18 INCHES OF SNOW IN RENO

1. . . . BRING IT ON!
2. When's Adrien Brody (The PianoThe Village) gonna make another movie? All you see him in is commercials (Diet Coke) or magazine ads (Ermenegildo Zegna). Let's get with the program, Academy Award winner.
3. NOTICED. On Washington's beleagured Metro, once the train stops at a station, the doors take longer to open. Instead of waiting one beat, you have to wait maybe two or three or four. Not fast enough. They used to open right away. I don't like getting up and standing by the door and waiting for it to open. I'm impatient. I want instant gratification.
4. Saturday Night Live this past weekend was another repeat. What's that all about? Come on! It's fall, the new season's underway. And a couple weeks ago it was another repeat. Get LIVE, for crissakes.
5. A pug dog actually said "I love you" on Letterman's Stupid Pet Tricks one night last week. It was cute.
6. It's Ch Ch Ch Chia (Pet) Time again. This year there's a Scooby Doo one.
7. Donald Rumsfeld's back to doing those rambling press conferences of his. Last week he talked about supporting the president's position on the intelligence-reform bill. God that man can talk.
8. HAIR NEWS. Last week MSNBC's Natalie Morales's hair was different. It was wavy instead of straight., but this week it's back to straight and maybe a little lighter. And CNN's Soledad O'Brien's hair has some curl going on with it instead of being straight. It looked sort of Farrah Fawcett-ish to me.
9. DON'T CALL THEM THE: Ukraine and Sudan.
10. Mr. Big Stuff is mad because Team America, that animated puppet movie, is no longer playing in the Washington area. "Seems like it was only out for two weeks," he said. It's true. Movies get pulled fast these days. So now he's gotta wait ‘til the damn thing's on DVD or video and then he'll have to rent or buy it.
11. Oceans Twelve Is The New Eleven, say the movie posters.
12. UNUSUAL BOOKING. The Belly Dance Superstars performed at the Birchmere, a jazz, country, blues music venue in Virginia, last Tuesday. They were spotlighted on Fox 5 Morning News that day and boy, they really know how to shake their booty.
13. Jessica Stark, national correspondent for the Today show, had a report on last week about a young bodybuilder who became a C5 paraplegic as a result of falling off a high-up porch. After the piece was over, Matt Lauer said, "That's a great story. I appreciate it." What's this," I appreciate it?" What about, "We appreciate it?" Just another example of me journalism, if you ask me. We has turned to me with the superstar anchors. I know this sounds stiff, but TV is a collaborative medium.
14. KINSEY. Liam Neeson is great as Alfred Kinsey, the sex researcher who wrote Sexual Behavior in the Human Male followed by ... the Human Female. His books caused a firestorm in the country. Laura Linney plays his wife and Peter Sarsgaard plays his assistant and is seen full-frontal and backal.
15. "When I looked at the right breast she had already moved to the left breast." That's what actress Patti LuPone said in an interview last week on Good Morning America regarding her first experience with a patdown at airport security. I guess they're pretty fast. They do have to process a lot of people.
16. The hitman in Desperate Housewives is Richard Roundtree, the man who played Shaft in the movies.
17. ANOTHER DIANA INTERVIEW. Tapes discovered of Lady Di talking on tape in 1992 with a communications consultant named Peter Settelen who was hired to coach her in public speaking. Among other things, she talks about Barry Mannakee, a Royal policeman who she supposedly was in love with, being "chucked out" and "bumped off" in a motorcycle accident in 1987. NBC's got the tapes and Diana Revealed was broadcast Monday, Nov. 29 and a second hour to be aired on Monday, Dec. 6. Today's Ann Curry is the correspondent. I guess they throw her a bone every once in a while.
18. Looks like Tom Brokaw got a haircut. Did he do that for his last day as anchor?
19. They're giving away Krispy Kreme paper hats at the Dupont Circle location in D.C. They're adjustable to various head sizes. I have one.
20. The New York Post's Page Six gossip column refers to Star Jones - now Reynolds - as Bridezilla. She and New York banker Al Reynolds were recently hitched in a commercially sponsored wedding.
21. Is Dan Rather's resigning ruining Tom Brokaw's retiring? (Brokaw's last Nightly News show is Wednesday; Rather departs on March 9.
22. Mr. Highfalutin went to see National Treasure and thought it was a cheap rip-off of The Da Vinci Code but with an American twist.
23. "Can I go in front of the line because I'm on TV?" asked Good Morning America weatherman Tony Perkins at a Best Buy store the day after Thanksgiving. The store clerk said no. Perkins was there for a LIVE shot of shoppers on Black Friday.
24. Last Friday, ABC 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas (John Stossel was off) explored the 1998 murder of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard and made the case that it might not have been a gay hate crime but instead a drug-induced (crystal meth) robbery attack. Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson are each serving two consecutive life terms for his murder. The interviews were kinda chilling.
25. So when in the H is Gordon Peterson gonna start anchoring at Channel 7? Enough with the promos. Put him on!
26. Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes last week said he hangs up his pants at night by closing the top drawer of his bedroom chest on the cuffs and lets the pants just hang down. There was a shot of them hanging there. He may have said why he does it but I forget.
27. WORSHIP. Chris Matthews said Tom Brokaw was the "undisputed champion of his profession" at the end of his Sunday talk show. (He could take some lessons.)
28. PHINNAEUS WALTER AND HAZEL PATRICIA. Those are the names Julia Roberts and husband Danny Moder bestowed on their boy and girl twins. What hat did they pull those names out of? Let's hope they go by their middles.
29. Desperate Housewives' Nicollette Sheridan's name is spelled with two l's. Seen it often spelled in newspapers with only one. But on the show's opening credits it has two. So there.
30. I can't wait to see Alexander to see how bad it is.
31. MOVIN' OUT. The Billy Joel musical choreographed by Twyla Tharpe, now at Washington's National Theatre. It's fantastic. One guy plays piano and sings all the songs with the band high up on a platform above the stage and the dancers down below enact the songs which tell the story about kids in the 1960's and how they're affected by the Vietnam war. All are talented. It's a combination of ballet and modern dance – but not too ballet-ish -- and the whole cast is terrific. You should see it.
32. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, had a nice Thanksgiving. She and Ruby, the blue and gold macaw were fed turkey and the trimmings from the table. Hanalie, however, got a tummy ache afterward.
33. SIDEWAYS. Funny movie about two friends who take a trip to California wine country before one of them gets married. Paul Giamatti plays Miles, a down-trodden, cynical and frustrated writer trying to get his novel published and Thomas Haden Church plays Jack, an actor who's a bit over-the-hill but still has a positive attitude. He's the one getting hitched. The movie's about what they do and who they meet along the way and the acting is really natural. Entertaining and believable film.
34. Tom Brokaw has aged right before our eyes. But not much. He still looks young.
35. UH . . . Nadia's Theme (The Young and The Restless) by Barry DeVorzon and Perry Botkin Jr. ., on A&M. 1976. Song was used by Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci in the ‘76 Olympics.

rocci@roccifisch.com

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