January 11, 2004


      THE COLDEST DAYS OF MY LIFE

  1. . . . By the Chi-Lites. And then there's Cold, Cold Heart by Hank Williams and Cold, Cold World by Teddy Pendergrass and Cold Sweat by James Brown and The Famous Flames and Funky Cold Medina by Tone Loc and Out in the Cold Again by Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers. And then there's Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. Get the idea?
  2. . . . Vanilla Ice, seemingly now known as Rob Van Winkle. is one of six celebs on the returning WB reality TV (RTV) show, The Surreal Life (Sundays, 9 p.m.). They all try to live together under one roof for 10 days. Included in the group is Tammy Faye Messner (Baker), the constantly smiling Eric Estrada - does he use those whitening strips? - and porno "star" Ron Jeremy also known as Hedgehog, among others.
  3. BIG FISH. A Tim Burton Film. Good movie directed with a lot of imagination. Albert Finney (father) repeatedly tells tall tales about his life and Billy Crudup (son) wants the truth. Ewan McGregor plays the father as a young man starting out and narrates the tale. Many magical adventures along the way which are interestingly executed.
  4. Tim Brant is now on ABC7 in Washington as sports director and anchor. He had a big story debut with the news of Joe Gibbs returning to the Redskins. Seems like he's a pro and knows his stuff. And Rene Knott? He's hightailing out to St. Louis station KSDK where he'll be the main sports anchor. Guess he didn't wanna be second banana.
  5. . . . HEFTY PRICE TAG. The other night, watching Channel 7, sitting at the anchor desk I saw Leon Harris, Maureen Bunyan, Doug Hill and Brant. How much do those salaries add up to?
  6. That rover up on Mars cost $400,000,000! And there's a second one.
  7. Mel Gibson's movie about Jesus Christ is now called The Passion of the Christ instead of just The Passion. Why the the?
  8. National Geographic uses a "crittercam" that they attach to whales, lions, whatever, to get some of the video for those shows they make. Is that cruel?
  9. BICYCLE BOMBER. Yes, now they're doing their work on bikes, for crissakes. One this past week blew up a mosque in Iraq. Was it a mountain bike or one of those hybrids?
  10. Mr. Big Stuff said he missed Entrepreneur this week. He meant to say The Apprentice, that Donald Trump reality show.
  11. RACCOON-ISH EFFECT. A co-worker of mine said this about the whiteness around NBC's Brian Williams's eyes: "I don't know why he just can't take off the goggles when he goes to the tanning booth."
  12. Michael Jackson pays $70,000 rent for his new digs in Beverly Hills. He moved from his Neverland Ranch because his" house was not a home." (A House is Not a Home - Dionne Warwick (1971) and redone by Luther Vandross.) The place is another mansion. Why does he need all that?
  13. GOING THE WAY OF THE 45 and 78 RPMs: The word album. Practically everybody says CD now. And LP is long gone, except for vinyl collectors. That stood for Long Playing. They do still use EP fairly frequently when rock acts release a mini-CD. That stood for Extended Play.
  14. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, got beat up on a golf course in Napa, California over Christmas when a golden retriever attacked her. The owners had to pull the big dog off her and Hanalie ran back, shaking, to owner Sally. She got a hug. Aww.
  15. Colin Powell looks great and he just had prostate surgery. Quick recovery, it seems.
  16. WHEN THEY WANT TO DO SOMETHING, THEY DO IT. D.C. did. All of a sudden it's gonna be illegal to talk on your cell phone while you're in the car - unless it's an emergency. That law didn't take long to pass. When was it out for everybody to consider? Seems like it was railroaded through. (Goes into effect this summer.)
  17. ROBERTO BOREA. Photographer for Associated Press (AP) for 30 years, died Jan. 6. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for feature photography for his picture of Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and dog Buddy walking across the White House lawn to a helicopter en route to Martha's Vineyard after his televised confession about the affair with Monica Lewinsky. Memorable photo.
  18. Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart stood on the front deck of the new Queen Mary 2 luxury cruise liner last week and exclaimed, "I'm queen of the world," like Leonardo DiCaprio did in Titanic. That Mary.
  19. Tonya Harding's got some big arms these days. She's boxing now. A likely profession.
