| August 15, 2004 |
HALF OF AUGUST IS GONE ALREADY
- . . . Time flies. Cities seem empty. People on vacation. Places aren't too crowded. Good. Tell ‘em to stay away.
- Jane Pauley's coming back to TV. (I thought she retired.) The Jane Pauley Show debuts in the fall and in Washington will be carried by Channel 7. So she'll enter the ranks of talk show host. "A familiar face in a brand new place," say the promos.
- Coca-Cola has been "refreshing the Olympic spirit since 1928."
- CONFUSING. Is Hurricane Charley a male or a female? Most men spell it Charlie, as far as I know. But I guess it is a male because the next one the National Hurricane Center in Miami has named is Danielle. They alternate male and female, you know, and Danielle's definitely female. But that women's perfume that used to be popular spelled their product, Charlie, like a man.
- WHAT WAS THAT I HEARD? During part of the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics I I thought I heard them playing that Adagio for Strings or some such funereal-sounding music. It was a happy event. What were they thinking?
- I like the way they sing, "And I don't have to go right now," in those TV commercials for Detrol LA.
- Dina Matos McGreevey, wife of now former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey, stood by her husband's side during his disclosure last Thursday that he was stepping down and that he had had an affair with another man, looks something like actress Brittany Murphy. I think it's the doe eyes that were wide open and never seemed to blink.
- Does Michael Phelps have an Olympics logo tattooed down near his right pelvis bone area? Yes, you can see that far down because he's a low rider when it comes to wearing the bathing suit. It does look like the Olympic colored circles on his skin.
- WHY . . . Is Jay Leno in the Bravo promo for Inside the Actors Studio? He ain't no actor.
- So did Mike Wallace cause his own handcuffing and booking for disorderly conduct? The Taxi and Limousine Commission in New York said he became "overtly assertive and disrespectful" and interfered with inspectors who were questioning his driver for double parking in front of a restaurant while Mr. Wallace went in to get take-out dinner.
- . . . Did he think he was doing a 60 Minutes piece? He's known for aggressive journalism.
- . . . And I can't believe he's 86 years old. He's looked the same for the last 50 years. He's got good teeth, a full head of hair and a perpetual tan which has got to be enhanced.
- George Bush adds a syllable and pronounces al Qaeda, al KI EE DA.
- Barbasol shaving cream is advertising on TV. That stuff's been around a million years and it's good. Somebody needs to tell CVS to start stocking it again or I'll take my business elsewhere.
- COMING OUT OF THE WOODWORK. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. She never does TV but I guess her mind's changed now because she's got a book to sell, Bushworld, a collection of her columns about W, as she often refers to him.
- OLIVE WREATHS. Olympic organizers have ordered 2,563 of them for medal winners' heads. It's a tradition from ancient Olympia when competitors in the games were crowned with an olive wreath as a symbol of peace.
- . . . I'd like to be the florist who got that account.
- According to writer Buzz McClain in The Washington Post, the Merriweather Post venue out in Columbia, Md., was a disorganized mess last Wednesday for the Sarah McLachlan concert. The ATMs had a $20 limit and the fee was $4. (Are you kidding me?) Only three food stalls out of four were operable and all they sold were pretzels and sushi. Toilets overflowed in the women's rooms and forced them to go to the men's but over there they were out of toilet paper.
- . . . Don't squeeze the Charmin.
- COLIN POWELL IS A CAT'S NAME. A beautiful copper-eyed black Bombay cat beat out 22,700 other felines for Cat of the Year, sponsored by the Cat Fanciers Association. Colin Powell, the person, posed one day last week holding his namesake for a yearbook for the organization and the cat just hung there over Mr. Powell's arms. Didn't squirm. Nice kitty.
- So The Plaza Hotel in New York is being sold to an Israeli developer for $675 million. Elad Properties is paying a whopping $838,509 per room and is planning on turning some of the 805 rooms there into condos. And how much will they sell for, for crissakes?
- Craig Kilborn is leaving CBS's The Late Late Show after contract talks didn't come up with more money. Is this so great a loss? Don't think so. I got tired of his snarkiness anyway.
- Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, and owner Sally were greeted at their hotel in Charleston, S.C., with a bottle of wine for Sally and a basket of bones for Miss Lee. That dog's treated like royalty down there.
- BOGUS. Bond, those fiddling foursome girls who play violins over pop music tracks, were on the CBS Saturday Early Show. They flail around and flip their hair a lot while they saw away on their instruments. It's ridiculous.
- GIVE IT TO ME BABY (1981). Some lyrics from Rick James:
When I came home last night
You wouldn't make love to me
You went fast asleep
You wouldn't even talk to me
Said I'm so crazy
Coming home intoxicated
I said I just wanna love ya
Guess that's why I'm so elated.
- Mr. Big Stuff said he wasn't going to watch too much of the 1,700 hours of Olympics coverage. "They're too long and too much of them on TV," he complained. All he wants to see is his regular shows.
- GIMME A BREAK. Rod Stewart's doing a third album of pop standards in his Great American Songbook series. They're making money for him but geesh, haven't we had enough?
- The weekend edition of the Today show was a "split-edition," as they called it, with Campbell Brown in Ñew York (Studio 1-A) and Lester Holt in "Studio Alpha," he jokingly said, because he was in Athens for the Olympics.
- Despite the fact that it opened #1 this past weekend, Mr. Highfalutin saw Alien vs. Predator (AVP) and says it's definitely a B-movie and the plot's predictable. And the ending leaves it open for a sequel but Highfalutin says there probably won't be one because he was practically the only one sitting in the movie theater for a 9:30 feature on Saturday night. We'll see what happens next weekend.
- RELEASING ONLINE. That's how Sire Records is putting out new artist Regina Spektor's album, Soviet Kitsch. They'll be releasing it first on various music download services in order for it to get "maximal promotion" on the Internet first before releasing the physical album in February, reports The New York Times.
- . . . Pretty soon there won't be an album or CD to hold in your hand; it'll just be in your ear.
- NO MORE BOOKNOTES. On C-SPAN. Host Brian Lamb has been doing it since 1989 and he told The Washington Post that getting ready for each author interview was like studying for an exam every week. "Even kids get the summers off," he said. He'll be doing a new, "broader interview" show show that'll start Dec. 12. By the way, he collects Tweety Birds. It was revealed on last week's Fox News Sunday Lamb said some people think that he looks like Sylvester the Cat's nemesis.
- What's with Michael Jackson's lawyer's (Tom Mesereau) hair? Is he a Michael McDonald wannabe?
- It looked like some girl in the newsroom was nibbling on a chicken leg or a rib when CNN's Kyra Phillips paused for a commercial and the camera did a pullback shot from behind the anchor desk. The muncher was sort of in the dark. I got hungry watching her eat.
- ESPN sports anchor Neil Everett pointed out that RACECAR spelled backwards is RACECAR. Hey, he's right. It's an example of a palindrome, a word or verse or sentence or number that reads the same backward and forward. A friend of mine told me this.
- UH . . . The Race is On - Jack Jones on Kapp Records. 1965. He's the guy who sang the theme for TV's Love Boat.
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