October 19, 2003


      THE NEW COLOR OF MONEY

  1. . . . They've really got quite an ad campaign for the new twenty dollar bill. On TV, in the mags. Slick. Who did that for the U.S. government? "Safer. Smarter. More Secure," they say. Each with a "security thread," "watermark" and "color shifting ink." I guess the counterfeiters are outta business.
  2. Scott Peterson's losing weight and living in that 6 x 9 cell is "damaging to his personality," says CNN's Rusty Dornin. She's a good reporter. Knows all about the case. Got the lay of the land.
  3. LESS CHEESE, MORE SAUCE. That's what Pizza Hut's new Fit ‘N Delicious pizza has. They say it's got about 25% less fat. They tried it on Good Morning America last week and half the people said it was okay and the other half didn't.
  4. . . . Splurging's going out of style. We're all too interested in the weight factor. We're all gonna shrink up to nothing.
  5. Halle Berry's got longer hair now. I asked Mr. Big Stuff, "Do you like her hair long or short?" and he said, "Doesn't matter." He loves that girl.
  6. They're making an Oceans 12.
  7. The Vatican's chief exorcist was on Paula Zahn the other night. I didn't catch it. Did they show clips from the movie?
  8. A friend of mine thinks the reason Fox got the big ratings for the baseball playoffs this year was because the country wants to get back to the old-fashioned way of things, despite being post-9/11 and post-war. Stuff they're comfortable with, a more peaceful time ... "without the yellow alert." Might be true.
  9. Is Jessica Simpson as dumb as she puts on or is it all an act?
  10. An online audience member for washingtonpost.com's strength and fitness expert Marty Gallagher wrote in to say that "every other time I run I fall down and break my face." Marty replied to her, "Try running backwards." Ha Ha Ha.
  11. ABC's The Practice sure has changed. It's all James Spader now. With guest stars like Chris O'Donnell and Sharon Stone, who's in a really stupid storyline. The others are in a more supporting role which they've always sorta been but it seems more so now. It's early in the season so maybe things'll change a bit.
  12. . . . Dylan McDermott's (Bobby on The Practice) has been doing a lot of other things since he got dumped from the show. He's in Runaway Jury and Wonderland and did or will do Will & Grace. And he was on Ellen DeGeneres the other day.
  13. . . . RUNAWAY JURY. Okay movie. Heavy on the Hollywood drama. Just the way they make movies out there. Good cast: Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz and John Cusack. But you can see just as good courtroom dramas on TV, if you ask me.
  14. "If you get it on tape, you could get it in cash." That's what Tom Bergeron says at the end of AFV (America's Funniest Videos). Is that the show's name now? It used to be America's Funniest Home Videos but the logos on the set say AFV all over the place.
  15. NBC's Richard Engel was out walking again. This time on the streets of Basra, Iraq last week. He was enveloped in a crowd of kids and when he talked, you could hardly hear him. But he likes being with the people.
  16. A friend of mine said this about Bennifer (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez): "There's something in me that wants them to go down in a plane crash." Obviously, she's very tired of them being in the news.
  17. Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s character in the new movie Radio has "the courage to dream." "The courage to dream." "Dare to dream." Gimme a Break!
  18. SEEMS PREJUDICIAL. Should the USA Network have had that made-for-TV movie on about the D.C. area sniper on when the real trial's underway?
  19. The other night on 20/20 Barbara Walters said at the end of the show that she asked Angelina Jolie whether her lips were real and she said yes. And Barbara said she could "second" that because she's seen the baby pictures. So no collagen injections for her, I guess.
  20. . . . ANGELINA. In her new movie, Beyond Borders, Jolie plays a bored American wife and mother living in London who meets up with a renegade doctor (Clive Owen) who travels to hot spots around the globe to administer humanitarian aid. The film's all over the place - in Africa, Camodia and Chechnya. Dangerous missions. Lots of action and crooked characters. Not bad but Angelina looks too glamorous hoofing around refugee camps.
  21. Life Alert's "Help! I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up" campaign is running again as an ad supplement in the Sunday papers. For a free brochure, call 1-800-475-7402. Don't laugh. You may need it someday.
