Tuesday, April 28, 2020        Edition: #6685

Can You Believe This Sheet?

BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
★ Two of the world’s most famous COVID-19 patients want to share their blood to help in the fight against the disease. Tom Hanks said on a podcast that he and his wife, Rita Wilson, want to donate their blood to research because it now carries coronavirus antibodies. In the “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” podcast, Hanks said that not only have the two been approached, they will, in fact, “be giving it now to the places that hope to work on what I would like to call the ‘Hank-ccine,’ ” Hanks said he and Wilson are feeling “just fine and dandy” now.
-CNN
★ “Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson says his family was the victim of a drive-by shooting Friday where eight to 10 shots were fired from the road into his estate in West Monroe, Louisiana. One of the shots went through the bedroom window where his son John Luke Robertson lives with his wife Mary Kate McEachern and their infant child, but no one was injured. In an interview with USA Today, Robertson said: “We were pretty shook up. It looks like they were just spraying bullets across my property.” No arrests have been made.
-YahooNews
★ George Gray, the announcer for “The Price Is Right,” is recovering in hospital after suffering three massive heart attacks, but according to his publicist, he is “in good spirits.” He was first hospitalized in Arizona after suffering his first heart attack and had a second one while doctors were operating to place stents in his arteries. Gray was the host of several game shows and reality TV programs, including the daytime syndicated version of “The Weakest Link,” before joining host Drew Carey on “The Price Is Right” in 2011.
-TheWrap
★ Michael Madsen is doing his part to encourage people to stay inside during the coronavirus quarantine by revisiting his diabolical “Reservoir Dogs” character, Mr. Blonde. In a video filmed at his home, the camera follows around members of his family, all of whom have bloody bandages over one ear, making it look as though they have been cut off. The music? ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’, of course. The visual portrays what Vic Vega, aka Mr. Blonde, does to a cop in arguably the most famous scene in all of Quentin Tarantino’s films.
LINK: https://youtu.be/5s6yofU-4vo
-MSN

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/Global): Jim Parsons
• “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV): Ricky Gervais, Billy Porter, the Lumineers
• “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS/Global): Jake Gyllenhaal, Stephen King, M. Ward
• “Late Night with Seth Meyers” (NBC/CTV): Rep. Katie Porter
• “The Late Late Show with James Corden” (CBS/CTV): Thomas Middleditch, Ben Schwartz, Billie Joe Armstrong
• “Conan” (TBS): Joel McHale
• “Watch What Happens Live” (Bravo): Kate Hudson, Oliver Hudson
• “The View” (ABC/CTV): Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds
• “The Talk” (CBS): Rita Moreno, Deborah Norville
• “Live with Kelly and Ryan” (ABC/CTV): David Boreanaz, Liza Koshy
• “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (NBC/CTV): Melissa McCarthy, Ben Falcone
• “The Kelly Clarkson Show” (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS): Julie Andrews, Emma Walton Hamilton, Jessica Simpson, Jim Carrey
• “The Masked Singer” (FOX): Last But Not Least: Group C Kickoff! Six new celebrities take the stage for their first performances of the season.
• “Autism: The Sequel (2019)” (HBO): Five autistic adults navigate their way through their early 20s, while old footage reveals their lives with their families 12 years earlier.

