LEAVE IT UP TO FOX TO COURT TROUBLE

1. . . . With this multi-millionaire guy Rick Rockwell, aka Richard Balkey. But we're over it now. The story's had its more than fifteen minutes. Stupid, ratings-selfish stunt idea that rightfully bombed.
2. . . . ONE MORE THING: Multi to me means more than just two million bucks. That's nothing these days. You gotta go bigger than that.
3. Ben Affleck looked teenage young on the cover of last week's Entertainment Weekly, with Charlize Theron hoisted up on his back. Funny what pictures can do.
4. . . . BY THE WAY, IT BOTHERED ME ... Charlize Theron's character going after Toby Maguire's in The Cider House Rules It doesn't seem like it would've happened. She towered over him and was too sophisticated. So seasoned in the world and he seemed an unlikely person for her to be involved with.
5. . . . And again, regarding Cider House, FROM HIP-HOP TO THE MOVIE WORLD: Singer Erykah Badu's in it along with Heavy D. They're part of the apple picking lot that comes to work the orchard each year. They're both good.
6. NOTICED. That cartoon shot of all the Peanuts characters waving goodbye -- Good Grief!!! Charles Schulz Calls It Quits! -- seems to have been drawn by Nick Galifianakis, "with apologies to Charles Schulz," according to a USA TODAY photo credit. Nice picture. A bit wistful.
7. BORING: Diana Krall. I like singers with more oomph.
8. Larry King thinks everybody should be declared a "national treasure." This time it's Walter Matthau. Gimme a Break!
9. PRETTY GOOD TV MOVIE. Little Richard was Sunday night. Entertaining. Well-done and not overacted. Sincere to the story of his rock 'n' roll rise and then rejection of it. Robert Townsend directed it and it looked it. Good colors and clean shots. He did The Five Heartbeats back in '91, a story loosely based on the Chicago singing group, The Dells. (The Mighty Dells, people used to say.)
10. Are you sick of sexy, racy covers on music magazine RollingStone? They act like Playboy.
11. MUSIC THAT'S A BIG PART OF THE MOVIE: Aimee Mann's songs in Magnolia. The director says they inspired his script. And there's a neat part in the end when each of the characters is singing in his scene, but not in a performance-type way. Very just on the tip of your lips-style. Sort of languid. (Is that heavy enough?)
12. . . . Aimee Mann was in that group 'Til Tuesday who did Voices Carry back in '85.
13. It was funny last week in West Wing when Allison Janney's character C. J. Cregg (Press Secretary) was having to talk after just having a root canal. Hilarious.
14. The New York Post called Deborah Norville's Inside Edition reports from behind jail bars (Davidson County, NC), "jailhouse crock." Ha Ha Ha.
15. No matter what you say, that Joerg Haider of Austria dresses hip.
16. The citizens of Washington, DC's Cleveland Park neighborhood are getting up in arms about new development that's going to put many small businesses out due to rent hikes. The ice cream man up there who owns Inside Scoop wrote a letter explaining his version of it all; blew it up and has it in the window. People are behind him.
17. Robert Downey's sure made a lot of movies. I thought he was in jail. He must've gotten out a lot. Now he's in that Michael Douglas new movie, Wonder Boys.
18. CATS: A Memory.
19. 70's REVISITED? Rising fuel costs. How long's this gonna last?
20. Can Tom Cruise get a haircut now? What's with the long hair look? He's had that going on since Eyes Wide Shut. What happened to the clean-cut Tom? Guess now he's into being a serious actor; doesn't care that much about what he looks like. They all do that.
21. NEXT NEW ACTOR TO WATCH: Vin Diesel. (I'm sure that's his real name.) He's in Boiler Room and Pitch Black.
22. You really see Ralph Fiennes' big round buttocks in a bedroom scene with Julianne Moore in The End Of The Affair. And it's moving.
23. WILL AGE FAST. That Ainsley Harriott cooking show. He's too much. Wears on you.
24. So the Diana Ross and The Supremes reunion thing is a no-go right now. USA TODAY reports that Mary Wilson has been informed she won't be part of the tour. Why that? It was supposed to be Diana, Mary, and Cindy Birdsong. (She replaced Florence Ballard early on.) And this too
25. . . . GRIPE: If it's a reunion tour, why not just call it The Supremes and not get into the headliner ego trip thing? If you ask me, it's gonna be fraught all the way with trouble. Scrub it.
26. Letterman's first time back show was much better than Leno's. Leno put on Howard Stern who was a big toot your own horn nothing. And he kept interrupting guest Toby Maguire with embarrassing questions, etc. Dave's show was well thought-out.
27. Jane Pauley doesn't watch Bryant Gumbel on his Early Show and he doesn't watch her on Dateline. (Who does watch that Early Show?)
28. ABC's got a show coming on March 22 called Then Came You. How much you wanna bet they use the Spinners and Dionne Warwicke's 1974 song of the same name as the theme? NOTE: Dionne added the "e" to her last name back then on the advice of some psychic; later took it back off. Changeable person.
29. The Apollo Theater in New York sure looked different the other night for the Gore/Bradley debate. The stage didn't look the same as Amateur Night does. But the wildness of the crowds it's famous for was there in force. Cheers, jeers, and catcalls. Alive man.
30. One of those death row convicts ads for Benetton is in the current Vanity Fair and another one's in RollingStone. They took those pictures under false pretenses.
31. Does Diane Keaton ever take her glasses off?
32. Rick Rockwell does look like an out-of-work actor.
33. Monica Lewinsky told Barbara Walters she's lost 31 pounds and wants to go down 15 more. And she's in therapy too. Who wouldn't be after all she was involved in?
34. Camryn Manheim as Snow White? In NBC's The 10th Kingdom. That gonna work?
35. Al Gore sounds like John Wayne sometimes.
36. The Grammys are coming out of the Staples Center in LA. How many commercials for them are we gonna see?
37. Entertainment Tonight reports Rick Rockwell's looking for a publicist who handles crisis management. Guess so.
38. NO WONDER THEY COVER UP THE MAGAZINE. The current Cosmopolitan with Jennifer Love Hewitt on it touts an article titled, "Advanced Lovers Only. You Must Try the 'Angel' and 8 Other Sizzling Positions. So Hot, You'll Burn a Hole Through the Bed."
39. UNBELIEVABLE. The Isley Brothers bankrupt. How could that be? They've had success for nearly fifty years. An institution all around in the record world. The IRS wants five million bucks.
40. UH . . . Twist And Shout -- The Isley Brothers, on Wand. 1962. Before The Beatles did it in '64. And better.

rocci@roccifisch.com

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