DON'T THEY GET TIRED OF ANSWERING THE SAME QUESTIONS?

1. . . . Those Sunday talk show guests? Today Colin Powell's on three of them and Condoleezza Rice is on two. They make the rounds in the morning. When they wanna talk, they're available; when the don't, die trying to get 'em.
2. CONTRAST . . . The opens of Fox News Sunday and CBS Sunday Morning. Tony Snow sounds like a sports announcer practically shouting his words amidst a barrage of exploding, whooshy sound effects. (They even had one that sounded like playing cards flipping over.) Then there's Charles Osgood low-key-ishly stating what's up on his show - No hype, pleasing to the ear, especially for a Sunday morning.
3. A friend of mine thinks that Khalid Skaikh Mohammed, the captured al Qaeda leader, looked like he had bed head. Someone else said he looked like porno star Ron Jeremy. Another said John Belushi. He did look a bit dissheveled, and he could use a new undershirt. The one he had on looked a bit stretched out.
4. LaToya Jackson now looks like Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson looks like LaToya used to look.
5. WHO CARES WHAT THEY THINK! That's what a lot of people are saying about actors and other celebrities speaking out against the war. They do have the right to protest but it sounds like it's too late.
6. You know it's a major "news" story when every local TV station describes what they're doing is part of Team Coverage.
7. Brit Hume called Helen Thomas of the White House press corps a "nutty aunt." (Bush didn't traditionally give her the first question at his news conference last week.)
8. THEY BETTER FILL 'EM UP. A friend of mine literally fell into a pot hole crossing Wilson Blvd. in Arlington, Va. a couple weeks ago and badly sprained her ankle. She passed out too. Some firehouse guys helped her out and got her to the hospital. She lost a week's work.
9. Dolly Parton sounds good singing her own version of I Will Always Love You (she wrote it) in that Verizon ad on TV. But then spell is broken at the end when James Earl Jones says, "Verizon Wireless, make progress everyday."
10. The movie The Guru is a fun ride. Indian guy leaves home country to make it in New York as an actor. Along the way he stumbles into the wrong kind of acting job and then takes on another role as a last-minute swami for high society people. Good performances by Jimi Mistry as Ramu Gupta, Heather Graham and Marisa Tomei. Christine Baranski's in it too. Well-directed and as equally appealing as Monsoon Wedding.
11. I guess George Hamilton's stopped dyeing his hair. It's gray now and sticks up on ABC's latest reality TV show, The Family which he hosts. A lot of people like him on it.
12. "Are you matching?" match.com is asking.
13. Are we tired yet of "Ben Franklin" singing and dancing to Don't You Want Me on those Sun Trust ads?
14. Martha Stewart's back on TV with commercials plugging her towels and bedware, available at K-mart. Are any of those stores left?
15. The deadline for Iraq is now March 17. That's St. Patrick's Day. That's a bad date. Will it ruin the holiday?
16. ODD COMBINATION. Rob Zombie and Lionel Richie have collaborated on a remake of The Commodores' Brick House, reports Rolling Stone magazine. It's a cut on the soundtrack to Zombie's horror flick, House of 1000 Corpses, due out April 11. That oughta be something to hear.
17. People are getting mad as hell about all the commercials they're now showing at movie theaters before the main feature comes on. Previews are one thing, but do we have to suffer through endless Coke commercials and what's coming up on television?
18. Does David Caruso of CSI: Miami ever crack? He's ultra-serious all the time. He needs to break out of the mold once in a while.
19. Joan Lunden, 52, and husband Jeff Konigsberg, 41, are awaiting the birth of twins by a surrogate mother. The Enquirer reported it first and now it's the cover story in the current People.
20. CAUTION: PUSHING THE ENVELOPE. Mr. High Falutin was shocked when he saw an ad for Gucci in Interview magazine that shows a young woman - face not shown - pulling down her, uh, underpants in the front to reveal a "G" carved out of , uh, her follicle area with a guy kneeling down grabbing onto her legs looking at the symbol. What those magazines get away with! (I'm old-fashioned.)
21. Singer Linda Eder is being compared to a young Barbra Streisand. She does a lot of show tunes and popular ballads on her Broadway My Way album. She's got powerful pipes and it does seem reminiscent.
22. So Sam Donaldson's staying with ABC. Probably a good decision. MSNBC comes and goes with too many different people all the time.
23. So CNN's TalkBack Live is dead. They're gonna use that hour to do more Iraq coverage on Live From. So where's Arthel Neville gonna go? Somewhere, I hope. She's proved herself with that show.
24. The man who wrote The Twist died last Sunday of throat cancer. Early rhythm and blues singer/songwriter Hank Ballard wrote the song in 1958 and recorded it as a B-side. About a year later, Chubby Checker recorded it - some say with the encouragement of Dick Clark - and it took off, starting a worldwide dance craze and the beginning of Checker's many hit career. The song was #1 two times for Checker and landed Ballard a lot of money, we hope.
25. Did jail make Robert Blake's hair turn gray or was it that he wasn't allowed to have his hair stylist color it anymore?
26. Clara Harris, the woman who rode over her husband in her Mercedes, cries a lot. She did in the trial and she did again on camera for Diane Sawyer on Primetime Thursday. She was a mess.
27. Everybody's getting ready for the Academy Awards on March 23. So the parade of stars on TV starts. Gene Shalit of the Today show called Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York "overblown." By George, I think he's right.
28. Mr. Big Stuff, on seeing Bay Buchanan on CNN said, "Look, it's Pat Buchanan in drag." They really do look alike and Pat could sure use some of sister Bay's hair for himself.
29. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, seems glad the snow is gone because it's easier for her to go to the bathroom.
30. There's an ad for electrolysis that runs every week in Washington's City Paper which shows a nice-looking young woman - with a coarse beard on her face, mustache and all. When we called the Skin Rejuvenation and Acne Clinic to inquire about its truthfulness, they chuckled and said it was courtesy of Photoshop, a computer program.
31. Are people not eating French fries now because of the country's position on the war? Some restaurants are not calling them that anymore.
32. Valerie Harper's funny in The Allergist's Wife now playing at the National Theatre in Washington. She plays a neurotic New Yorker whose life changes when an old friend comes back for a visit. She was interviewed on washingtonpost.com's Live Online last week and said she doesn't mind being asked questions about her Rhoda character and she sounds the same in person as she did on TV.
33. Ben Affleck's DareDevil movie is okay but not great. It's not another Spider-Man. It's got a lot of that martial arts-type fighting going on with people thrashing about hither and yon.
34. Last week Tom Shales referred to Saddam Hussein as the "wacky Iraqi." Ha Ha Ha.
35. The Clinton & Dole segment on 60 Minutes went well. Both are naturals for TV and both talked about the war and the deficit and taxes. Simple. Went fast. Want more. (Next week it'll be called Dole & Clinton. Fair.)
36. UH . . . More, by Kai Winding and Orchestra, on Verve, 1963. It was the theme from the documentary movie, Mondo Cane, which caused a stir back then.

rocci@roccifisch.com

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