  22. FALL: Seasonal foods. Pumpkins. Gourds. Time for butternut squash. Oh yeah? Squash this!
  23. When NBC does the ads for Alicia Silverstone's TV series, Miss Match, they pronounce her name A LEE SEE AH. Is that how she pronounces it? Do we have to drag it out that much?
  24. The Next Joe Millionaire: An International Affair is coming on Fox. The new Joe looks a bit fake in that cowboy getup. This time around the show takes place in Italy where the girl contestants from Europe supposedly didn't see the first Joe and don't know that these Joes don't really have the dough. Can they be that stupid?
  25. Kevin Sites, formerly a CNN correspondent who was on assignment in Iraq, is still there, only now he's with NBC. He had a report on Nightly News from Tikrit last week. It seemed like one day he was on the air for CNN and the next he was on NBC. Fast contract.
  26. I wonder if Barbra Streisand sounds real buttery on her new CD, The Movie Album. She sounded that way the other day on Oprah. I like it when she has some edge to her voice, like when she started out. It's gotten good reviews, but I'll have to check it out myself. I guess that's a camera lens she's holding in her hands on the cover. Looks kinda small.
  27. ONE FOOT OUT THE WINDOW AND READY TO JUMP. That's where singer/now author Donna Summer said she was back in 1976, reports Yonette Joseph in The Washington Post's Names and Faces column. Summer was in an 11th floor hotel room and was ready to jump out of the window, upset because of an abusive relationship she was in. Her right leg was outside but her left foot was tangled up in the window drapes that got caught around the radiator. But a maid came into the room at the right time and shocked her back into reality and she didn't do it. This revealed in her book, Ordinary Girl: The Journey.
  28. Would somebody tell Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards to stop smiling so much? The nice guy shtick wears on me.
  29. REMEMBER HIM? Charles Shaughnessy, the guy from The Nanny, is now in Urinetown on Broadway.
  30. UNLIKELY TOGETHER: Nicole Kidman and rocker singer Lenny Kravitz. They've been dating about four months.
  31. Britney Spears' last musical number she did on Saturday Night Live this week was a ballad. She sang the quiet, heartfelt, emotional song in a little girl voice (that so unusual?) and barely opened her mouth. Sounded squeaky.
  32. CHEWING COCA LEAVES. Bolivian miners were doing it in a picture taken by Ali Burafi of Agence France-Presse that ran in newspapers, showing the workers celebrating in La Paz upon hearing reports that President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was resigning. Two of the guys had some big wads in their mouths. NOTE: The coca plant is a shrub native to the Andes "whose dried leaves yield cocaine and other alkaloids," says Webster's. So they were stimulated.
  33. Things still aren't good in the record business. Universal Music Group, the largest in the world, was expected last week to eliminate 11% of its work force. That's serious. But they're looking forward to a good holiday selling season. Let's hope they get it.
  34. George Bush Sr. was a flyboy. Sounds hip-hop-ish.
  35. The newspaper ad for the Clint Eastwood-directed movie, Mystic River, shows three guys' reflection in the water, so they're upside down. It looks a bit odd. Almost mistakey.
  36. Record producer and American Idol judge Randy Jackson's got a book coming out in January about how to become a recording star. And the title? What else? What's Up, Dawg?
  37. Word I'm hearing about Kill Bill, Volume I is that it's okay, not great.
  38. MYSTIC RIVER. Mr. Highfalutin says it has a large plot hole you could drive a truck through. Tim Robbins is a bit over the top. Sean Penn is good and Kevin Bacon was his favorite. And the plot gets insane at the end too. Oh, and it's a bit too long.
  39. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, made a trip to Niagara Falls with owner Sally last week. She stood right up and put her paws on the railing to view all the water and got wet from the mist.
  40. Singer Michael Feinstein and writer/producer/musician Jimmy Webb have an album (Only One Life) out together and were on CBS's Saturday Early Show, home of Chef on a Shoestring. Sounded pretty good if you like Feinstein's studied way of singing. They'll be touring.
  41. UH . . . Six Days on the Road - Dave Dudley on Golden Wing. 1963. Did a lot of trucking songs.


rocci@roccifisch.com

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