BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
A lawyer for Brooke Mueller has shut down reports suggesting she checked into rehab after suffering a drug relapse at her ex-husband Charlie Sheen’s house, insisting the current rehab stint was a ‘pre-planned event’ (“I think I’m gonna fall off the wagon in about 3 weeks”) . . . Actor George Clooney’s ex-girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis says she wants to give her relationship with “Jackass” prankster Steve-O another chance because she ‘doesn’t feel as if it is over yet’ (they split in April amid rumors her party lifestyle was proving too much for the recovering addict) . . . The comedy sequel “Men in Black 3” is a bigger hit offshore than at home, taking in more abroad in its 2nd week than it did domestically in its 1st (it’s now close to $387 million in worldwide box office) . . . For the 2nd May sweeps period in a row, ABC News program “Nightline” has topped NBC-TV’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and CBS-TV’s “Late Show With David Letterman” (mainly in the 64-98 demographic) . . . Famous person Kim Kardashian tells “Heat” magazine she ‘hates’ herself when she falls asleep wearing makeup (funny, we hate her when she’s awake wearing makeup) . . . And according to a new survey by Songza, 50% of respondents think listening to Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger” makes them ‘more productive’ at work; and 43% get a boost from Gotye’s “Somebody I Used to Know”; but over a quarter claim listening to the “Glee” cover version of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” provokes ‘deep feelings of resentment and anger’ (seems it took some of us 3 years to smell the cheese).

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Conan” (TBS/CTV) – Juno Award-winning roots musician Bahamas (“Barchords”).
• “Concert For the Queen: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration With Katie Couric” (ABC) – A compilation of Monday’s event at Buckingham Palace in London. Performers include Annie Lennox, Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Paul McCartney, and Tom Jones.
• “Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated/CTV2) – K’Naan f/Nelly Furtado (“More Beautiful Than Silence”). Rerun.
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/CHCH) – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (“Here”).
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – Bombay Bicycle Club (“A Different Kind of Fix”).
• “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV2) – The Walkmen (“Heaven”).
• “Late Show With David Letterman” (CBS/NTV/Omni1) – Alan Jackson (“Thirty Miles West”, out today, his 1st album on ACR [Alan’s Country Records], his new imprimatur from EMI Nashville).
• “Love In the Wild” (NBC) – Jenny McCarthy hosts the 2nd-season premiere of this reality game show set in Costa Rica, where 10 men paired with 10 women compete in challenges that test their personal abilities and their compatibility as a couple.
• “Today” (NBC) – Alan Jackson (“Thirty Miles West”).
• “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” (NBC/CTV2) – Chris Robinson Brotherhood (“Big Moon Ritual”).

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Beach Boys – Today their reunion album is out, the first to feature all of the band’s surviving members since 1995. Brian Wilson says it’s titled “That’s Why God Made the Radio” because radio was his whole musical education, where he first heard Chuck Berry, Little Richard, et al.
• David Bowie – Today his landmark album “The Rise & Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And the Spiders From Mars” is being reissued in a deluxe 40th anniversary package in multiple formats.
• The Hives – Today the Swedish garage rockers return with their 5th studio album, “Lex Hives”. The 12-track set is being released on their own label, Disques Hives.
• Lenny Kravitz – A deluxe edition of his 1991 album “Mama Said” is out today. The 2-disc re-mastered version includes 21 bonus tracks, including 15 previously unreleased songs.
• Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Today they release “Americana”, their 1st album together in nearly 9 years. It’s a collection of classic American folk songs, many of which were referred to as ‘protest songs’ in their day.
• Nicki Minaj – It’s been revealed she pulled out of Hot 97’s “Summer Jam” at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday night because one of the station’s on-air personalities dissed her hit “Starships”, calling it … ‘wack’.
• Patti Smith – Today she offers up her 11th studio album, “Banga”. It includes a song for the people of Japan in the wake of last year’s earthquake (“Fuji-san”), a ballad in memory of Amy Winehouse (“This Is the Girl”), and a birthday song written for her friend Johnny Depp (“Nine”).
• ZZ Top – A 4-track digital collection called “Texicali” is out today, their first new studio recordings in 9 years. It’s a preview of the band’s full-length album, as yet untitled, that will be released late this Summer or early Fall.

