BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
★ A rep for 29-year-old sorta actress Lindsay Lohan has shot down “untrue” reports of her engagement to Russian boyfriend Egor Tarabasov (22). Multiple reports suggested he’d proposed over the weekend but her spokesperson says the story is untrue. An engagement would’ve marked a whirlwind romance for the couple as they only started dating in late 2015 and she moved into his London home just last month. Despite the denial, Lohan wore an emerald & diamond ring on her engagement finger during a Duran Duran concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn NY Tuesday night.
– People.com
★ A jacket actor Harrison Ford wore as ‘Han Solo’ in the latest “Star Wars” movie has sold at auction for $191,000. Ford decided to autograph and sell off the item to help benefit 2 charities close to his heart, but even he couldn’t have imagined the jacket was worth so much when bidding began on online site IfOnly. The winning bid is being split between the NYU Langone Medical Center and the FACES foundation, which funds research for epilepsy. The actor’s 25-year-old daughter, Georgia, has epilepsy and is being treated at the NYC hospital.
– ContactMusic.com
★ Marvin Gaye’s kids have lost their bid for $3 million in legal fees from their lawsuit over “Blurred Lines”. While they were victorious in their 2015 court battle over the illegal sampling of their father’s hit “Got to Give It Up”, Nona & Frankie Gaye have now been told Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams will not be covering the big legal bill. The suit’s $7.4 million verdict was trimmed down to $5.3 million just before the defendants appealed the ruling. An appellate court is yet to rule on that appeal. The judge says the Gayes are entitled to some fee reimbursement, but an exact figure is yet to be determined.
– “Hollywood Reporter”

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “American Grit” (Fox) – Serie premiere of a new military-inspired competition series starring the WWE’s John Cena who, alongside a group of military mentors, pushes contestants to either persevere or give up.
• “Bones” (FOX) –  Debut of the 2nd half of the 11th and final season. The long-running procedural stars Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz.
• “Conan” (TBS/CTV) – Eagles of Death Metal (“Zipper Down”).
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/CityTV) – Anderson Paak f/Schoolboy Q (“Malibu”).
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – Luxxury (“Hold On/Take It Slow”). Rerun.
• “Late Late Show With James Corden” (CBS/M3) – Demi Lovato (“Confident”). Rerun.
• “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS/Global) – Wilco (“Star Wars”). Rerun.
• “Orphan Black” (BBC America/Space) – Season 4 premiere, followed by the new after-show analysis program “After the Black”. The Canadian sci-fi series stars Tatiana Maslany as various characters who are clones.
• “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV2) – Future (“EVOL”).

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Adele – A new International Federation Of the Phonographic Industry report says her album “25” sold 17.4 million units worldwide in 2015, despite only coming out in late November. That means it outsold Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Sam Smith … put together.
• Beyoncé – Today her new line of workout clothes called Ivy Park hits stores. On the official Ivy Park website, the clothing line is described as “merging fashion-led design with technical innovation, creating a new kind of performance wear”.
• Kanye West – He stunned locals on the remote Isle of Skye in Scotland when he arrived to shoot a music video on the weekend. The rapper stayed at the Skeabost House Hotel in Skeabost Bridge with his stylist and production team while they filmed footage for his next single “Waves”, from his new album “The Life of Pablo”.
• Kendrick Lamar – He’s on NBA superstar Kobe Bryant’s swan song video. Lamar narrated the ESPN video compilation of Bryant’s greatest career moments and music from his recently released album “Untitled Unmastered” is included. Officially, the most expensive ticket for last night’s game in LA was $5,741, but courtside seats were going for up to $28,000 on the secondary market.
• Kesha – There are rumors she’ll be performing at Coachella in Indio CA this weekend. Celeb site X17online.com says she’s set to make a surprise performance but fails to determine if it’s with another artist or on her own. For sure her name has been added to the “Dylan Fest” celebration of folk-rock legend Bob Dylan’s birthday May 23rd-24th in Nashville TN.
• Merle Haggard – The late country icon’s life is set to be adapted for the bigscreen. GMH Productions have secured rights to “Done It All”, a script named after Haggard’s hit song, which details his early days of poverty and crime, then his subsequent rise to fame.
• One Direction – Harry Styles is reportedly joining fellow cast and crew members of Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” movie to live aboard a WW2 navy ship in preparation for his first big Hollywood role. Producers are trying to make life on board as realistic as possible.
• Rihanna – Director Peter Berg is set to helm “Rihanna”, a documentary which follows her career and chronicles her background. RiRi appeared in Berg’s 2012 movie flop “Battleship”. A release date for the new film has yet to be revealed.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:
A BS selection of movies in the making …
• “Batman” – Warner Bros says Ben Affleck’s stand-alone ‘Batman’ film is a go. The actor will star in and direct the film for which he’s already penned the script. “Batman v Superman”, in which Affleck first donned the superhero’s cape, has grossed nearly $800 million to date despite a steep decline following its record opening.
• “Battle Of the Sexes” – Steve Carell and Emma Stone star in this ripped-from-the-headlines story of the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. Alan Cumming has also now joined the cast, playing Ted Tinling, an openly gay tennis player who designed King’s dress for the big showdown and was a confidante when King later came out as a lesbian.
• “God Particle” – David Oyelowo (“Selma”) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (“Concussion”) star in this JJ Abrams sci-fi project that follows a team of astronauts who make a terrifying discovery that challenges everything they know about reality. John Krasinski is currently in talks to play another member of the team. The project will be directed by Julius Onah.
• “Groove Tails” – Hitmaker Timbaland is in talks to join Jamie Foxx’s new animated movie as the executive music producer. The film stars Foxx as a mouse forced to compete as a street dancer to pay off a hefty cheese debt. Timbaland has been asked to compile the score for the family film. They previously worked together on Foxx’s 2009 track “I Don’t Need It”.
• “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” – There are strong hints that Colin Firth will be back to star in Matthew Vaughn’s sequel to his 2014 action spy hit. Elton John in also talks to join the cast, which already includes Taron Egerton, Julianne Moore, and Halle Berry. It is unclear what role Elton would have, although he could be playing himself.

