Rocci Fisch

December 27, 2000

THE LAST WEEK OF THE YEAR

Where did it go? To hell in a handbasket some would say.
IRRITANT: Brian Williams, delivering the news. Too much bombast. He needs to back off a notch or two. Subbing tonight for Brokaw.
. . . He is a busy man though. Lots of face time. He's doing the Tom Brokaw show. Then at 9 his own show, The News With Brian Williams, comes on MSNBC. And then CNBC repeats that show at 10. Brian Williams times 3.
Looks like ABC News is interested in Claire Shipman, NBC's White House correspondent. This according to the current TV Guide. NBC knows it and wants to give her more. So she's valuable right now. As her husband says, she's the current "It Girl" in TV news.
Sonny Bono played percussion on producer Phil Spector's classic Christmas album, A Christmas Gift For You, originally released in 1969. Comes back yearly.
. . . CBS Sunday Morning did a feature on Darlene Love, one of Spector's prime voices and who sings Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) every year on Letterman. They love that song on that show.
LEARNED: Lauren Bacall was Jason Robards' third wife. She was married to Bogie too, but not at the same time I don't think. Some dame.
There's a home video of Survivor outtakes that supposedly shows winner Richard Hatch in the buff. All of him. Uncensored. Nice to look at?
Cast Away was good but, in a way, so what? A modern day Robinson Crusoe. People say only Tom Hanks could've done it. Was it that hard? He didn't talk much.
. . . Cast Away, Cast Away, Cast Away all.
That movie poster shot of Nicolas Cage in The Family Man makes him look like Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life. You can be sure that's intentional. Universal's calling it "The Holiday Film Of The Year."
Entertainment Tonight reported that Sean Connery has always worn his socks inside out.
Matt Lauer's father sold bikes for a living.
Those Meow Meow Mix cats are now saying, "Meow, Meow, Now!"
ANOTHER OCCUPATION. Sen. Orrin Hatch is in the new movie Traffic. He liked the anti-drug message of the film. (He's also a songwriter in real life.)
Newsroom workers at New York's Channel 2 are wearing heavy-duty, industrial-strength surgical masks while they're renovating. (Just build a new set and the ratings'll come up.)
Is Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly taking over Larry King?
All that's ever on ABC is Drew Carey.
DIED: "Pop" Staples of the famous family group, The Staple Singers. His first name was Roebuck and the group originally consisted of son Pervis and daughters Cleotha, Yvonne and Mavis. They recorded some of their best sides for Memphis' Stax Records. Their music was soul with personal respect and civil rights consciousness to it. HITS: Respect Yourself, I'll Take You There and many others.
NEW BOOK: By network newsman Garrick Utley: You Should Have Been Here Yesterday. It sounds like a good account of the broadcast news business and how it's changed through the years. Utley was always a cut above in my book.
THING NOT TO DO: Garnish wages. That's supposedly what made Michael McDermott gun down fellow workers at that internet firm in Massachusetts.
NOTICED: Former Washington Channel 7 news anchor and later consumer reporter Melissa McDermott has shown up anchoring CBS's Up to the Minute overnight news show.
So the Madonna/Guy Rocco baby had on a miniature kilt like daddy's at the wedding. Did she invite Carlos Leon, Lourdes' daddy, over to the Scottish Lowlands, er ... Highlands?
Young Ron Reagan's coming to town for an Inaugural "bash" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts January 20. He's an arts activist now and supported Nader. Wonder what kind of haircut he's sporting now?
The Inauguration is on a Saturday.
The new-looking Linda Tripp's on the cover of George magazine. They seem to be surviving. Is the magazine making it? Tripp is quoted as saying this: "When it came to Monica, I was inoculated against shock."
. . . My, my. Who to believe?
NEVER KNEW THAT: According to a Nature magazine study, penguins walk (waddle) the way they do to conserve energy. "The penguin's gait works like a pendulum, storing energy at the end of each swing for the next step." And the baby penguins are carted around in mommy's way down low pouch.
Diane Sawyer was 55 last Friday (12/22).
Raquel Welch has her own wigs and hair extensions company.
Who has more hair extensions on in the new Jennifer Aniston/Mark Wahlberg movie, Rock Star? Wahlberg looks ridiculous, plus it's curley.
Susan Lucci's TV daughter on All My Children comes out as a lesbian and fans of the show are protesting. In the show, the daughter had her first affair in anorexia rehab.
They're saying "Take Tea and See" to advertise assisted living at Chevy Chase House just outside DC. Didn't they used to say that in an old Lipton Tea commercial?
To say singer Aaron Neville works out is an understatement. The chest he packs into those t- shirts would stop anybody from giving him any guff.
. . . Yet his voice is so gentle.
ANOTHER IRRITANT: Those Chevy Silverado commercials with someone sounding like INXS singing What You Need. They gotta go.
And how are the Chia Pets growing? Got a dino one?
NBCi.com is now advertising QuickClick. Click on any word anywhere and you get information. That's what they say.
BORING. Rosemary Clooney singing White Christmas on the Today show this week. Very low-key as usual, but also very un-special. She talk-sang it like a grandmother would. Out of the song, Katie Couric said, "She really holds up."
Some network anchorman said, "The economy is moving from the fast lane to the right lane and will it keep on going into the ditch?"
UH . . . Life in the Fast Lane-The Eagles on Asylum from 1977.