TODAY’S VIDEO RELEASES:
• “Act of Valor” ( R-Rated Action Adventure ): An elite team of Navy SEALs embarks on a covert mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent. Stars Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sanchez, Nestor Serrano, Alexander Asefa. Features actual, active-duty US Navy SEALs.
• “The Beatles: Yellow Submarine” ( Animated Comedy ): Previously out-of-print, the Fab Four’s classic 1968 feature has been restored in 4K digital resolution for DVD and Blu-ray release. The soundtrack album is also being re-issued. The restoration was done by hand, frame-by-frame.
• “John Carter” ( PG-13 Sci-Fi Action Adventure ) – Transplanted to Mars, a Civil War vet discovers a lush planet inhabited by 12-foot-tall barbarians. He escapes their clutches only to encounter a princess in desperate need of a savior. Stars Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins.
• “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” ( PG Family Adventure ): In this sequel to “Journey To the Center Of the Earth” (2008), a young man partners with his mom’s boyfriend on a mission to find his grandfather. Stars Josh Hutcherson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine.
• “Safe House” ( R-Rated Crime Thriller ) – Ryan Reynolds plays a young CIA agent who is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house (Denzel Washington), but when it’s attacked he finds himself on-the-run with his charge. Shot in Cape Town SA and Washington DC.
• Also released today: “American Pickers: Volume 3” (Reality TV); “Bear Nation” (Documentary); “Breaking Bad: The Complete 4th Season” (TV); “Burn Notice: Season 5” (TV); “Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete 8th Season” (TV); “Fairly Legal: Season 1” (TV); “Falling Skies: The Complete 1st Season” (TV); “In Plain Sight: Season 4” (TV); “Pawn Stars: Volume 4” (Reality TV)”; “The Three Stooges: The Ultimate Collection” (Vintage Comedy); “Titanic at 100: Mystery Solved” (Documentary); “Workaholics: Season 2” (TV).

WE’RE STILL WATCHING:
The home video market may not be as depressed as some suggest. While average household spending on sales & rentals of physical discs dropped 11% in 2011 vs 2010, the reason may have less to do with piracy than with the fact there was less interest in the movies that were released, as theater-attendance figures also demonstrated. Moreover, when revenue is added from video-on-demand, sales & rentals from Internet sites, and subscription streaming from Netflix and others, the overall figures for video spending are not so bleak. (How will you be watching “John Carter”?)
– “Screen Digest”

CUBICLES DRIVING US CRAZY:
A 10-year University of California at Berkeley survey of 65,000 office workers in North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia has found that over half are dissatisfied with the level of ‘speech privacy’ in their offices, making it the leading workplace complaint. Increasingly, office cubicle dwellers are finding creative ways to create some privacy, whether it be barricading themselves behind file cabinets or fortifying their partitions with towers of books and papers. In response, some companies are redesigning offices, piping in special background noise to improve the acoustics in a process called ‘sound masking’. (An even simpler solution … walls!)
– “New York Times”

HELMETS MAKE HASTE:
A study of first-time bicycle-helmet users published in the American Journal of Public Health finds that men who wear helmets cycle significantly faster than those who don’t wear them. Experts think this may be a result of what’s called risk comparison, whereby people tend to take more risks when they feel safer. By contrast, wearing a helmet seems to have no effect on women’s biking speed. (This is a guy thing: First a helmet, then cycling shorts and multi-colored Tour de France-style yellow shirt, then gloves and special shoes, and then they gotta go 40 mph in congested traffic on city streets.)
– “Wall Street Journal”

CARRYING A TORCH CREATIVELY:
Usually the Olympic flame is carried to the site of the opening ceremonies by runners. But over the years, organizers have gotten innovative with the mode of transportation. The torch has traveled by bike and on horseback, by boat and in airplanes. For instance, British Airways plane ‘The Firefly’ flew the 2012 London Olympics torch from Liverpool to the Isle of Man yesterday. A few of the oddest torch transports in Olympic history …
✓ In 1988, it traveled by snowmobile across frozen Lake Simcoe in Ontario on the way to Calgary, Alberta for the Winter Games.
✓ Scuba divers carried the flame underwater past the Great Barrier Reef on the way to the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney. A special underwater flare was used to keep the flame alight.
✓ The flame was transmitted via satellite for the 1976 Summer Games in Montréal. A heat sensor detected the flame in Greece, then transmitted a signal to Canada, where a computer relit the flame with a laser.
– TotalProSports.com

TEXTS ARE MORE TRUTHFUL:
According to a new study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, our thumbs may be more truthful than our voices. The preliminary results of the study by psychologists at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research suggest that texting often reveals more honest responses to sensitive questions as most of us tend to be more candid in electronic messages than in voice communications. (For further proof, check Facebook. The details users gleefully post on their pages without inhibition would cause most to blush with embarrassment in person.)
– UPI.com

