June 29, 2005

      GET READY FOR "WAR OF THE WORLDS"

1. . . . COMING WEDNESDAY. "NO ONE WOULD HAVE BELIEVED IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE 21ST CENTURY THAT OUR WORLD WAS BEING WATCHED BY INTELLIGENCES GREATER THAN OUR OWN. NOTHING ON EARTH WILL PREPARE YOU," say the ads.
2. . . . There's a 3-fingered tentacled hand that's got a hold of Earth.
3. . . . They better show the invaders or I'm gonna be pi_ _ed. The hell with imagination. I wanna see the SOB's in that movie. No teasing either. Show 'em full screen.
4. . . . This'll be a way to see Tom Cruise without putting up with him chattering about Katie Holmes and psychiatry. Thank God for that.
5. They've decided not to serve shark's fine soup at Hong Kong Disneyland when the park opens in September. Pressure from environmental groups.
6. CNN's Capital Gang (Robert Novak, creator, Margaret Carlson, Al Hunt, Kate O'Beirne, Mark Shields) ended its 16-year run last weekend. The political roundtable program will be replaced by the network's Sunday morning (10 a.m.) On the Story beginning July 9. They're making a lot of changes at CNN these days.
7. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was on three Sunday morning talk shows last weekend: This Week, Fox News Sunday and Meet the Press. So he must've had a busy morning. He was on Week and Fox at the same time. (It would be nice to know which interview was live. But the networks never tell you that. God forbid saying anything is taped.) Face the Nation (CBS) and Late Edition (CNN) didn't get him. So they were nobodies that weekend.
8. . . . He said the same thing on all three shows. So why do more than one? It's no longer exclusive when they do that.
9. Dave Chappelle and David LaChapelle are not the same person.
10. WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH BONO'S HEAD? The whole time he was on Meet the Press (from Dublin) talking to Tim Russert in Washington, his head was tilted to the right. It never moved. He had his standard dark glasses on and his dark shirt was opened. Not a normal guest for Press but I guess they're trying to appeal to a younger demographic by booking rock stars. This Week has been doing that for a while now, most recently with Brad Pitt talking about African aid; Bryan Adams on breast cancer and a Q&A segment with Danica Patrick on the Indy 500.
11. . . . Meet the Press called Bono's appearance an exclusive interview. Why that? He'll rant on and on to anybody whether they listen or not.
12. American Idol finalist from last year, John Stevens - the red-haired guy who sang swing songs a la Frank Sinatra-style - was in New York playing Feinstein's at the Regency (ended last Saturday). That's pretty big time for the 17-year-old Good for him. And his review (Stephen Holden, NYT) wasn't bad.
13. ALSO COMING. This weekend, Bob Geldof's Live 8 rock concerts are scheduled for Saturday, July 2, to raise awareness of poverty in Africa. The Associated Press reports that MTV and VH1 will air eight hours; AOL will "beam" them on the Internet and ABC will have a prime-time special, Live 8: A Worldwide Concert Event Saturday night and XM Satellite Radio will air live coverage. The cities are London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Toronto, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Moscow and Philadelphia. Additional concerts will be held on July 6.
14. There's a really funny, creative video version of Nelly's Hot in Herre by a group that's done with funky, hip-hop-like puppets who really have their grooves on. You gotta see it. The group has a name like Tiko or something. Excuse me for not having the complete facts but I will find out and let you know.
15. ANOTHER AD FOR "WORLDS." . . . Shows Tom Cruise holding co-star Dakota Fanning as they look in fear and wonder at something. The ad copy says, "It seemed like the whole country was on fire." Shouldn't they be saying "world was on fire"? The movie's called "War of the Worlds," for crissakes.
16. . . . The H.G. Wells novel it's based on is called The War of the Worlds.
17. Charles Osgood of CBS's Sunday Morning bade farewell to veteran news correspondent Bob McNamara who is retiring. And when Osgood threw it to Bob Schieffer of Face the Nation in Washington to see what was coming up on his show, the anchorman wished McNamara well too
18. Weekend Today anchor Lester Holt said he'd be off next week but he's gonna come in just to see Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire (they're touring together this summer) when they perform live on the plaza, as they say. He's a big fan.
