Rocci Fisch

November 9, 2003

MORE BRITNEY

. . . Yes, she's all over the place. Got a new album (In the Zone) coming out Monday, Nov. 10, that's why. Newspapers, magazines, TV pieces. She's growing up, they say. From what she's done lately with all her clothes-barely there photos, I'd say she's done all the growing up she needs to do.
Ads for Arnold's movie DVDs are back on TV. I guess the campaign's over.
NBC's Campbell Brown likes spicy fried chicken. She's from Louisiana and she likes Popeye's. Said so on Saturday Today.
Diane Sawyer is a stepmother. I didn't know that. Her favorite film to watch over and over is Stepmom.
They say Rosie O'Donnell's taking her comedy to the courtroom. Even the judge was laughing one day last week. Does she have him in her corner? I still say she's a blabbermouth.
Martha Stewart told Barbara Walters that she didn't think she'd be going to prison.
I called into an Indian kabob place for a takeout lunch the other day and asked when I should mosey over to pick it up. "Fifteen minutes," the woman said. I asked if it could be any sooner than 15 minutes and she said, "No sir, we have to cook it." Thank you.
I want a Finding Nemo plush toy. They had them the other day on Ellen DeGeneres. They did the whole show about the movie and the bottom of the screen was see-thru blue, like the ocean and by the end of the show the whole picture was that way, like they were all underwater. Clever idea, but it was slightly annoying.
"EVERYTHING FROM BAGHDAD TO BEYONCE" That's what's covered on Anderson Cooper's 360 show on CNN. It's the whole kitchen sink, I guess.
People are drinking green tea lattes now. What else are they gonna dream up?
Will the showing of The Perfect Husband, a film scheduled to air early next year on the USA Network starring Dean (Superman) Cain as Scott Peterson be met with the same uproar that greeted CBS's The Reagans? Doubt it.
Someone pointed out in Washington Post music critic David Segal's online discussion show (Pop Talk) that the music industry's gone from being driven by singles in the 50s through vinyl albums to 8-tracks to cassettes to CDs and MP3's and is now back to (digital) singles. Good point.
What's a Big Tent Strategy? I heard Al Sharpton use it. Also, Sharpton hosts Saturday Night Live on Dec. 6. The show's executive producer, Lorne Michaels, told The New York Times that he thinks he's been really funny. "He is, to say the least, theatrical."
News correspondent Dan Lothian has left NBC and gone to CNN. They called him Boston Bureau Chief the other day when introducing his report. He must've gotten that in his contract.
A friend of mine said this about his place of work: "We should have a Thanksgiving party instead of a Christmas party because this place is full of turkeys." Ha Ha Ha.
You couldn't pay me to go see Mamma Mia! , that musical based on Abba's music. The TV ads for it obviously encourage attendance but those people playing the air piano while they're singing Dancing Queen make we wanna holler.
The New York Times spells the Iraqi city Falluja while The Washington Post spells it Fallujah. Why? (Guess they're both right.)
They say now that Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield died of a heart attack in his hotel room in Kalamazoo, Mich. last Wednesday. Loss of a great voice. The tour de force original version of Unchained Melody was sung solo by Hatfield - without partner Bill Medley - and produced by gun-toting Phil Spector. It reached #4 on the pop chart in 1965 and was actually the B-side of Hung On You but deejays back then flipped it over. A new version of the song was recorded in 1990 to capitalize on the song being used in the movie, Ghost. But it didn't have the punch of the old one.
. . . JUST LEARNED. The song is from a movie called Unchained (1955), a low budget film about the men's prison at Chino, Calif. It was nominated for an Oscar that year for Best Song. Nine different versions have made the pop charts over the years, most recently by LeAnn Rimes in ‘97. So that's that.
I wonder how James Brolin feels about his Reagan movie being dumped by CBS? You have to admit, the guy really looked like Reagan. Babs is upset.
THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS. I thought it was all right but a bit long and too much on the special effects. Jada Pinkett Smith's good. I like to see Carrie-Anne Moss in her shiny vinyl clothes and sunglasses. She's so baaad. There's a little Indian girl who's really good. Keanu looks good in his long coat and everything. He actually cries in the movie. The Agent Smith character is good and is multiplied even more than the last one. There's a new woman playing the Oracle. Laurence Fishburne is there and the captain of the crew looks like a leftover from some biblical epic. Some of the special effects reminded me of Superman because they fly up into the sky.
Mr. Highfalutin saw Alien (1979), The Director's Cut. He always likes to see directors' cuts. He's a snob with things like that. Nevertheless, he thought it held up pretty well. But it makes you notice how much things have speeded up in movies since then, he said. The soundtrack was classical, which you don't find in most movies now. But he still thought it was scary and creepy.
Is it true that Jessica Simpson once thought a plastic bag on the beach was a jellyfish?
LISTENING TO . . . Luther Vandross Live at Radio City Music Hall 2003. It's good and the audience doesn't drown him out. He's a class act: The voice, the music, the background singers. It was recorded for a Valentine's Day audience and is his first live album. Personally, he's still recuperating from the stroke he had back in April, going through physical therapy and doctors say it may take two years to recover.
Is Sinead O'Connor's new album title long enough? She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty. It's two CDs and her last, she says. She's retiring to concentrate on her theological studies and pastoral healing, according to a Reuters-Billboard report out of London. Any more words for the Pope? (Remember that?)
THE BIG JUST KEEP GETTING BIGGER. Sony Music Entertainment (Columbia Records) and BMG Entertainment (RCA Records) are going to merge to form Sony BMG making it the world's second largest record company, controlling a quarter of the world's music. (Universal is #1.) Andrew Lack, the former NBC president, will head up the new company as CEO.
Justin Timberlake will be writing the theme music for ABC's coverage of the NBA and star in the commercials plus serve as a special correspondent. That guy's into a lot.
Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, sometimes goes to the bathroom in the ivy in the flower beds of the complex where she lives and when she does her owner sometimes doesn't pick it up. Figures it'll stay hid there.
I MISS . . . The section TV Guide used to have about what was happening in the news business. It was the last of the feature articles just before the listings. Bring it back!
UH . . . I Miss You - Klymaxx on Constellation Records. 1985. Sounded like Janet Jackson ... or Michael.