GETTING MARRIED TODAY?
Pricey nuptials are giving rise to weekday weddings. Costs can be a third cheaper when weddings are held on a Thursday instead of a Saturday. In the UK, for instance, 22,000 weddings took place on a Thursday last year, about 6,000 more than 2008. Insurance data backs the finding, showing a 43% increase for next year among couples who’ve taken out policies for Thursday weddings. With many venues and wedding suppliers booking up months or even years in advance, a Thursday wedding can also give wedding planning couples a better chance of booking their first choice vendors. The new trend is happening in spite of the fact that couples are essentially asking their guests to take off work to attend a wedding just so they can save money. (That’s not half as demanding as booking a Caribbean destination wedding that costs guests thousands.)
– “The Times”

FAVORITE DAYS OF THE WEEK FOR SEX:
According to a survey of 1,000 married people by IllicitEncounters.com …
Saturday (42%)
Sunday (26%)
Friday (22%)
Wednesday (4%)
Thursday (3%)
Tuesday (2%)
Monday (1%)
– Metro.co.uk

TIMBERTECTURE:
London UK architects are designing an 80-story skyscraper … made of wood. The skyscraper would use sustainable wood grown in so-called “crop forests” as one of its primary building materials. The idea is to simultaneously create a structure from renewable resources and reduce construction costs. The project is extremely ambitious: Currently, the world’s tallest timber building – an apartment block in Norway – is a mere 14 stories tall. However, the research team is extremely optimistic. They believe their design will be architecturally elegant, as well as safer and more fireproof than many other structures in London. (Uh, fireproof?)
NET: http://tinyurl.com/zefknr8
– MentalFloss.com

WHO LET ONE?
Is the person who smelt it really the one who dealt it? A team of researchers from Tianjin University in China is close to an answer. The group recently took home China’s tongue-in-cheek Pineapple Science Award for creating a device capable of detecting … the origin of a fart. The Odor Source Localization (OSL) behind the mechanism locates an odor plume and uses plume-tracing strategy to collect more information about the source. The data collected by the robot is than exploited by a particle filter-based OSL algorithm to estimate the location of the odor source in real time. The technology was originally meant to be used in robots built to detect and fix toxic gas leaks. (Well thank goodness they’ve found a practical use for it.)
– Xinhua News Agency

BS AMAZING DRIVING FACTS:
• You can be given lines to write out for driving offences in Vietnam. (“I will not pass on the right. I will not …”)
– BBC News
• People convicted of DUI during the current 2-week Songkran Festival in Thailand are being sentenced to community service … in a morgue. (Pass the toe tags, please.)
– Newser.com

BS CHRONOMETER 04.14.16

TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1932 [84] Loretta Lynn, Butcher Hollow KY, legendary country singer who’s still recording (“Full Circle” 2016)/most awarded female country recording artist in history

1961 [55] Robert Carlyle, Glasgow, Scotland, movie actor (“Trainspotting”, “The Full Monty”)TV actor (“Once Upon a Time” since 2011)  COMING UP: “Trainspotting 2”, now filming.