  20. A friend of mine is put off by the exposure of Lesley Stahl's knees when she's sitting on that stool in Grand Central Station while she's hosting 48 Hours. Thinks it's not that becoming. And why is she there?
  21. What if they find Martians up there? What if it's a one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater? (The Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley on MGM. 1958)
  22. MOUSEWORK. Is that what we all do now with our computers?
  23. Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin is a horse's a_ _. He was on the Today show being interviewed by Matt Lauer last week about exposing his young kid to an alligator and the Two-Way was pretty much a One-Way interview. Lauer couldn't get a word in edgewise. Irwin promised not to do it again but he was non-stop gab. I watched it and I was telling him to shut up. And while you're at it Steve, how about toning down the Aussie accent too? It's a bit much.
  24. So does Pete Rose seem sorry enough or is the book (My Prison Without Bars) and confession his way of wrangling into the Hall of Fame?
  25. EVER HAD A HONEYBELL? That's a cross between a grapefruit and a tangerine that is reportedly "the juciest and sweetest citrus around", says Newsweek. They sound good.
  26. The CNN ads for American Morning say to join Bill and Soledad but the one for Inside Politics says Judy Woodruff. They don't call her by her first name. Maybe she likes to be addressed more formally. Good for her.
  27. DIDN'T KNOW . . . That the Parma in Parmalat is an actual city in Italy. The company is bankrupt. Executives faked assets and cooked the books, reports say. Their milk products appear in 30 countries and they had 36,000 employees. They're calling the scandal the Italian Enron.
  28. NEW NEWS PERSON SPOTTED. On ABC. Jessica Yellin. She appeared Saturday on World News Tonight with a report on Democratic Web sites. Was good.
  29. Mark Harmon's on the cover of the current TV Guide. He's on Navy NCIS on CBS. Wooden actor. Always was.
  30. The cover of David Brinkley's last book, Brinkley's Beat: People, Places, and Events That Shaped My Time, shows him in a black and white photo smiling and leaning back in a chair with his feet propped up, probably in a newsroom somewhre. Looks comfortable. The jacket photograph is "courtesy of the author." It looks post-Huntley-Brinkley and pre-This Week.
  31. Comedian Dick Gregory fasted 40 days (and nights?) in support of Michael Jackson. He fasts for everything.
  32. D.C.'s new multiplex theaters, Landmark's E Street Cinema, are pretty nice. In the new revitalized downtown at 11th &E Sts., NW. It doesn't look like that much when you go in, no big marquee on the front yet. (What they have might be a temporary one.) All the theaters (8) are underground. They have stadium seating but it seems modified and not as high up as other stadium movie seating. Plenty of people working there and they look and seem and act professional. And it's near the Metro.
  33. A LITTLE NEUROTIC MAYBE? Mr. Highfalutin bought a new wall clock for his office. It doesn't have a second hand because he thought that would be too busy for the office - the place has got enough activity going on as it is. Whatever.
  34. Beyonce's gonna sing the national anthem at Super Bowl XXXVIII (38) in her native Houston, Feb. 1. Will that be done hip-hop style? Will she shake her bootyliciousness?
  35. Dick St. John of Dick and Dee Dee fame died in LA on Dec. 23. The duo had a huge hit in 1961 with The Mountain's High, 1963 with Young and In Love, 1964 with Thou Shalt Not Steal and more. They appeared frequently on American Bandstand and he wrote songs for Lesley Gore, Jan & Dean, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and did a lot of music for TV shows.
  36. The Girl With A Pearl Earring (Scarlett Johansson) looks like she has Angelina Jolie lips.
  37. Do you dust first before you vacuum or vice versa? This was an issue explored in a Hints From Heloise column.
  38. NBC's John Seigenthaler's sign-off on Sunday's NBC Nightly News is, "I'm John Seigenthaler and I'll see you next weekend if not before." We better see him before. He's got to earn his keep.
  39. DIDN'T KNOW. That fashion photographer Francesco Scavullo who died last week,created that TV commercial for Memorex audio tape (Is it live or is it Memorex?) which featured the voice of Ella Fitzgerald shattering glass. Cool.
  40. UH . . . Memories Are Made Of This - Dean Martin on Capitol. 1955. His real name was Dino Crocetti.


rocci@roccifisch.com

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