IT'S MAY AND IT FEELS LIKE APRIL

1. . . . The rain keeps coming and the temperature's cool. People want summer weather. "In time, my little pretty, in time." Then when the warm weather hits along with the humidity, people'll complain about that too.
2. "LET ME SLEEP ON IT ..." Where does that song come from? They use it in a GM commercial inviting people for a 24-hour test drive. Is it from Rocky Horror Show or something?
3. Matt Lauer's gonna be at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) for the Today show in Korea on Monday - a first-time thinger. Hope he dresses more appropriately there than when he was in the Gulf. There he looked too comfortable, sitting in a director's chair, sunglasses and colored shirts. Didn't relate too the surroundings too well.
4. NBC is really pushing Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart. (Monday at 9 on NBC) Cybill Shepherd's (title role) been all over the place promoting it. She does resemble the guru homemaker and feels that the role was made for her. They say they make her seem like Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest.
5. . . . Me, this week I'll try to catch Hitler: The Rise of Evil on CBS Sunday at 9 and continued Tuesday, same time. His early years and rise up.
6. ALL THINGS HITLER . . . Just recently there was a movie, Max, that was about Hitler's beginnings. Small movie but good.
7. . . . And there's a movie/documentary out now called Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary, now showing at D.C.'s Visions Cinema Bistro Lounge.
8. . . . And there's another documentary coming around called Hitler's Hat, a story about a man who somehow got the fuhrer's top hat with his initials engraved inside and kept it all these years.
9. Monday on News4 at 5 they're gonna have a piece called K-9 IQ Test and how they test pooches. Uh ... yeah. Is it still May sweeps? (Stupid question)
10. It seems like the ideas for reality shows are a bottomless pit. We were talking at work last week about ABC's Extreme Makeover and one of my co-workers couldn't believe that was the name of yet another reality show. She asked, "What's next, Hysterectomy TV? " Ha Ha Ha.
11. . . . TAP, TAP, TAP. When they do those nose jobs on Extreme and use that hammer on the schnoz, it makes me cringe a bit.
12. Now they want to put ads on D.C. cabs' hubcaps. Won't they be kinda hard to read?
13. That version of I Only Have Eyes For You by a young girl used in the Mercedes-Benz ad is really good. Would like to know who does it.
14. THE MATRIX RELOADED. A wild ride. I hate to use these words, but totally cool and awesome. The effects are knockout and the acting's okay for the sci-fi that it is. The action and effects kept me moving in and off my seat. Really fun too. The films's setting the bar for special effects movies. Anything else pales now. It's the Wachowski brothers (Andy and Larry) doing it. They wrote and directed.
15. . . . I want a coat like Neo's (Keanu Reeves). It's neat when he shoots up in the air and swoops down. Sorta like Dracula's cape.
16. A new Tarzan and Jane series is coming up on the WB. They say he's prettier than her. He being a former Calvin Klein underwear model.
17. Why does Meg Ryan always have a goofy look on her face? She's a juror at the Cannes Film Festival. She oughta look more serious.
18. ALL THE BEST . . . To Barry White and Luther Vandross. Two great soul singers. White's had kidney failure for quite some time and just had a stroke which has affected his speech. And Luther ... he's still in a coma. We need these guys back.
19. Comedian Rodney Dangerfield is 81 and his wife's 49. (He just had brain surgery to improve his circulation for an upcoming heart valve operation.)
20. COMNG HOME. The Muppets are going back to original owners, the Hensons. Jim's son Brian and his four siblings are buying Kermit and the Muppet gang (Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Statler and Waldorf and others) back from a German company who bought it for $680 million in 2000. That company's stock crashed and the Hensons stepped in and bought it back for $89 million last week. So there'll be more TV and film projects forthcoming.
21. Beyonce Knowles and her girl dancer troupe were really shaking their booties on Saturday Night Live. The first song was good for a change, with a lot of brass horns in it and not just hip-hop beats. They sounded old school R&B-ish to me. But the second song - a ballad, some I Love You-thing was pretty bad. Supposedly showing off her dramatic range, it was not the tour de force that she probably thought it was. Is that critical enough for ya?
22. DOWN WITH LOVE. It was a fun romp, spoofing the old Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies of the 60s. Director Peyton Reed totally had the era down pat with the look of things - sets, clothes, etc. Not as sophisticated as the originals but pretty entertaining. Renee Zellweger (Barbara Novak) and Ewan McGregor (Catcher Block) - both writers - vie with each other in a battle of the sexes.
23. How does Kelly Ripa have time for her show with Regis, being on a soap opera and now starring in a new sitcom with Faith Ford? How can she do it all?
24. Penelope Cruz looks ridiculous in one of those triangle-shaped hats with a feather sticking out that they used to wear in the 18th century. Her movie, Fanfan la Tulipe, played at Cannes this week. It's a costume piece with co-star Vincent Perez playing a roustabout who does a lot of fighting and seducing and falls in love with a "hot-blooded Gypsy (Cruz). Sounds ridiculous.
25. I'M CONFUSED. Is Penelope with Tom Cruise or Edward Norton? Oh, that's right. Salma Hayek's with Norton. I get those gals mixed up.
26. Roberta Flack's lost a lot of weight. She's on some special diet and does exercise two times a day. She looks good.
27. RUBEN OR CLAY? Who's gonna be the second American Idol? (I think Ruben's got it.) Clay's good but a little too theatrical.
28. Geraldo Rivera is getting married again - for the fifth time. He's 59 and his fiancee is 28.
29. Why is the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winning horse's name, Funny Cide, spelled with a c instead of an s? Is he owned by a hip-hop mogul? They spell things funny like that.
30. Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear play Siamese twins in an upcoming comedy movie. They're connected side-by-side but don't seem to share any limbs.
31. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, is on the road again with owner Sally. They're going to the port of Charleston in South Carolina to help customs folks down there protect shipments from entering the U.S. with radioactive material. She's gonna be a little stevedore. Busy, I'd say.
32. It's hard to find Dots at the movies these days. They used to be more universal. The closest thing you can seem to get is Gummi Bears or Twizzlers. Me no like as much.
33. Lawrence Ashmead, the editor who worked on ABC's Roone Arledge's book (Roone: A Memoir) will be an online guest Tuesday (check time) on washingtonpost.com to talk about the broadcast legend and his life. Arledge died this past December but he worked on his book up to the end and finished it.
34. GOOD MOVIE FOR SOUL MUSIC FANS: Only the Strong Survive. Done doc-style by filmmaker D.A. Penebaker (Monterey Pop, startup.com), it features soul stars in interviews and performances who are still on the road plugging away. Jerry Butler (The Ice Man), Isaac Hayes (Shaft), Sam Moore (Sam & Dave), Rufus (Walking the Dog) and Carla Thomas (Gee Whiz, Look at His Eyes), Mary Wilson of the Supremes and the Wicked Wilson Pickett who's as exciting now with his band as he was in his Midnight Hour days. There's also a bit of Otis Redding in it too.
35. Some people hate those moving crawls of news scrolling across the bottom of the TV screen. One person wrote in to Parade magazine's Ask Marilyn and said she tied belts around the set to block them out. Marilyn's husband doesn't like them either and he uses a strip of cardboard. Sort of un-hi-tech-ish, wouldn't you say?
36. So is the weather gonna be good Memorial Day? That's all I wanna know. (Historically it's not.)
37. All I Know - Art Garfunkel (without Simon) on Columbia. 1973.

rocci@roccifisch.com

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