1973 [43] Adrien Brody, NYC, movie actor (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”, “The Pianist”)/TV actor (“Houdini” 2014)

1977 [39] Sarah Michelle Gellar, NYC, TV actress (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” 1997-2003)/movie actress (“Cruel Intentions”)  UP NEXT: Reprises her role as ‘Kathryn Merteuil’ in a new TV version of “Cruel Intentions”.

1980 [36] Win Butler (Edwin Farnham Butler III), Truckee CA, indie rock singer (Arcade Fire-“Reflektor”, “Keep the Car Running”)

1993 [23] Graham Phillips, Laguna Beach CA, TV actor (‘Zach Florrick’ on “The Good Wife” since 2009)

1996 [20] Abigail Breslin, NYC, TV actress (‘Chanel #5’ on “Scream Queens” since 2015)/movie actress (“Little Miss Sunshine”)

TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Black Day”, an observance original to South Korea where those who have not found love dress in dark colors and commiserate over meals of black food, with the dish of choice being Chinese-style noodles topped with a thick sauce of black bean paste.

• “Dolphin Day”, established in the 1990s to focus on the worldwide plight of dolphins.

• “International Moment of Laughter Day”, a day to take the time to experience the power of laughter. Ha!

• “New Year Festival” in South and Southeast Asian cultures (Cambodia, Laos, India, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, etc), celebrated on what’s called the Sidereal Vernal Equinox (part of Hindu astrology).

• “Pan American Day”, celebrated annually as a symbol of the American continental community. The date marks the 1890 founding of the organization representing North, Central, and South American countries. It’s most recent conference was hosted by Panama City.
NET: http://tinyurl.com/ks7d352

• “Pathologists Assistant Day”, the 3rd annual celebration of those who assist distinct but inter-related medical specialties which diagnose disease through the analysis of tissue, cell, and body fluid samples. Icky.

• “Titanic Disaster Anniversary”. Shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912 the ship collided with an iceberg causing it to sink at 2:20 am on April 15th.

THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
1997 [19] TV star Ellen DeGeneres reveals she’s a lesbian in an interview with “TIME” magazine (Quote: “Yup, I’m gay.”)

TODAY’S MUSIC EVENTS . . .
2013 [02] Justin Bieber causes outrage after writing a message in the guest book at Amsterdam’s Anne Frank Museum, stating he hoped the Holocaust victim would have been a ‘belieber’

2015 [01] Soul singer Percy Sledge (“When a Man Loves a Woman”) dies of liver cancer at age 74

TODAY’S FIRST . . .
2013 [02] Liberal Party of Canada choses Justin Trudeau, son of former PM Pierre Trudeau, as its new leader (he becomes Prime Minister November 4, 2015)

TODAY’S RECORDS . . .
1960 [56] NHL’s Montréal Canadiens defeat Toronto Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup for a record 5th year in-a-row

2002 [14] Tiger Woods wins his 3rd Masters golf title, becoming only the 2nd player ever to win 2 in-a-row (alongside Jack Nicklaus)

AND REMEMBER . . .
[Fri] “Barbershop: The Next Cut”; “The Jungle Book” open in movie theaters
[Fri] Income Tax Pay Day (USA)
[Sat] Record Store Day
[Sat] Auctioneers Day
[Sat] Husband Appreciation Day
This Week Is … Health Information Privacy & Security Week
This Month Is … Parkinson’s Awareness Month

BULL’S BITS

REAL BUT REALLY WEIRD BS PLACENAMES:
Te Puke, New Zealand
Nothing, Arizona
Å, Norway
Punkeydoodles Corner, Ontario
Ganja, Azerbaijan
Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha!, Québec
Bitchfield, England
No Name, Colorado
Bastardstown, Ireland
Intercourse, Pennsylvania
Batman, Turkey
[NSW] Beaverlick, Kentucky
– Adapted from List25.com

BS PHONE STARTER:
☎ What outmoded skill deserves a comeback? (Thank-you notes? Table manners? Cursive writing?)

BS RANDOM JOKE:
On the surface, it appears that very little is happening … but underneath, nothing is happening.

BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question: The average person knows 2 people in high school who had THIS.
Answer: A ‘unibrow’.

BS DEEP THOUGHT:
How you live each day is how you live your life.