Monday, April 5, 2021 — Edition: #6958
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BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
★ “Friends” star David Schwimmer has confirmed that he will be shooting the hugely anticipated cast reunion this week in Los Angeles. The gang — Schwimmer plus Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and Matthew Perry — will reassemble on the same stage at the Warner Bros. lot where they filmed the sitcom for 10 seasons, from 1994 to 2004. They were originally scheduled to reunite much earlier, but the project, titled “The One Where They Got Back Together,” which was announced in November 2019, was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
-Yahoo
★ Princess Diana’s former stomping grounds are officially a part of British history. The charity English Heritage has announced that it will honor the late Duchess of Cornwall with a “blue plaque,” which is a 155-year-old tradition that pays tribute to notable Britons. The blue markers, which began in 1866, link notable people of the past to buildings where they lived and worked.
-NYDailyNews
★ Armie Hammer has dropped out of a Broadway production of the play “The Minutes,” which was scheduled to reopen at the Steppenwolf Theatre in 2022. Hammer is leaving the project following accusations of sexual assault against him. He is the subject of an investigation by the LAPD. In a statement, he said: “I have loved every single second of working on ‘The Minutes’ with the family I made from Steppenwolf. But right now, I need to focus on myself and my health for the sake of my family.”
-TheWrap
★ “Duck Dynasty” stars Willie and Korie Robertson are taking viewers inside their home as they address hot topics in culture with their new Facebook Watch talk show “At Home With the Robertsons”. The new series, premiering today, will also feature some Duck Dynasty family moments, as three generations of Robertsons, from Sadie to Uncle Si, join the conversation and share their own thoughts on what the celebrity guests had to say.
-PopCulture
TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/Global): David Alan Grier, Topher Grace, All Time Low
• “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV): Milo Ventimiglia, the Lucas Brothers, Kali Uchis
• “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS/Global): John Cena, Sen. Tammy Duckworth
• “Late Night with Seth Meyers” (NBC/CTV): Don Johnson, Christina Hendricks, Fruit Bats, John Herndon (R)
• ” The Late Late Show with James Corden” (CBS/CTV): Bob Odenkirk, the Fratellis
• “Conan” (TBS): Will Forte
• “Watch What Happens Live” (Bravo): Daisy Kelliher, Jean-Luc Cerza Lanaux
• “The View” (ABC/CTV): Dr. Vivek H. Murthy
• “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (NBC/CTV): John Cena, Danielle Brooks
• “The Kelly Clarkson Show” (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS): Kelsea Ballerini, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Bianca Belair, Katharine McPhee Foster
• “The Drew Barrymore Show” (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS): Brene Brown, Pilar Valdes, Michele Lee, Zanna Roberts Rassi, Christopher Freimuth
• “Hemingway” (PBS): Part 1 of 3. A 6-hour documentary tracing the life of author Ernest Hemingway.
• “American Idol” (ABC): All Star Duets and Solos
• “The Voice” (NBC): The battle rounds continue as the coaches enlist Luis Fonsi, Dan + Shay, Brandy and Darren Criss to prepare their artists to go head-to-head in hopes of advancing to the knockouts.
• “NCAA Basketball Tournament” (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS): Championship game at 9pm ET
BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Miley Cyrus — has teamed up with Cash App to hand out $1 million in stock to fans through April 13. She announced the stock fire sale in an Instagram post in which she pretended to bite down on a fat stack of cash, and wrote: “Nothing is more important than investing in yourself.” The initiative also celebrates the 15-year anniversary of her show “Hannah Montana”.
• Taylor Swift – The re-recorded version of her 2008 album “Fearless”, named “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” drops this Friday, and will feature six new songs. On Friday, she shared the track list of previously unreleased material, which seemingly includes a collaboration with Keith Urban.
• DMX — was hospitalized Friday night after suffering a heart attack that was triggered by an apparent drug overdose. The 50-year-old has battled substance abuse for years, last checking into rehab in October 2019. According to a report, doctors have cautioned that he “may not make it”.
• The Killers – Their hit ‘Mr. Brightside’ has now spent a total of five years in the UK Top 100. It was first released in 2003 and has now become the only song in the history of the Official UK Singles Chart to spend 260 weeks – a whopping five years – in the top 100.
• Black Keys — Patrick Carney will fill in for longtime Cleveland Indians ballpark fixture John Adams, known as “the drummer,” at the team’s home opener today. Adams has been pounding on his bass drum from the outfield bleachers at Indians games since 1973, but is currently recovering from heart surgery.
• Paul Simon – is the latest big-name to sell his song catalogue. He has handed over his entire collection of songs to Sony Music Publishing for an undisclosed sum, giving them rights to six decades of hits, including most of his Simon & Garfunkel tunes.
