Rocci Fisch

January 28, 2001

SUPER BOWL HYPE

. . . Last night on Ricky Martin's Super Bowl Saturday Night, Dan Rather told MTV's Carson Daly that he wouldn't mind having the bonbon shaker on his CBS Evening News broadcast to spruce up the show.
. . . Carson was pretty in-awe of the CBS anchorman. Dan said the Bowl was Americana to the hilt. And Joe Namath came on later, along with 'N Sync. And the generations came together.
Carson Daly's on the cover of the current Seventeen magazine and you never saw him so clean- shaven. Still had some stubble, but less than you usually see.
BACK FROM THE 50s: Patti Page is. She's got a new album called Brand New Tennessee Waltz and it sounds good. Voice still in fine form. Soft, easy to listen to. More country now. She sold over 1300 copies of the new record on QVC.
Linda Tripp's new look is a bit model-ish. The handout photo was made available this week by attorneys who requested that news organizations use the after look rather than the before look of her plastic surgery.
"I'm gonna fire whoever scheduled this interview!" said former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to ABC's John Stossel for his John Stossel Goes to Washington TV special.
NEVER KNEW: That Laura Bush's middle name also begins with a W, along with hubby/Pres George. Her's is Welch.
Some of those "Hindu faithful," as The New York Times called them, who took a dip in the holy rivers in Allahabad, India this past week, had what looked like thongs on and some had dreadlocks. A diverse group. Maybe Paul Simon will go do a video with them, like he did with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
Joan Lunden scarfed down a worm on her Behind Closed Doors A&E special this week. She was hanging with the Green Berets. That's a long way from what she did on Good Morning America.
CAN'T BELIEVE . . . Jim Moret got the boot from CNN. He did Showbiz Today and covered a lot of news for the cable outfit. They really cleaned house over there.
. . . Everybody's cutting back.
That guy walking the streets of New York wearing a Dallas Cowboy hat and boots and nothing on but Hanes underwear-two pairs-was singing and strumming his guitar all around town last week. He said he only made "brief" appearances. Ha Ha Ha.
Somebody asked if Matthew McConaughey was sick, I guess because of his shaved head. Somehow it doesn't work. He and Jennifer Lopez were plugging their movie, The Wedding Planner.
FUN I had a transdermal nicotine, er ... Novocaine, patch on the roof of my mouth during my periodontal scaling and planing session. It's amazing how much stuff dentists can fit in one mouth.
That Hannibal poster with Anthony Hopkins staring with his left eye red is really good. Hope the movie is.
NOTICED: The CNN news anchors are now standing up all over the place. At the anchor desk, in the newsroom. Just like MSNBC does. Trying new concepts. Copying.
ABC's This Week's gotten some new backdrops. They used to be colored screens of different Washington monuments. Now the color scheme is more sedate and each has a frame around it. More serious I guess.
Chubby Checker was on Ally McBeal this past week, doing the Twist, of course. He still looks good. Fannies were shaking and arms were swaying. Good to see Ernest Evans again. (That's his real name. And that moniker was given to him by Dick Clark's wife. She thought he was a different version of Fats Domino.)
How did Robert Downey Jr. come to win a Golden Globe by just doing a 10-week guest shot on Ally McBeal? That didn't seem like too much effort. (Sympathy vote?)
ON SHAKY GROUND: Converse sneakers. They're closing U.S. plants and shifting production to Asia. They're old-fashioned but still a classic. No arch though.
It's Girl Scout Cookie Time. People are signing up. Low-cal they're not.
NBC4's Clay Anderson said, "We're currently picking up 4-5 minutes of daylight daily now." Good, spring's coming.
A girl was rollerblading naked on HBO the other night. Looked like Miami Beach. She was lucky she didn't get arrested. A photographer was snapping her as she went.
Hillary Clinton's getting more advance money for her book than the President of the United States is for his. ($8 million vs. 5) What's that say?
"My internet service is like my husband: I stare at him for hours, hoping he doesn't move," says an AT&T add.
"e-i-e-i-o.com is a funny name for a real estate company but a serious name," they say in the ads.
NOT NEEDED/DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING: "Here we are inside Studio 1-A," as Katie Couric or Matt Lauer says each morning. In the old TV days it might've meant something. But now... so what?
People were calling Liz Taylor "Baby Jane" after her appearance on the Golden Globes telecast. She seemed confused and acted like she didn't know what was up.
. . . Whoever let her come out alone to present an award should have re-thought that. She made a fool of herself.
ABC's Tony Perkins tried to freeze an egg on the sidewalk of New York the other day outside Good Morning America's Times Square studios. Like frying an egg, but reverse. It didn't happen. Who's bright idea was that?
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert looks like an older Drew Carey.
That brand new Cadillac limo that hauled George and Laura Bush down Pennsylvania Avenue during the Inauguration looked very boxy. Un-Cadillac-ish. Looked narrow too. And the front grill was totally different-too Europeany, Mercedes-ish.
Someone said they tried to have a rattlesnake pit at the Texas Boots & Black Tie Ball at the Marriott Wardman Hotel. Wouldn't that've been fun?
. . . And that wax figure of George W. that's gonna be at Madame Toussaud's in Times Square looks unbelievably real.
Is it a soccer ball or a volley ball in Cast Away?
TABLES CHANGE. Now Paul Begala's on the other side of the TV talk show table. He's guesting these days. Lost his Equal Time job with Ollie North on MSNBC. (Was recently on Chris Matthews' Hard Ball.)
A friend of mine cussed and yelled out, "Fix it Hillary," as she hit a crater-sized pothole on the LIE (Long Island Expressway). Put that on your agenda, Senator.
A seemingly naked Italian film goddess is covered in caviar on the current Esquire.
Wendy's is looking for top managment positions. (1-800-329-1510)
UH . . . Wendy-The Beach Boys on Capitol, from 1964. Great harmonies.