HOW TO WALK WITH COFFEE:
Ever wonder why it’s so hard to walk with a cup of coffee without spilling? New research at the University of California at Santa Barbara shows that the properties of human legs, coffee mugs, and liquid conspire to cause spills, most often at some point between our 7th and 10th steps. That’s apparently because the human stride has almost exactly the right frequency to cause coffee to waver back-and-forth. The researchers’ advice …
✓ To avoid driving the oscillations that lead to spillage, walk slowly.
✓ Watch your cup, not your feet. It will increase the average number of steps before a spill.
(Simplest of all: Really big mug. Really small coffee.)
–  LifesLittleMysteries.com

DID YOU KNOW?
According to a recent study in the journal “Preventive Medicine”, men are nearly twice as active as women on average, getting at least 30 minutes of daily exercise.
– HuffingtonPost.com

BS CHRONOMETER 06.05.12

TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1971 [41] Mark Wahlberg, Dorchester MA, movie actor (“The Fighter”, “The Departed”)/TV producer (“Boardwalk Empire” since 2010, “Entourage” 2004-11)

1979 [33] Pete Wentz, Wilmette IL, rock bassist/singer (Fall Out Boy-“She’s My Winona”, “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race”)/wed to Ashlee Simpson 2008-11

1980 [32] Mike Fisher, Peterborough ON, NHL hockey player (Nashville Predators)/wed to country singer Carrie Underwood since 2010

1981 [31] Sebastien Lefebvre, Montréal QC, rock guitarist (Simple Plan-“Crazy”, “Welcome to My Life”)

TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Shut Up Day”, a day to give quiet people a chance to talk. (So hey Chatty Cathy … shhh!)

• “UN World Environment Day”, declared annually since 1972. The 2012 theme is ‘Green Economy: Does It Include You?’.
NET: http://www.unep.org/wed/

THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
2005 [07] “Monty Python’s Spamalot” wins 3 “Tony Awards”, including ‘Best Musical’

TODAY’S MUSIC EVENT . . .
2004 [08] Some 40 guests watch as pop star/actress Jennifer Lopez weds her 3rd husband, Latin singer Marc Anthony, in an intimate ceremony in the backyard of her LA home (separated in 2011, divorce pending)

TODAY’S FIRSTS . . .
1977 [35] 1st ‘Personal Computer’ is marketed, the Apple II

1989 [23] 1st Major League Baseball game in a ‘Convertible Stadium’ (Milwaukee Brewers beat Blue Jays 5-3 at Toronto’s new ‘Skydome’ [now Rogers Centre] which features a retractable roof)

1993 [19] Julie Krone rides 13-to-1 shot Colonial Affair to victory in the Belmont Stakes to become the 1st female jockey ever to win a Triple Crown race

TODAY’S RECORDS . . .
1988 [24] ‘Longest Champagne Cork Flight’ record is set in NYC at 177 feet, 9 inches

2003 [09] 37-year-old Indiana native Brad Hauter arrives in NYC after riding his Yard-Man lawnmower 5,600 miles across the USA from San Francisco … at 10 mph

AND REMEMBER . . .
[Wed] CMT Music Awards
[Wed] D-Day
[Wed] Drive-in Movie Day
[Wed] Tailors Day
[Wed] Canadian Clean Air Day
[Thurs] 2012 CMA Music Festival begins (Nashville)
[Thurs] VCR Day
[Thurs] “The Choice” premieres (FOX)
This Week Is … Headache Awareness Week
This Month Is … Accordion Awareness Month

BULL’S BITS

LEAST POPULAR BS STREET VENDORS:
✗ Deep-fried sewer bass.
✗ Calamari-flavored Italian ice.
✗ Stunned mouse in a Dixie cup.
✗ Fingerless Fred’s mystery tacos.
✗ Old-fashioned lint cakes.
✗ Piping-hot fried dough plus a whack with a hammer.
✗ Honey-roasted ticks.
✗ 100% squirrel milk ice cream.
✗ Crap On a stick.

BS RANDOM JOKE:
I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.

BS U-PICK TRIVIA:
If you’re prone to motion sickness when flying, where’s the best place to sit?
a. Near the front.
b. In the rear.
c. Over the wing. [CORRECT]
– “Better Homes & Gardens”

BS PHONE STARTER:
☎ What’s the most underrated physical feature? Feet? Lips? Hands? Nose?

BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question: According to a new study, both men and woman find THESE a little threatening.
Answer: Beards.

BS DEEP THOUGHT:
If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?