19. Washington's News4 Today weekend edition has another new woman sports anchor. This time it's Lindy Czarniak, another blonde. And she's got the same voice as Nicole Zaloumis (another try-out, since dumped) did.
20. Last weekend was most likely the last crusade for Billy Graham, "America's preacher," as he's called by some media outlets. He talks like he's on his last legs. So is a chariot gonna come and take him up to heaven soon?
21. WEAR SOMETHING ELSE. All Tom Cruise ever wears is that darn T-shirt and jeans. And he sat on a stool during the Matt Lauer interview last Friday with his legs spread eagle all the time. Is he trying to show off? Is the simple T-shirt in order to emphasize the biceps? Is he into dressing down?
22. Condoleezza Rice took in a Nats (Washington Nationals) baseball game with her boss, George Bush, and some other White House staffers one night last week. Get a life! Go out with some other people. Get more diverse. Get away from the office once in a while.
23. Those York outside heat pumps also come in champagne and blue. Aesthetics, I guess.
24. L. Patrick Gray's interview on This Week was totally interesting. He told George Stephanopoulos that he was very ill and that's why he was speaking out about Deep Throat. The acting director of the FBI during the Watergate scandal spoke in a slow, quiet voice and addressed George as Mr. Stephanopoulos in his first interview in 35 years.
25. OVERHEARD AT A RESTAURANT. A local girl had a friend in from out of town who kept referring to the Washington Beltway as the Belt Loop. Ha Ha Ha.
26. THERE HE IS AGAIN. Tom Brokaw, the man who never went away. He "travels the world reporting on the war on terror," said the network ads for his Tom Brokaw Reports: The Long War, which aired on Dateline last Friday night. He went to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, France and Washington, D.C. So I guess he's not doing much retiring.
27. . . . Oh, and he did Chris Matthews's Hardball too.
28. So should've Hermes in Paris opened its doors for Oprah Winfrey when she arrived at the place one night last week even though the store had closed ten or fifteen minutes earlier? They didn't let her in to shop and Oprah was furious and insulted, according to her spokesperson and best friend/gal pal Gayle King. (There are conflicting stories of the incident.) But now we've got September to look forward to because Oprah's gonna explain it all on her show then.
29. . . . Did she seek privileged treatment? Is she gonna big foot the designer store in September? What effect will this all have for the expensive boutique's sales?
30. . . . Good God, who cares?
31. Is VHS tape going out?
32. When I asked if Billy Graham was going to meet God, a friend of mine said, "He met Him already. They had lunch."
33. I wish I had Prince Charles's suits.
34. CRINGE: "Good morning, good morning. Have a Tropicana morning."
35. A co-worker of mine can't stand watching Moncia Crowley's (MSNBC's Connected Coast to Coast) mouth move when she talks. It really gets to him. Something about moving sideways.
36. The two O'Briens (Soledad and Miles) are now together on CNN's American Morning. The pairing looks good. Now where's Bill Hemmer gonna end up?
37. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, got very upset because of squirrels on the roof at 4 o'clock in the morning. When one of them peered down at her from the skylight she got so upset that owner Sally had to calm her down.
38. Writer, book author and TV commenator Shana Alexander died of cancer June 23 at an assisted living facility in Hermosa Beach, Calif. She was 79. She was a groundbreaking journalist: the first female reporter for Life magazine and the first woman to write a column for Newsweek. She also wrote true crime books. But she gained her "greatest celebrity" being the liberal voice opposing James Kilpatrick's conservative viewpoints on 60 Minutes's Point-Counterpoint segment. They did that for four years. Saturday Night Live used to spoof 'em with Dan Aykroyd calling Jane Curtin an "ignorant slut."
39. Did Katie Couric ask the Runaway Bride (Jennifer Wilbanks) if she had an eye affliction?
40. UH . . . Eye of the Tiger - Survivor, on Scotti Brothers Records. 1982. From the Sly Stallone movie Rocky III.