary, Paul & Peter.
4. Two TV movies are in the works about Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. For HBO and Lifetime. NOTE: Not based on her memoir, Personal History. HBO's would come from an unauthorized bio and Lifetime's got its own project sources.
5. FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS: "Yangyang, a 14-month-old cloned goat, gave birth to Huan Huan, a male, and Qing Qing, a female at the Yangling Cloned Animal Base. The kids are both healthy." Ha Ha Ha.
6. FYI, to those as stupid as I: "Redux" means "brought back." As in Apocalypse Now Redux.
7. Katie Couric's a lot more serious subbing for Tom Brokaw on the NBC Nightly News than she is on the Today show.
8. CNN Headliner and former NYPD Bluer Andrea Thompson has a very unspecial look. Think she's playing down her appearance?
9. . . . How cluttered is the screen on the "new" CNN Headline News? Lots of criticism.
10. I wouldn't want to be called P. Diddy.
11. With that dark shirt on and that beard, Al Gore looks like Fidel Castro.
12. Ex-Lax ad copy: "I was so constipated I could hardly drive."
13. A lot of people say Penelope Cruz can't act. She's sure everywhere.
14. THIS TOO: Sorry, Mark Wahlberg can't carry a movie. His Planet of the Apes performance is a big nothing. But maybe it's not his fault. The whole movie is a big nothing.
15. . . . One critic said this of Planet: "Not one monkey was eating a banana. What a letdown."
16. The preview for Ali looks great. Stars Will Smith. And he looks like Ali.
17. Someone said Rush Limbaugh called Meet the Press, "Meet the Depressed."
18. JACKSON 5 REUNION. It's called "Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration, The Solo Years." I thought it was going to be a group reunion thing. But there he is, hogging it all again. And there's dissension in the family ranks. God knows what it'll turn out to be. September 7 and 10 at Madison Square Garden.
19. RE-RELEASE: Of The Jackson 5's Dancing Machine and Moving Violation albums from the mid-70's. Including I Am Love, Parts 1 & 2 and the over-the-top Holland-Dozier production of Forever Came Today. Terrific. More twofers to come.
20. NEW SIGN: The Western White House, Crawford, Texas, patterned after the one in the main Washington White House press room.
21. Actor Dan Aykroyd said this about retiring: "At 49 years old, I'm really feeling sedentary, reclusive. I really just want to just shut everything down for a while. I'd like to find and choose the last vehicle and exit on a really high, graceful, substantial note in film."
22. What's with the Tom Cruise buzz cuts all the time and the day old stubble? Don't do him justice.
23. Is that Charo in that Sprint commercial? If it is, she still looks good, although the camera's a bit far away from her. Goochy Goochy.
24. Madonna was an hour and forty-five minutes late for her concert in Washington Friday night. (Something about her jet not being able to land in DC due to weather conditions.) NBC4's Arch Campbell said the fans didn't seem to care. I doubt that.
25. OVERCOVERED: CBS's lack of air time to the Chandra Levy story.
26. Bush needs more practice on the TelePrompTer. His eyes look sort of deer in the headlights- ish.
27. The whole stem cell thing is confusing. Do most people understand it? And they talk about 60 lines in the world. Well how can that be maintained? Can't people secretly make more of 'em?
28. DIED: Ron Townsend, a founding member of The Fifth Dimension, of renal failure. He was the big guy and what a voice! You could hear it above the others.
29. Somebody oughta give Dennis Miller a big kick. He needs it.
30. Mariah Carey didn't sound too good on her Web site. She left an audio message talking about her condition and she sounded tuckered out.
31. SHARKS JUMPING IN THE AIR. That's what Discovery's Shark Week show, Air Jaws: Sharks of South Africa shows. Sixteen-foot white sharks hurtle 15 feet in the air off the waters of Cape Town. That's gotta be something to see. (Tonight at 9)
32. NEW SHOW. Iyanla (Vanzant) coming Monday, from the makers of The View (Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie). She's been an Oprah guest and is a motivational speaker who plans to dole out advice.
33. READER OBSERVANCE: Hip-Hoppers Usher and Ray J effectively cancel each other out. Advantage: Ray J has momentum.
34. CURRENT EXPRESSION: "It's all good." Where'd that come from?
35. UH . . . All That's Good-The Miracles on Tamla. Flipside of Ooo Baby Baby. 1965

rocci@roccifisch.com

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