Rocci Fisch

August 22, 2010

MODEST

… That’s how President Obama seemed when asked by reporters if he was going to take a dip in the water on his trip to the Gulf of Mexico a week or so ago.
… He said he intended to do so out of view of the cameras because the last time he took a swim he landed on magazine covers. He didn’t want to be seen going shirtless — either not appropriate for the president of the United States to be seen partially clothed in public, or maybe he was just vain and not confident in his own body.
… The press wasn’t allowed to accompany the president but the White House later released a picture of Obama and daughter Sasha swimming in the waters of Panama City Beach with just their heads bobbing up — no full-body shots. The most you saw of the president was his right shoulder.
… Controlling the news.
… I can think of some other people who might take the president’s advice, i.e., the Kardashians, Lady Gaga, Mario Lopez for starters.
NBC’s David Gregory looked like a tourist walking with Gen. David Petraeus last week in a promo for his interview for that Sunday’s Meet the Press. The two were walking in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Gregory had a professional-looking camera on a long strap hanging from his shoulder with his loose white shirt hanging down and not tucked in — looking casual for the occasion.
… He didn’t look much like an inquiring newsman, more like a picture-snapping Klingon.
… Didn’t NBC spring for a wardrobe designer for the trip?
… When I saw him toting the camera the first thing I thought was that maybe he was practicing backpack journalism, where the reporter not only interviews his/her subjects but also operates the technical equipment.
… Then, later on the actual show that was taped, he had on a dark blue, double flap-pocketed, safari-type shirt over a t-shirt that looked like a Nehru jacket. He was in Afghanistan, not India. It was confusing. I had to re-get my bearings.
Actress (actor?) Halle Berry said this to Vogue magazine: “If the world wouldn’t persecute me, I’d take nude pictures every day of the week.” She admits that posing nude makes her feel “empowered.”
… That’s a nice quote for her daughter to remember that her mommy said way back when.
… It sounds like it’s been an ongoing “struggle” for the poor thing. She went on to say that the empowerment comes with age and that “I’ve been getting there slowly.”
… Plus, her former boyfriend — and the father of daughter Nahla — Gabriel Aubry, a “supermodel,” is also into posing almost nude. He’s seen naked in bed (alone) with sheets covering up his vital parts and then in the bathroom with just a low-hung towel covering up the family jewels. These for an ad campaign for “homewares” company Charisma’s line of products.
… Nahla better watch out. Sounds like exposing yourself in your birthday suit is embedded in the genes.
ADVISORY TO PARIS HILTON: You’re no Marilyn Monroe. The socialite channeled MM for the Hollywood premiere of her latest perfume fragrance, Tease. (It’s reportedly her tenth.)
… Dressed all in white, she had all the clothes, jewelry, hair and … um … cleavage right but I’d take a pass on the face. Absolutely no resemblance.
… ANOTHER RIDICULOUS LOOK-ALIKE ATTEMPT. Jennifer Aniston as Barbra Streisand in a photo shoot coming up in Harper’s Bazaar’s September issue. According to a celebrity Web site, she played Streisand’s hit People (1964, Columbia Records) to give her inspiration during the photo shoot. Good God, Gimme a Break!
Tiger Woods very briefing had a goatee last week. It wasn’t much of one; looked like a couple days’ growth but it turned out gray. And then no sooner had I noticed it than I saw him in another picture from the PGA Championship in Wisconsin and he was minus the facial hair.
… Guess he decided it wasn’t good for the uh … image.
OLD PEOPLE USE SOCIAL MEDIA TOO. Former New York mayor Ed Koch, 85, twitters/tweets but he has someone do it for him. The New York Times ran a picture of him in his office “dictating a Twitter post” to an aide who used a BlackBerry or an iPhone to do it.
… FYI: Koch now heads up New York Uprising, whose mission is to shake up lawmakers in Albany, the state’s capital.
“SWEETLY BRAYS THE DONKEY.” A zedonk was born about a week ago in a wildlife preserve in Dahlonega, Ga., (that’s here in the USA). It’s a cross between a donkey (mother) and a zebra (father) and has black stripes on her legs and face. Cute.
… Hee haw, hee haw … hee haw, hee haw, hee haw.
… IN OTHER DONKEY NEWS … A female donkey named Anapka was sent up in the air, parasailing, in a cruel promotional stunt for a recreation company in Russia in July. There’s video of it that, of course, went viral.
… The poor animal spent half an hour in the air but was brought down safely, so says a report. But thousands of readers of British newspaper, The Sun, protested and urged the paper to rescue it.
… Anapka was then sent to a riding school outside the Kremlin for medical checks and it looks like someone from an English soccer team may adopt her.
The last time (two weeks ago) Sarah Palin was on Fox News Sunday as a guest on the show her appearance was billed as an “exclusive.” Why that? She’s a paid on-air “contributor” and appears frequently on many shows on the network (Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, etc.) What’s so exclusive about another appearance?
… Somebody tell these networks and other media outlets to stop calling everything and everybody an exclusive when it’s not. Let’s speak the truth.
… ALSO NOTICED. Whenever Sarah Palin is interviewed on Fox from Alaska, she sounds like she’s in a large, hollow room. It sounds very “alive” up there and echo-y; the audio’s not warm.
