Thursday, November 17, 2011              Edition: #4632
Avoid Sheet Fits – Don’t Forget to Renew Your Subscription!

BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
Last night, 70-year-old 1950s-60s pop star-turned-Vegas entertainer Paul Anka returned to Warsaw, Poland to play a show he cancelled due to the assassination of US president John F Kennedy 48 years ago (did they honor original tickets?) . . . This week 25-year-old former “Transformers” actress Megan Fox was among the famous faces taking part in the annual Broadway charity project “The 24 Hour Plays”, in which a group of actors, writers, and directors have 24 hours to come up with a script before performing it onstage (Quote: “I wouldn’t survive an entire run of a play – it’s frightening!”) . . . 38-year-old movie star Aishwarya Rai (“The Pink Panther 2”) has become a first-time mom, giving birth to a baby girl in Mumbai, according to an excited tweet from her 35-year-old Bollywood star-husband Abhishek Bachchan (India’s ‘royal family’ just got bigger) . . . British bookmaker Paddy Power has ranked George Clooney the favorite to win the ‘Best Actor’ Oscar for his turn in “The Descendants” (premiered Tuesday), followed by Leonardo DiCaprio for his role in Clint Eastwood’s flick “J Edgar” (we like a dark horse named Gosling) . . . DiCaprio’s former girlfriend, Bar Refaeli, will model her own innerwear line when it launches in January; it includes undershirts, tights, and camisoles created for her new brand Undeez (when did ‘underwear’ become ‘innerwear’?) . . . Michael Jackson’s mother Katherine is ‘extremely displeased’ that crew members who worked the “Michael Forever” tribute concert last month in Cardiff, Wales have not been paid by promoter Global Live (it was flimsy from the start and the fiasco continues) . . . And late-night TV host Chelsea Handler has handed out $1,000-bonuses to all 138 employees who work on her show after signing a new 2-year, $25-million deal to continue “Chelsea Lately” on E! network (that’s only 0.5%, ya cheapo!).

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated/CTV2) – Selena Gomez & The Scene (“When the Sun Goes Down”).
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/CHCH) – Vince Gill (“Guitar Slinger”).
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – We Were Promised Jetpacks (“In The Pit Of the Stomach”).
• “Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” (CBS) – Black Dub (“Black Dub”).
• “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV2) – Dierks Bentley performs “Home”.
• “Late Show With David Letterman” (CBS/NTV/Omni1) – John Fogerty (tonight & tomorrow his live shows at NYC’s Beacon Theatre have the unwieldy title “Looking Out My Back Door: John Fogerty Performs Live! The Albums of Creedence Clearwater Revival”).
• “Live With Regis & Kelly” (syndicated/CTV) – Josh Groban (“Illuminations”).
• “Marilyn Denis Show” (CTV/CTV2) – Classic rocker Randy Bachman performs an acoustic version of “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet”.
• “Tavis Smiley” (PBS) – Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff.
• “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” (NBC/CTV2) – Gym Class Heroes (“Papercut Chronicles II”).
• “20/20” (ABC) – Katie Couric interviews Regis Philbin on the eve of his final show before retirement.
• “The X Factor” (FOX/CTV) – Rihanna (“Talk That Talk”, out Friday) performs; 1 contestant is eliminated.