• Blake Shelton – told TODAY’s Heidi Kotb that he and Gwen Stefani hope to be married this summer. His new album “Body Language” will be released on May 21.
• Chase Rice – After taking a year off, which he says inspired “an insane amount of music”, he plans to release 15-20 new songs this year. “The Album Pt. II” will be out “in the next month or so”, and another full album “hopefully” by fall. He has recorded a new song with Colbie Caillat that he says “may be one of the best songs I’ve ever recorded.”
• Alan Jackson — will release his first album of all-new music in six years, “Where Have You Gone,” on May 14. It will contain 21 songs, 15 of them written by Jackson.
SHOOTING THE BULL
NEW NEWSFEED:
Facebook has announced that it is allowing users to choose between seeing their newsfeed according to the current the algorithmic system, or the full feed arranged in reverse chronological order. The company has announced the “News Feed Filter Bar” option, which makes it easier for users to switch between the regular News Feed, curated by Facebook’s notorious algorithm, and either a ‘Favorites’ or ‘Recent’ listing of posts, the latter of which is pretty much a reverse-chronological feed. Favorites allows users to select up to 30 friends and pages to include in your priority listing, with posts from those that you choose then highlighted with a badge. According to Facebook, these changes will give Facebookers better control of their relationship with the algorithm, and help cut down on divisive content.
(If now we’re supposed to pick our 30 favorite friends, I’ve got a feeling there are a lot of people who won’t be seeing the “likes” of me ever again!)
(Is there a way I can make it stop showing me ads for products aimed at people WAAAY older than me, or is that an algorithm thing too?)
(I’ll be happy if it just lets me avoid seeing posts from my crazy Uncle Larry!)
-WallStreetJournal, SocialMediaToday
THE MOMENT OF TOOTH:
Scientists say they have found a way to regrow lost and broken teeth. A team of researchers in Japan have published an article in “Science Advances”, which describes how they genetically modified mice to suffer from tooth agenesis, where some teeth fail to develop. Injecting pregnant mice with an antibody called USAG-1, however, resulted in normal tooth development among their offspring. And a single administration of the antibody caused the growth of a whole new tooth in regular mice. The antibody works by increasing the availability of certain growth factors, and could eventually be used to help people grow a whole new set of pearly whites.
(Sure, they come up with this NOW, after I just paid $10,000 for my kid’s braces…)
(NOW how are we going to be able to tell who plays hockey?)
(Good. Because trying to get my kids to go to the dentist is like pulling teeth…)
-IFLScience, Yahoo
RUSSIAN ROULETTE:
The Russian Emergencies Ministry has been forced to issue a warning about the danger of getting too close to an erupting volcano, after photos and videos of daredevils standing next to a lava-filled crater started showing up online. Klyuchevskaya Sopka, an active volcano in the Russian Far East, recently became a hotspot for adrenalin-seeking tourists, as the formation of a second volcano hole allowed them to get close enough to actually cook meat on the hot rock surrounding the erupting volcano. But while the trend may have started with funny pics and videos of sausages sizzling on a natural stove made of volcanic rock, concern grew with people getting close enough to the cone to film inside it, completely disregarding the lava bombs shooting out of it. Kamchatka’s Emergency Minister said: “Rescuers once again remind that a volcanic eruption is an extremely dangerous phenomenon for humans.”
(I’m pretty sure most of them aren’t concerned about social-distancing, either…)
(On the other hand, at least they know that if there’s an accident, they’ll be “covered”…)
-OddityCentral
WORDS COINED BY CELEBRITIES:
➢ “Smize”: Tyra Banks introduced the concept of “smiling with your eyes” during her reign as host and producer of “America’s Next Top Model.” (The opposite, used to describe frowning with your eyes, never caught on, mostly because: Who frowns when someone says “fries”?)
➢ “Truthiness”: Stephen Colbert coined this tongue-in-cheek term in the pilot episode of “The Colbert Report” in 2005. It is used to describe politicians who try to pass off gut feelings, intuitions, or preferences as fact. (That happens?)
➢ “Amazeballs”: Celeb blogger Perez Hilton gets credit for bringing this combination of ‘amazing’ and, well, ‘balls’ into the mainstream. It was added to the Collins Dictionary in 2012 with the definition of “an expression of enthusiastic approval.”
➢ “EVOO”: Extra virgin olive oil is such a staple that it deserves its own nickname. Like RSVP or YOLO (the latter of which was promoted by Drake), EVOO is now considered a standalone word, thanks to cooking show host Rachael Ray’s love for it. (Although, to give credit where it’s due, long before that, my college buddies called me “EV”. You figure it out…)
➢ “Covfefe”: It’s a word that US President Donald Trump used in a 2017 viral tweet, which instantly became an Internet meme. (We think he meant “coverage,” but I still have no idea what he meant by “hamberders”.)
