THE FOURTH OF JULY

1. . . . And don't tell me the summer's almost over. It just started. Thank you.
2. COMING: The Honeymooners Lost Episodes on DVD. Two of the first eight volumes hit the market July 24 with more installments available each month through October. From MPI Home Video.
3. Fox News Channel's interview with a woman who said she had an affair with Gary Condit has been quoted and video used by other cable outlets and the broadcast networks. Guess they got the scoop. And how do you think CNN and MSNBC feel about that?
4. SAID ABOUT HELENA BONHAM CARTER: . . . In Planet of the Apes: "A chimp with eyeliner."
5. Madonna's arms look really cut on her Drowned World tour. She's also wearing that tartan kilt thing and playing the guitar. Is she any good?
6. The Harry Potter preview-er, . . . trailer they say now, excuse me-looks interesting but pretty childlike and really for kids.
7. Thank you TV Guide for a little more information on Arlene Francis, best known as a long-time panelist on early TV's What's My Line? (She died May 31 at 93.) Real name: Arlene Francis Kazanjian. She was TV's first game show host when she brought her radio program, Blind Date, to the new medium in 1949. She appeared in 5 series in 1950 alone while also doing commercials, making her TV's most-seen woman. And she pioneered today's TV female hosts with her Home show on NBC from 1954--1957 Quite a resume.
8. Barbra Streisand's got a PSA (Public Service Announcement) for Seeds of Peace. It aired on This Week With Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts last week. About Palestinians and Israelis living together.
9. Last week This Week was without Cokie Roberts and with George Stephanopoulos. Cokie was on vacation.
10. NOTICED: A lot of lightning bugs this year. What causes that?
11. Louis Armstrong's nickname Satchmo is supposedly short for his real name Satchel. Isn't one of Woody Allen's kids named that too?
12. Survivor 3 hasn't aired yet and they're already taking applications for Survivor 4 on cbs.com. Is that franchise getting old?
13. So Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt are splitsville. They never seemed right to me anyway. He was a good escort though.
14. COMPLAINT. Washington's Metro is hotter now. Cars and stations. It just doesn't have that chill factor in the AC anymore. Do something about it!
15. POOTIE TANG. Nice name for a movie. Wonder what that's a takeoff on.
16. Tower Records may have to file for bankruptcy. Things're bad all over.
17. Nowadays it seems they're offering balsamic vinegar with everything. Whatever happened to old-fashioned Italian dressing or just oil and vinegar? Balsamic's too tart. Lower-key it.
18. Former Washington ABC7 News reporter Rea Blakey is now medical correspondent for CNN. She was on last week talking about insurance fraud. She was always good and looks better now.
19. . . . And Melissa McDermott, former Channel 7 anchor and currently overnight CBS News Up to the Minute anchor, subbed for Jane Clayson on The Early Show this week.
20. . . . Swinging door, door, door.
21. Hope that right whale off the coast of Cape Cod is free of that fishing line stuff he's wrapped up in.
22. Mr. Big Stuff says Gary Condit might be wearing his jacket over his head soon. (He must sweat easy 'cause when he's walking he always carries his coat.) Passionate?
23. CNN's Joie Chen says this in a promo: "News doesn't have to be one way." Isn't that brilliant.
24. That video of Andrea Yates walking reminds me of Timothy McVeigh walking.
25. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON WANNABES? In Hong Kong at their International Film Festival, two new movies being marketed are Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger and Roaring Dragon, Bluffing Tiger. Leapin' Lizards!
26. Oprah Winfrey's Live Your Best Life tour in Baltimore sold out in 47 minutes. Tickets were $185 a pop and she sold 1600. That's $296,000 on one stop! QUOTE: "God can dream a bigger dream for you than you can."
27. YAK IT UP. Guitar great and country music industry executive, Chet Atkins, who died last week, had a big hit with Yakety Axe (1965), the same song as Boots Randolph's Yakety Sax (1963) but not the same better-known song as The Coasters' Yakety Yak (1958).
28. That dumb 333-FILM number you call now for movie information is owned by AOL. What isn't?
29. TWO VERSIONS. Of For Always, love song from A.I. One done by Lara Fabian and the second as a duet with a guy named Josh Groban. They're on the movie soundtrack produced, naturally, by John Williams. Spielberg calls him "the greatest musical storyteller of all time."
30. Don't show me Fall clothes yet. Some ads are already doing it. (RollingStone)
31. THOUGHT #1: Wouldn't Madonna have killed for Nicole Kidman's role in Moulin Rouge?
32. THOUGHT #2: If anybody could remake The Wizard of Oz, it's gotta be Baz Luhrmann. (Moulin) That guy's got imagination.
33. Does anyone at work ever answer their phone anymore? Not much it seems. And now people are giving their e-mail address on their message. I guess they do that because sometimes it's faster.
34. Gary Condit's last name isn't Condiment.
35. "For 15 years he's been the undisputed King of Talk," says a CNN TV ad about Larry King. Yeah, I guess that's until Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly. He supposedly leads King now. How'd that happen?
36. Lionel Richie was in Washington last Thursday and performed outside on an almost 100 degree day at the Ronald Reagan Building's Woodrow Wilson Plaza. He drew a good crowd and did his old hits and his new one, Angel, from his latest album, Renaissance. He was on the washingtonpost.com's Live Online internet program. In answering a question that said, "Hello, is it me you're looking for," he responded by saying that that's become the world's biggest pickup line.
37. Will & Grace's Sean Hayes plays the voice of Mr. Tinkles in Cats & Dogs. The Washington Post's Rita Kempley refers to his character as "a Persian megalomanicat." Ha Ha Ha.
38. So it rained before and after the fireworks last night. People were drenched, but they still had 'em.
39. UH . . . Rainy Night in Georgia by Brook Benton in 1970 on Cotillion Records. Great storytelling song.

rocci@roccifisch.com

Archives