… Neither is she.
I enjoy seeing that Soul Train Time Life infomercial just so I can hear host Don Cornelius say “It’s gonna be a stone cold gas.” (He used to say that at the end of each show.) The nine-DVD collection of performances (130) on the syndicated dance show is co-hosted by Smokey Robinson and Jodi Watley (former dancer on the show, member of Shalamar and solo hit singer (“Looking for a New Love”).
NOTICED. The Empire rug/flooring commercials (are they played enough on TV,for crissakes?) have speeded up the singing of the 800 number at the end (“588-2300, Empire … Today.”) of the ad.
… I guess they’re squeezing in more offers in the commercial message, or something.
… How about slowing down the number of times the annoying ad is played and replayed in 35 markets in the country. Enough already!
JUST ASKING. After all those years (since 1933) of covering the weekly news how can Newsweek magazine be sold for just one measly dollar (to audio pioneer Sidney Harmon of Harmon/Kardon fame)?
… It seems unfathomable.
… Another victim of the Internet.
… It’s a shame.
TELL ME IT’S NOT TRUE. Another show like The View is coming to TV. Only this time it’s called The Talk and it’s on CBS and it has Julie Chen as the main host (à la Barbara Walters) and all the women on the show are mothers. So they’ll have that perspective, that point of view when discussing contemporary issues.
…What an original idea.
… More clap trap if ya ask me.
… How many more TV shows can Les Moonves (president of CBS) give to his wife? (She’ll still appear on the Early Show, only now as just a contributor, and she’ll still host Big Brother in prime time.)
… How many more opportunities can one person get who is not all that great?
I saw Contraception. I mean Inception. The Leonardo di Caprio flick about dreams, directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight). The psycho-thriller is a pretty wild ride, extremely well done, imaginative. Don’t ask me to explain it (I couldn’t), but it’s about invading dreams and getting the bad guys and it’s on several levels.
HAIR NEWS. NBC Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel lately seems to be adding some “product” to his hair (is it gel?) which makes it stand up more and not seem so flyaway, neater. But he still has that trademark chunk that flops down on his forehead, especially when he’s emphasizing a certain dramatic point (there are many) in his on-camera reports whenever you see him reporting from hot spots around Iraq and other foreign locales.
… This was noticed on his special reports (Iraq: The Long Way Out, about the drawdown) that aired on Nightly News.
… And Chris Jansing. another NBC on-air type who currently is seen on MSNBC and Morning Joe and the Today show (her stock is rising). Would someone drag a comb through that mess? It looks like some hairdresser scrambled his hands through it while advertising hair mousse on QVC or something. Much too un-neat and distracting.
… It seems either women on TV have helmet-head hair styles or the other extreme. Where’s the middle ground?
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? The professional sounding, out-front spokesmen in those TV commercials for BP talking about the cleanup, the safeness, the mission, the promises, the determination, the caring.
… Two of ‘em are Fred Lemond, the head of BP Cleanup Operations, who says he’s in charge of getting the oil out of the water, and Keith Seilhan, “mobile incident commander” at Gulf Shores, Ala.
… “There’s oil out there; we’ve got to catch it. My job is to hunt it down. I’m Fred Lemond …”
… They sound very trained actor-ish to me. Very slick. A little too slick.
… I guess BP invests in training its executives in public speaking and TV coaching so when a catastrophe occurs they’re always prepared.
… How much does BP have to assure the American public that they’re there to “make this right”?
TV newsreader and correspondent Ron Claiborne on ABC’s GMA Weekend did the weather both days for the vacationing Maryisol Castro two weeks ago. What, couldn’t the network afford to pay a replacement weather person? Are things that bad?
MOVIE: Eat Pray Love. The Julia Roberts movie about author Elizabeth Gilbert’s one-year life journey (based on the book of the same name) to three countries — Italy, India and Bali — to take some time out for herself to discover who she is and what she wants.
… Italy to eat; India to pray and Bali to find love.
… It’s definitely a “chick flick” and there were a lot of couples in the movie house on a Saturday night.
… The movie’s messages seem trite; it is schmaltzy; it’s predictable. But the film does have its moments of good acting and relatable experiences for the audience. That’s how I felt.
… Personally, I don’t care for Julia Roberts that much but I thought she did a good job, although she did cry too much and some of the close-ups made me cringe.
… It’s a good travelogue, has nice scenery and the soundtrack has some good music in it.
… The Italy part of the movie was particularly enjoyed by me.
GOOD NEWS. For the young Afghan woman (Aisha) who was featured on the cover of Time magazine (What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan) a couple of weeks ago who had her nose and ears cut off by her abusive husband, a member of the Taliban: She’s now in the U.S. to have reconstructive surgery to be done by a California doctor and financed by a foundation.
… Horrific thing for anyone to endure.
… (Ain’t That) Good News — Sam Cooke, on RCA Victor Records, 1964.

rocci@roccifisch.com

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