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Adele – She’s responded on her website to well-wishers since going under the knife for an operation on her throat. Quote: “I’m doing really well, on the mend, super happy, relaxed and very positive with it all.”
• Blake Shelton – Today he headlines the Coca-Cola Racing Family Concert at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida. Hunter Hayes is the featured guest. The free concert helps kick-off the “NASCAR Champion Drive” event.
• Heavy D – Tomorrow in NYC the rapper will be laid to rest in a private funeral for friends & family. Today there’s a public viewing for fans to pay their respects. An autopsy has proven inconclusive and it could take several weeks to determine a cause of death for the 44-year-old.
• John Lennon – A placard he made during his 1969 ‘bed-in’ peace protest with Yoko Ono in Montréal has pulled in over $155,000 at an auction in London. The sign, which reads ‘Bed Peace’, was sold by Christie’s auction house to an anonymous phone bidder.
• Justin Bieber – Mariah Yeater has quietly dropped her lawsuit alleging that he fathered her 4-month old son. One reason may be that her lawyers stopped representing her after Bieber’s attorney warned both she and her legal representatives would be sued for making false claims.
• Kelly Clarkson – Tonight she’s the acoustic performer on “Unplugged” at VH1.com. The show, featuring material from her new album “Stronger” as well as past favorites, airs on VH1 TV tomorrow night. She’s the first “American Idol” winner to ever perform on the show.
• Michael Jackson – His actual deathbed has been pulled from the December 17th auction of effects from the Holmby Hills, California home he was renting when he died. Jackson’s estate has stepped in and asked Julien’s Auctions to remove the item, which had a pre-sale estimated value of $3,000-to-$5,000.
• Rihanna – She’s being criticized by anti-smoking campaigners for lighting up a cigarette in her latest music video, “We Found Love”.
• Trace Adkins – He’s spent the past few weeks judging an advertising jingle contest for Waggin’ Train dog treats, and recently stepped into the studio to record the winner … “Headin’ Out to Tasty Town”.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:
A BS selection of movies in the making …
• “Akira” – “Twilight Saga” star Kristen Stewart has been approached to take on the role of ‘Kei’, the love interest of biker-gang teen ‘Kaneda’, in a new $300-million, live-action adaptation of the iconic Japanese magna comic. The original story was set in post-nuclear-war Tokyo in the year 2019, but the movie is expected to take place in NYC. It’s scheduled to start shooting in March.
• “Doctor Who” – “Harry Potter” director David Yates and the BBC have plans to create a bigscreen version of the long-running British sci-fi show about a time-traveling humanoid alien. Yates says they’re looking at writers now, but it could take 2-to-3 years to get the project right. The original TV show ran from 1963-89 before being re-booted in 2005.
• “A Glimpse Into the Mind of Charles Swan III” – Bill Murray starred in Sofia Coppola’s 2003 movie “Lost in Translation” and now he’s teaming up with another one of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola’s talented offspring. Roman Coppola’s dark comedy is about a depressed graphic designer. Charlie Sheen and Patricia Arquette will also appear in the 2012 film.
• ‘Michael Jackson Biopic’ – The late King of Pop’s life could be turned into a movie as early discussions between his estate and interested parties are underway. Estate executor John Branca has had discussions with “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman and “Up In the Air” producer Tom Pollock regarding the possibility. The talks are said to be ‘in the early stages’.
• “The President Stole My Girlfriend” – British comedian Russell Brand will produce and star in this forthcoming comedy as a ‘sexy hippie’. Brand says the storyline is inspired  by the night he naively invited the president of Warner Bros Studios for dinner when he was still a newcomer in Hollywood.

SOMETHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR:
Real turkeys are making a comeback! For a half-century, nearly every turkey farm in America was raising a breed called ‘Broad Breasted White’, a cost-efficient, overweight bird that can neither fly nor reproduce without artificial insemination, and has a lifespan of just 18 weeks. In fact, a 1997 turkey census found there were only 1,300 turkeys not bred for industrial purposes in the entire country. But here’s the good news – there’s since been a surge in raising ‘heritage breed turkeys’, 8 different varieties descended from the original wild bird indigenous to North America. Heritage birds can still mate naturally, have a long outdoor lifespan, and a slow growth rate. (We also hear they taste the way turkey did … before they bred all the turkey out of it.)
– Grist.org

DEPARTMENT OF THE OBVIOUS:
A few recent studies we may not have actually needed …
• Watching Too Much TV & Not Exercising Can Lead to Depression – A Harvard University study of 50,000 women finds those who exercise 90 minutes a day are 20% less likely to suffer from depression. And those who watch 3 hours or more of TV per day are 13% more likely.
• Most Smokers Want to Quit But Can’t – A new Centers for Disease Control study finds that fully 68.8% of current smokers say they want to quit, and 52.4% have unsuccessfully tried to in the past year.
• Beautiful People Make More Money – According to the new book “Beauty Pays” by economics professor Daniel Hamermesh, beautiful people earn more money (by 3-to-4%), are likely to be happier than average people, and tend to marry good-looking, highly educated spouses.
– Condensed from CBC.ca

DID YOU KNOW?
• The first toilet cubicle in a row is the least used … and consequently the cleanest.
– “Aftermath”
• 38% of divorcing couples are unable to agree on who gets custody of the family pet. Judges award the beast to the woman in 81% of these cases.
– “What Do Dogs Know?”

BS CHRONOMETER 11.17.11