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Taylor Swift – What has she been doing with her time while in quarantine? She told PEOPLE: ”I love spending a full evening cooking a meal while sipping a glass of wine and listening to old music.”
• DaBaby – His “Blame It on Baby” album is at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, bumping The Weeknd’s “After Hours” to #2 after four weeks at the top of the chart.
• Kelly Clarkson – For her birthday, her family shared an adorable message to her. In the video, her husband Brandon Blackstock and their children River, Remi and Seth huddle together on the driveway and speak of how special she is. Clarkson responded, admitting the sweet message left her crying. Quote: “I’ve had a bit of a rough week and this just turned it around.”
• Whitney Houston – Her story will be told in a feature film. “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” has the backing of the singer’s estate. No casting or release date has been announced for the movie, which is described as a “joyous, emotional and heart-breaking celebration” that will also be “very frank about the price that super-stardom exacted.”
• David Bowie — once saved Peter Frampton’s life. Frampton says that on Bowie’s 1987 “Glass Spider” world tour – for which Frampton played guitar, Bowie noticed smoke coming out of a vent from their private plane just before take-off. Quote: ”I’m in my seat and Dave literally lifts me out of my seat and carries me down the chute. I’ll never forget that. He could have run out, but he wanted to make sure I was OK.”
• Bret Michaels – says he took part in ‘The Masked Singer’ for his children. He was the star underneath the banana costume, and now he has said: ”The kids love the show. The family loves the show and I want this to go on forever. It’s such an upbeat positive party. The world needs this right now.”
• Styx — bassist Ricky Phillips says the group is working on new music remotely during lockdown. From Texas, he told an interviewer: “I’m down here doing a lot of work, writing bass parts for stuff as Tommy Shaw sends it to me (from Nashville)…where he lives…Eventually when we all come out from our caves we’re gonna get in a room and carve a new record.”
• Sara Evans — is releasing her memoir “Born to Fly”, on September 8. Quote: “It started out being more of a funny, how-to book where I’m just giving a lot of advice, like parenting advice, and how to raise kids while you’re on the road, or being a working mom.”
• Carrie Underwood – is one of many famous friends enlisted by New Kids on the Block for ‘House Party’, a new video about spreading positivity during this time of self-isolation. Also making appearances: fellow ’90s icons Boyz II Men and Naughty by Nature, American Idol Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks, Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, and “The Masked Singer’ judge Ken Jeong. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/ycmjrdo8

THIS WEEK’S NETFLIX (Canada) RELEASES:
➢ April 29:
• “A Secret Love” (NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY):  A documentary about Canadian Terry Donahue, who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (which inspired A League of Her Own). It looks at Donahue and her lifelong romantic partner, Pat Henschel, telling the story of a gay relationship from the 1940s through the age of marriage equality.
• “Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story” (NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY):  Brown was sentenced to life in prison in 2004; this documentary deals with the increasing doubt about whether her conviction was just.
➢ April 30:
• “Dangerous Lies” (NETFLIX FILM):  Katie, a caretaker for a rich old man, finds that money brings deadly trouble after her boss dies and leaves her his fortune. (Camilla Mendes, Elliot Gould)
➢ May 1:
• “Hollywood” (DRAMA): Follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood as they try to make it no matter the cost. Each character offers a glimpse behind the gilded curtain of Hollywood’s Golden Age, spotlighting the unfair systems and biases across race, gender and sexuality that continue to this day. (Darren Criss, Patti Lupone, Dylan McDermott, Jim Parsons)
(Full list: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/netflix-canada-april-2020_ca_5e77b2c1c5b62f90bc4caf20 For releases in other Netflix regions, click here: https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/coming-soon/)

HOW DO YOU BREW?
A new study suggests that filtered coffee is the healthiest way go. The 20-year study of the coffee-drinking habits of more than 500,000 Norwegians found that drinking filtered coffee is safer than any other preparation method, and better for you than drinking none at all. Filtered coffee was associated with a 15% lower risk of death from any cause, compared to drinking no coffee at all. Drinking filtered coffee was found to particularly lower the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and heart attack. This is partially because the filtering process removes most of the harmful substances in coffee that cause cholesterol levels to rise. Those that drink up to four cups of coffee a day were found to have the lowest mortality.
(UP TO four cups a day? I have that many cups of instant while I’m waiting for my coffee to brew!)
(NOT having coffee. That’s what’s bad for me.)
(Coffee only gives me a heart attack when I accidentally leave it on the roof of my car!)
-StudyFinds

NO LOVE FOR GLOVES:
Despite the fact that there has been no recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to do so, some people still insist on wearing gloves in public places, such as grocery stores. Well, spread the word: not only are the gloves ineffective, they may be worsening the spread of COVID-19. Why? The virus primarily spreads through our mouth, not our hands, so there’s no evidence that gloves do anything to protect people from picking up the illness. The risk is when people touch their faces, which they do with and without gloves, according to Marilyn Roberts, a microbiologist and professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She also points out that improper disposal of the gloves could make them a corona-spreader, especially since non-medical personnel aren’t trained to remove gloves in a manner that won’t spread the virus to their hands, if they happened to have come into contact with it.
(Plus, if you’re wearing gloves, you’re going to have a heck of a time opening produce bags!)
(I couldn’t wear gloves while shopping for the simple reason that I can’t go that long without checking my phone!)
(And don’t you love those memes showing a dude with one glove hanging out of his mouth while he checks his phone?)
-NYPost

