February 2, 2005

      SOMEONE NOT SEDUCED BY CELEBRITY

1. . . . That's the kind of person district attorney Tom Sneddon wants on the Michael Jackson jury. He thinks older women would be best.
2. . . . Some people like older women. Take the young gardener John (Jesse Metcalfe) on Desperate Housewives, for example.
3. Madonna looks sleazy in those Versace ads.
4. Nicole Kidman's dad Tony looks young even though he has gray hair. He said his daughter was "a prisoner in her own home," referring to a listening device found on her property in Sydney, Australia. And a temporary restraining order was imposed on two photographers who have been trailing her and putting her in danger by weaving in and out of traffic. She was afraid the same thing might happen to her as it did to Princess Diana. I don't blame her.
5. A lieutenant colonel in Baghdad told NBC's Campbell Brown, who was there last weekend for the Iraqi elections, that they call the 40 pounds of protecive gear the soldiers wear, battle rattle.
6. HEARD BUT NOT SEEN. "Good morning. This is Tony Pann with your weather." I guess WUSA/Channel 9 in Washington doesn't think he deserves a camera to be seen on to deliver the weekend forecasts. Maybe they're saving money by not showing him. Would make sense, station's owned by Gannett.
7. Trumpet player Chris Botti was on CBS's Saturday Early Show. He's the one who's supposedly dating Katie Couric. When Russ Mitchell interviewed him, Botti seemed full of himself. He tooted his own horn too much. (Current album, just in time, I guess, for Valentine's Day: When I Fall In Love (Columbia).
8. IF IT HEAR THE ANDY GRIFFITH THEME IN THOSE FOOD LION ADS ONE MORE TIME, I'LL ...
9. Court TV has a special on Wednesday, Feb. 1, called Jackson's Mind. Michael, that is. That sounds like brain in a jar or something.
10. Those ballot boxes in the Iraqi elections looked like somebody shopped at The Container Store.
11. Condoleezza Rice, new secretary of state, almost did a clean sweep on the Sunday talk shows last weekend -- four out of five. Meet the Press was the only abstainer. They did former presidential candidate John Kerry. Tim Russert gave him the whole show which, I thought, was a bit boring.
12. . . . Condi wore high, pointed black boots with a thin narrow heel (stiletto-ish) which seemed dominatrix-like to me.
13. TRANSPARENCY. That's a new catch word we're hearing a lot of lately. It's used in a favorable way, meaning that there are no secrets to hide, no skeletons in the closet, everything visible. Some pundits have used the word in discussing women in the new Iraqi government.
14. . . . "I can see for miles and miles ... "
15. SECOND TIME AROUND. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), a guest on Sunday's This Week, congratulated George Stephanopoulos on expecting a second girl.
16. IN GOOD COMPANY. Decent, light-hearted, amusing movie with Dennis Quaid (Dan Foreman) playing a 51-year-old sales exec for a sports magazine that's been taken over by another company and Quaid winds up with a new boss, Carter Duryea, played by Topher Grace, who's 26 and winds up dating Foreman's daughter Alex (Scarlett Johansson). And CSI's Marg Helgenberger plays Quaid's wife.
17. If Topher Grace's first name is a shortening of Christopher (given by his mother), then why doesn't it start with an apostrophe? ‘Topher. Just asking.
18. "Let's hear it for the guy who never let us go to bed alone," said NBC's Chris Matthews, praising Johnny Carson who died last week. The accolades have been a bit much as they always are when somebody famous dies. Everybody wants to weigh in to claim their part of a celebrity. Poor Johnny must've rolled over in his grave more than once.
19. "You have a standing invitation here on Fox News Sunday," said anchorman Chris Wallace to Condoleezza Rice last weekend, and she responded, "I look forward to using it." You bet.
20. In a news report on the CBS Evening News there was a woman in the Atlanta ice storm last week who was soundbiting while at the driver's seat of her car with a cell phone in her ear. Maybe she was on hold with 911.
21. "LIFE WITH MORE BITE." That's what you'll get by using Fixodent Control. It's new precision tip nozzle provides more control and can be applied in a thin, continuous line around the perimeter of your denture."
22. Planters' Mr. Peanut wears a monocle because he doesn't have any ears. That's what the commercial says. Makes sense to me. I just don't like the spats. Never did.
23. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, doesn't like having Emma and Buddy, the cats, in the bed with her and owner Sally. Hanalie likes her space and with them it's too crowded.
24. MYTH DEBUNKED. Researchers say George Washington's false teeth were NOT made of wood. They were made of gold, ivory, lead and human and animal teeth. USA Today reported last week that laser scans were being made of a set of the late president's dentures at the National Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore. They're planning to create "life-size figures of plaster and wax to show aspects of Washington's personality that they consider underappreciated." Okay.
25. Arnold Palmer got married last week. MSNBC put this on the screen about it: GOLFER ARNOLD PAMER TIES THE KNOW. Ever hear of proofreading?
26. A friend of mine who's been following the news out of Iraq asks this question: "Do you think the Kurds have lost their whey?" Ha Ha Ha.
27. BLACK ICE. All the Nervous Nelly TV news anchors and weather people were telling us to watch out for it with those low temps last week. Quit telling us what to do. Just read the news.
28. Maybe those charges against Bill Cosby by a woman who claims he groped her at his home in Philadelphia in January 2004 will shut him up. He's been everywhere recently, mouthing off and kicking up dust about everything. Everytime you turn around, there's Bill Cosby making a speech. He's just a bored celebrity.
29. FYI: Michael Okwu of NBC pronounces his name, OKU. I guess the w is silent. He was in Hawaii last covering the families of some soldiers who were killed in a helicopter crash.
30. LISTENING TO . . . Spread Your Wings and Fly: Live at the Fillmore East, May 30, 1971, by Laura Nyro. Her soulful, self-written songs and covers of some landmark rhythm and blues songs are explored here. Just her and a grand piano in one of the last concerts of the legendary music hall. Just her voice and the piano and the applause. Terrific.
31. THE POPULARITY OF WISTERIA LANE. Oprah's gonna be in a skit with the Desperate Housewives on their Hollywood set. Her segment will air on her talk show Thursday. She said doing her thing with the cast gave her back the acting bug which she thought she was over. So now she's looking for something else to be in. Diane Sawyer visited the set too and her piece(s) will be on Friday's GMA.
32. Carmen Elektra's Aerobic Striptease is selling for $11.89 on amazon.com. I guess it's not slow and sexy.
33. Good TV Guide article on network news anchors who covered the tsunami and their feelings about the disaster: Diane Sawyer for ABC, Ann Curry and Brian Williams for NBC, Lee Cowan, CBS; Anderson Cooper, CNN and Adam Housley, Fox News Channel. Good quotes.
34. ABC NEWS PRODUCER LEO MEIDLINGER DIES. Thirty-year veteran of the network who worked in hot spots and danger zones throughout the world, most recently in Baghdad. He was also a White House producer and over the years was responsible for getting correspondents like Sam Donaldson on the air night after night. And he produced large-scale events in Washington such as the Pope's visit in 1979 and was ABC News correspondent Cassie Mackin's producer on the Ted Kennedy campaign for president in 1980. The list goes on and on. Peter Jennings said that he was one of those who left his handprint on ABC's coverage of world and national news for 30 years. Some friends called him Bean and LeOLIO. He had a strong voice, a wry, funny and cynical sense of humor and a good laugh. He will be missed.
35. . . . On-air mentions and tributes were on Friday's Nightline, World News Tonight Saturday by Peter Jennings and This Week by George Stephanopooulos.
36. I think Campbell Brown likes to be out covering the news more than she does anchoring the weekend Today show from a studio in New York. She's pumped when she's in the field.
37. They made the Iraqis dip their index fingers in purple ink so that they couldn't get away with voting twice. After voting, many waved their fingers at the cameras.
38. How fast did Kevin Spacey's Beyond the Sea movie last? What a long life that one had. Yes, he can sing. Yes, he can dance. But nobody cared.
39. My cousin sort of liked The Woodsman. Obviously it was a downer, she said. And she thought Kevin Bacon was good but too hangdog. But she understood he had to be for the part (reformed pedophile).
40. Mr. Big Stuff asked if the Super Bowl is going to be played in Michael Jacksonville.
41. Do we still have to call Condoleezza Rice, Dr. Rice, now that she's secretary of state? I hope not.
42. UH . . . Doctor's Orders - Carol Douglas on Midland International. The long disco version. 1979.