Rocci Fisch

May 17, 2011

HIS HEART WILL GO ON

… "All the factors (The O'Reilly Factor?) say go but my heart says no," was what Mike Huckabee told viewers on his Saturday night Fox News Channel TV show when he took his name out of the race as a Republican challenger for president of the United States.
… "The external signs," the Southern Baptist minister continued, " … point strongly toward running, but only when I was alone ("All Alone Am I, ever since your goodbye …" -- Brenda Lee, on Decca Records, 1962) in quiet, reflective moments ("Daily Affirmations With Stuart Smalley"?), did I have not only clarity but an inexplicable inner peace."
… He was confident and assertive: "My answer is clear and firm. I will not seek the Republican nomination for president this year."
…JUST ASKING: Could he jump in at the last minute in 2012 and save the day like Mighty Mouse?
… It's a big assignment: "Being president is a job that takes one to the limit (Take It To the Limit – The Eagles, on Asylum, 1975) of his or her human capacity."
…SLEEPY HEAD. …Huckabee told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday: "Last night I laid my head on the pillow (Send Me the Pillow You Dream On – Johnny Tillotson, on Cadence Records, 1961) and I had a very good night's sleep," (Goodnite Sweetheart, well it's time to go …" (The Spaniels, 1954, on Vee-Jay Records.)
… So I guess he'll continue with his Saturday night hootenanny and play "gee-tar" (bass) with in-studio musical guest stars like Ted Nugent and feature celebrity luminaries like Mario Lopez, like he did the other night.
… There's nothing like having your own TV show.
… Just ask Donald Trump, who's now announced he won't be running for president either, that he wasn't ready to leave the private sector and that he wants to continue on with his TV show (The Celebrity Apprentice).
… But he said that if he would've decided to pursue the presidency that he knew he would have won the nomination to be the candidate and that he would have won the election.
… Delusions of grandeur.
… How big of an ego is that?
… NBC put pressure on him to decide soon because they needed to know whether he intended to do Apprentice for the upcoming fall season.
… Good, he needs to answer to somebody.
Adele, the very popular Brit soulful singer-songwriter who's Number 1 on both sides of the Atlantic with her album, 21 (XL/Columbia Records) and current single, "Rolling in the Deep," asked the audience at the 9:30 Club in Washington where she recently performed, "Did anyone watch the royal wedding?" The crowd roared with enthusiasm, according to Washington Post music critic Chris Richards, and then she asked, "How hung over was Harry? It was brilliant! I want to be best friends with Harry!"
… Was he? There were some random "tweets" about it but I don't give them much credibility.
… Adele better watch out what she says or she won't be able to play for the queen at some future date. That's a distinction that many British entertainers aspire to later in their careers.
Condoleezza Rice sure has stepped out of the shadows since the demise of Osama bin Laden. Everybody's interviewing the former secretary of state to see what she thinks of the mission and how George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld and others of the former administration have weighed in on things, plus her take on the future of the Middle East.
… On Sunday she told Fareed Zakaria on his CNN GPS program that Rumsfeld doesn't know what he's talking about and that she will, at some point, write her own book about what went down when they were all serving in that White House.
… She seems much more available (and comfortable) now than when she was in the hot seat.
… Tired of Hillary Clinton getting all the attention and good press these days?
… Remember those "dominatrix" black boots she wore in Germany back in 2005? They were hot.
'TIS THE SEASON? Is it springtime in Arabia? Everyone's talking about the Arab Spring. Are the people over there looking for romance or does it have something to do with the news?
… Or is it their version of Irish Spring, that scented soap?
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's got a new book out -- a "history and appraisal of Chinese diplomacy from ancient times to the present," says Amazon. It's called "On China."
… Think he or his publisher (Penguin Press) could've come up with a better, more specific title than just On China? Or, how much does it take to come up with at least a subtitle for the book?
FYI: Al-Jazeera means "the peninsula" in Arabic, according to The Washington Post's Thomas Erdbrink, which he mentioned in an article about the Qatar-based news organization and its coverage of the recent uprisings in the Middle East.
EWW. According to The New York Post's Sunday edition, Liz Taylor's daughter Liza Todd, a sculptor and animal lover, lives north of Manhattan on 55 acres of "lush Hudson Valley woodland in a quaint brick farmhouse dubbed Fecal Manor," of all things.
… Sounds distasteful.
… What, do people up there go to the bathroom in an outhouse or something?
HE CRIED AGAIN. Speaker of the House John Boehner did, during his commencement speech at Catholic University over the weekend. He got choked up when recalling how his high school football coach called him on the morning he became leader of the House of Representatives and told him, "You can do it," and how his parents told him that if he did the right things in life that good things will happen.
… God, that guy's emotional. You never know when he's gonna break.
Would someone tell MSNBC noontime anchor Contessa Brewer to tone down her childish enthusiasm about everything and continual chuckling about stories that she reads? Good God, get serious with the news.
JUST ASKING: Why does Jill Biden insist on constantly being referred to as Dr. Jill Biden? She is an educator and does hold multiple degrees (bachelor's, master's (two), doctoral), but the Ph.D. (doctorate) is usually an add-on after a name to indicate a high level of education in a particular field and not something that goes at the beginning of a person's name, so get over it.
… She's not a medical doctor.
… Get rid of the pomposity.
Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, got very upset over the weekend because of the noise workers caused in installing a new AC unit on owner Sally's roof, crane and all. "She (Hanalie)," said Sally, "felt her domain was being invaded."
… She's queen of the house and she knows it and acts like it.
Actress Teri (Desperate Housewives) Hatcher's daughter Emerson looks very much like her mom. Let's hope she doesn't grow up to be as simple and goofy acting.
MADE UP. Do the real-life Somali pirates out in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean wear eye makeup like Johnny Depp does portraying Capt. Jack Sparrow in those Pirates of the Caribbean movies? I don't think so.
… I know, I know, it's only a movie.
… He and Steven Tyler look like they both came out of the same makeup trailer.
… They both like to tie extra things into their hair: beads and braids and trinkets. And it seems they must be big on extensions.
… When Joel McHale, of NBC's Community and E's The Soup, was asked in a Parade magazine interview what he thought of the new judges on American Idol, McHale said, "I didn't even know that was Steven Tyler. I thought it was an old lady."
MOVIE: BRIDESMAIDS. Funny, and did okay at the box office, coming in at #2, but didn't perform quite as well as expected, so the Monday morning box office quarterbackers said.
… The women in it and the situations are comical (some hilarious) with Saturday Night Live's Kristen Wiig leading the pack. Former SNL-er Maya Rudolph (the bride in the bunch) plays the straight role.
… Movie was a tad long – over two hours. Could have been cut shorter.
NOTED. They've changed a network promo that used to feature Katie Couric and made it Scott Pelley, the newly designated anchor of the CBS Evening News. It's the one that says "On television, on the go and now on iPad …"
… Katie's not off the show yet. Her last day is this Thursday.
… They're making changes fast over there at the (former) Tiffany network. How soon will they forget the past five years (of Couric's anchor reign)?
IF I HEAR ONE MORE PERSON REFER TO "THE PROM" AS "PROM," I'LL … "You know"prom" is a big night for youngsters," said ABC's Robin Roberts, introducing GMA's news piece about the Connecticut boy who invited a classmate to the prom by cutting out cardboard letters and putting them up on the school entrance wall at Shelton High School.
… Plus, the high school senior banned 'from prom,'" said Today show Sunday co-anchor Jenna Wolfe, in a "bumper" plugging the story they were going to feature in the next segment of the show.
… And MSNBC's Brewer (referred to earlier in this column) mentioned in a sentence in her intro to NBC correspondent Maria Schiavocampo's report, "go to prom." And Schiavocampo herself said"prom"and not"the prom"several times in her piece.
… Matt Lauer, in discussing the issue with the boy and girl (James Tate and Sonali Rodrigues) LIVE on the Today show never said just "prom"; he said "the prom" when referring to the event.
… Diane Sawyer said go to "the prom" and not go "to prom."
… Where's William Safire (former New York Times columnist who wrote On Language for the Magazine from 1979 until his death in 2009 , which explored written and oral trends) when you need him?
INAPPROPRIATE. Janet Shamlian, an NBC News national correspondent, standing in the Mississippi River in Memphis, looked like Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, for crissakes, one day last week while reporting from the flooding. Decked out in skin-tight blue jeans and a red top hugging her like a bathing suit and high top, designer-looking boots, her appearance distracted from what she was saying.
… She looked like she was ready to sing "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me …"
So George Clooney's girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis (actress, TV show host) says she'd rather go naked than wear fur, in a PETA campaign ad.
… Yes, she's very naked, very slender, has a tattoo wrap-around on her upper right arm and covers up her vital parts while glamming for the camera.
… I guess she doesn't care who she takes her clothes off for.
Newt Gingrich's wife Callista reminds me of Cindy McCain, the way McCain looked during the 2008 campaign . (She looks different now, however: looser, less uptight.) But both are platinum blondes with seemingly not a hair out of place.
… Unnatural.
BOOMER ADVISORY. The Temptations and The Four Tops are coming to Wolf Trap (concert venue outside of Washington, D.C., in Vienna, Va.), again this summer. Both groups only have one surviving member of the original lineups.
… Otis Williams is still with The Temps and Abdul "Duke" Fakir still sings with The Tops.
Aretha Franklin looks like Toni Braxton on her new album cover, which seems a bit dated and a little confusing, if you ask me. It's oddly called "A Woman Falling Out of Love."
THE CRUDENESS OF CABLE TV. Joy Behar announced the other night on her HLN show that May was National Masturbation Month and she had guests on to talk about it, including Ian Kerner, a sex therapist who gave advice.
… These shows can always find some dolt to blab about any and everything the producers want.
… They went for cheap laughs.
… There are no taboos left.
UNPRETENTIOUS. Jim Lehrer seems to be. He's stepping down as daily anchor of the PBS NewsHour after doing the job for 36 years – 36 years, unbelievable. He told Paul Farhi of The Washington Post to call him a newsman and not a "journalist" – too pretentious, he said.
… Thank you for not being highfalutin.
Anybody catch how airbrushed that back cover photo of Matthew McConaughey is in Vanity Fair this month? Staring leftward at something off-camera, wearing an expensive shirt wide open down to there, hairless or freshly shaved chest, lounging on a chair or couch in an ad for Dolce and Gabbanna's "fragrance for men," dubbed "The One."
… . Ah … to be a star.
… UH… Everybody is a Star – Sly & The Family Stone, on Epic Records, 1970. Flip-side of Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again). Yes, that's the way they spelled it on the record label.

rocci.fisch@gmail.com

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