DONKEYING AROUND:
A North Carolina farm is offering a miniature donkey named Mambo to make on-camera appearances to spice up tedious virtual meetings during the coronavirus pandemic. And if you don’t think a donkey is the right fit for your company’s culture, The Peace N Peas farm will also let you choose to rent one of the farm’s three horses — or from its flock of chickens and ducks.
(Miniature donkey? So I’ll still be the biggest ass at the meeting?)
-AP

IT WAS 20 YEARS AGO:
I hate to be the one to tell you, but all these things happened 20 short years ago…
⇒ The original “X-Men” movie was released, cementing Hugh Jackman as a Hollywood A-lister.
⇒ Faith Hill’s ‘Breathe’ was Billboard’s top song of the year.
⇒ The Nokia 3390 cellphone hit the market, and everyone HAD to have one.
⇒ Brad Pitt was named People’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive” for the second time.
⇒ The Sims video game had everyone creating fake families on their computers.
⇒ ‘NSync was the biggest boy band in the world, selling 9.9 million copies of their “No Strings Attached” album before the end of the year.
⇒ A sometimes-naked Richard Hatch won the first season of “Survivor”, the highest rated show of the year.
⇒ Maude Flanders, wife of Ned and neighbor to Homer and Marge, was killed off on “The Simpsons”.
⇒ IBM became the first to sell USB flash drives in the US (back when we weren’t sure whether to call them flash drives, thumb drives, jump drives, memory sticks or USB keys…)
⇒ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” was the biggest movie of the year, making $260 million in the US.
⇒ Heinz introduced purple and green colored ketchup into their EZ Squirt line of “kid-friendly” nozzled bottles.
(20 years ago is also the last time it was cool to write “Y2K”!)
-Awkward

DID YOU KNOW?
Due to climate change bringing springtime to the Arctic earlier and earlier than normal, a new study has found that American robins are beginning to migrate to their breeding grounds in Canada and Alaska roughly five days earlier every decade since 1994. That equates to about 12 days sooner in 2020 than they were in the early ’90s.
-StudyFinds

BS CHRONOMETER 04.28.20

TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1941 [79] Ann Margret (Olsson), Valsjobyn Sweden, movie actress (“Viva Las Vegas”, “Bye Bye Birdie”)

1950 [70] Jay Leno, New Rochelle NY, retired late-night TV host (“Tonight Show” 1992-2009, 2010-14, “Jay Leno’s Garage” since 2014)

1971 [49] Bridget Moynahan, Binghampton NY, TV actress (‘Erin Reagan-Boyle’ on “Blue Bloods” since 2010)/movie actress (“John Wick”)/NFL QB Tom Brady’s baby mama (2007)

1974 [46] Penélope Cruz (Sanchez), Madrid Spain, movie actress (“Zoolander 2″, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)

1978 [42] Drew Scott, Vancouver BC, TV show host (“Property Brothers”, “Buying and Selling”)

1978 [42] Jonathan Scott, Vancouver BC, TV show host (“Property Brothers”, “Buying and Selling”)

1981 [39] Jessica Alba, Pomona CA, movie actress (“Sin City”, “Fantastic Four”)/consumer goods entrepreneur (The Honest Company)

TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Blueberry Pie Day”, ushering in blueberry pie-making season, which lasts until September. The first documented recipe for blueberry pie appeared in the Appledore Cook Book in 1872. Blueberries are abundant in Maine, so it’s no surprise that blueberry pie is the state’s official dessert.

• “Poetry Reading Day”, a day to ‘read some great poetry, the world better to see.’ (“There once was a girl from St John’s …”)

• “National Superhero Day”, a day to honor superheroes, both real and fictional. Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and Wonder Woman are fictional, but still are great role models for children Deadpool? Not so much… (And these days, we’re hearing about a lot of “essential workers” who are real-life heroes.)

• “National Cubicle Day”, the first cubicle was introduced in 1968 as an alternative to working in open areas, often called bullpens.  It had flexible configurations with partitions to pin up current projects and provide privacy – sort of. (Or as cubicles have come to be known to some – ‘Hell with fluorescent lighting…’)

• “Clean Comedy Day”, celebrates this more family-friendly form of comedy by challenging us to keep our humor clean for a day and enjoy it all the same. (Are they trying to ruin my reputation?)

AND REMEMBER . . .
[Wed] Denim Day
[Wed] Shrimp Scampi Day
[Thurs] Bugs Bunny Day
[Thurs] Adopt a Shelter Pet Day

THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
2012 [08] ‘Scotty’ is ‘beamed up’ as ashes of late actor James Doohan, who played engineer ‘Montgomery Scott’ on “Star Trek”, are launched into space aboard a SpaceX rocket

2019 [01] The “Game of Thrones” episode ‘The Long Night’ debuts with the longest battle ever screened (nearly 80 mins), surpassing “Lord of the Rings” Battle of Helm’s Deep (44 mins)

TODAY IN MUSIC . . .
2003 [17] Apple launches the iTunes store, the first widely successful legal music download app, thanks to the emergence of the iPod. At first, the service is available only to Mac users

TODAY’S FIRST . . .
2001 [19] US millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the ‘First Space Tourist’, paying $12 million-plus to spend 8 days aboard a Russian Soyuz mission carrying supplies to International Space Station

TODAY’S RECORD . . .
2019 [01] Disney reports that the Marvel film “Avengers: Endgame” made an estimated $1.2 billion worldwide, the first film to make more than 1 billion on opening

BULL’S BITS

BS WHACK FACTS:
✓ There are 550 hairs in the average eyebrow.
✓ Melting an ice cube in your mouth burns about 2.3 calories.
✓ The first jukeboxes came with earphones – only one person could listen at a time.
✓ The Pilgrims refused to eat lobsters because they thought they were huge insects.
✓ Clint Eastwood was the #1 box office star in both the 1970s and 1980s.
✓ The word ‘noon’ originally meant “3p.m.”
-BathroomReadersInstitute

Best of BS . . .
ACTION VERBS TO USE SPARINGLY IN YOUR RÉSUMÉ:
✗ Misappropriated
✗ Bastardized
✗ Corrupted
✗ Pissed Away
✗ Undermined
✗ Blamed
✗ Obfuscated
✗ Extorted
✗ Fondled
✗ Pimped
–First published in BS in 2014

TODAY’S SLICE OF BS:
➠ Bill Gates has said:  “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” (Clearly, that “lazy person” is in charge of those Windows-10 Updates!)
➠ Apple says their new cheaper version of the iPhone SE is perfect for those who are out of work or having financial troubles. (Maybe they should call it the “iPhone Tori Spelling”?)
➠ Thought of the Day: The only person in this world who will never hurt you, never lie to you, never make you cry, and always be there for you…is yourself. (Yeah, well that’s the problem…)
➠ Fact of the Day: Of the nearly 8 billion people on earth, 2.5 billion lack toilets. (Okay, so wait! . . .what do they cling to when they’re promising God they’ll never drink again?)
➠ Fact of the Day: Free weights in a gym typically harbor up to 362 times more germs than a public toilet seat. (Yes, but you don’t normally stare at yourself in the mirror and take selfies while you sit on the toilet…)

BS WEB GOODIE:
My dog while I’m trying to work from home:  https://twitter.com/KimmyMonte/status/1250824146419945472?s=20

BS PHONE STARTER:
What did you totally screw up, but no one ever found out it was you?

BS RANDOM JOKE:
Based on my reaction to toast popping, I’d like to suggest that you never throw me a surprise party.

BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question:  93% of dog owners say their dog can perform THIS trick. What is it?
Answer:  Smile

BS DEEP THOUGHT:
Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. Indeed, that’s all who ever have.