-WordGenius
DID YOU KNOW?
Florida-based plane maker Aerion plans to make it possible to jet between Los Angeles and Tokyo in under three hours. Its new Aerion AS3 is a Mach 4+ commercial airliner that it says can carry 50 passengers at a range of 7,000 nautical miles. Aerion calls that a “starting point” toward its vision of “a future where humanity can travel between any two points on our planet within three hours.” (Plus 3 hours at the airport…)
-CNN
BS CHRONOMETER 04.05.21
TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1950 [71] Agnetha Fältskog, Jönköping, Sweden, pop singer (ABBA-‘Waterloo’, ‘Dancing Queen’)
1952 [69] Mitch Pileggi, Portland OR, TV actor (“Walter Skinner” on “X-Files” 1994-2002, 2016-18)
1966 [55] Mike McCready, Pensacola FL, rock guitarist (Pearl Jam-‘Jeremy’, ‘Last Kiss’)
1973 [48] Pharrell Williams, Virginia Beach VA, pop singer (‘Happy’, w/Daft Punk-‘Get Lucky’)/music producer (Gwen Stefani, Jay-Z, Nelly, Usher, etc)/TV personality (‘The Voice’ 2014-16)
1976 [45] Sterling K. Brown, St. Louis MO, TV actor (“This Is Us” since 2016)/movie actor (“Black Panther”)
1981 [40] Mike Eli, Denton TX, country singer-guitarist (Eli Young Band-‘Drunk Last Night’, ‘Crazy Girl’)
TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Easter Monday”, celebrated in many ways in many places, including …
– In Canada, it’s a federal government holiday and a school holiday, in most areas.
– In the rural northwest of Switzerland, the annual Easter Monday “Egg Races” are held. Competitors attempt to carry the most eggs while running from village-to-village.
– In Washington DC, it’s the annual “Easter Egg Roll” on the south lawn of the White House, a custom which started on the US Capitol grounds about 1810 and was moved to the White House by President Rutherford B Hayes in 1877. (It’s canceled again this year, but there are online activities, including a virtual scavenger hunt, a digital jigsaw puzzle, and a way to design your own commemorative egg. LINK: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/white-house-easter-egg-roll-virtual-activities
– In Hallaton UK, they hold the ancient ritual of “Bottle Kicking”, an Easter Monday tradition for over 600 years. How appropriate they try to ‘kick the bottle’ during Alcohol Awareness Month!
– In Poland, it’s “Dyngus Day” (Wet Monday), a day of fun after Easter when guys attempt to drench girls with water using pails, squirt guns, etc. The more gallant boys may substitute cologne. Females get their revenge the day after, when tradition has it, they throw dishes or crockery back at the boys.
• “Dandelion Day”, No one is really sure why, no one is really sure who came up with it, but it’s Dandelion Day. So, rub one under someone’s chin and mourn the fact that Crayola has retired the ‘dandelion’ crayon!
• “Deep Dish Pizza Day”, celebrating the creation of Chicago’s Uno Chicago Grill, which opened in 1943. Why deep dish? Because you can’t possibly get enough fat-laden cheese and sausage onto a regular pie to cause a proper cardiac arrest.
• “Go For Broke Day”, a day to throw caution to the wind and go all out, give it all you’ve got, don’t hold back, give it all or nothing, start giving 110%, let ’er rip, balls to the wall! (Now I need a nap…)
• “Road Map Day”, which promotes map reading as an ‘enjoyable pastime’ and survival skill. (A friend of mine always helps me out with maps and diagrams, pointing out all the little symbols and what they mean. The guy is a legend!)
• “Bell Bottoms Day”, you’ll notice this is NOT held in conjunction with “Ride Your Bike Day”.
COMING UP . . .
[Tues] Drowsy Drivers Awareness Day
[Tues] Twinkie Day
[Wed] Empowered Women Entrepreneurs Day
[Wed] International Beaver Day
This Week Is…Library Week
This Month Is…Alcohol Awareness Month
THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
1987 [34] The FOX TV network debuts, originally offering just 2 Sunday night programs: “Married … With Children” (runs 10 years) and the “Tracey Ullman Show” (original platform for “The Simpsons”)
2008 [13] Movie icon Charlton Heston (“Ben-Hur”) dies at age 84 in Beverly Hills CA
TODAY’S MUSIC EVENTS . . .
1994 [28] Kurt Cobain of Nirvana kills himself with a shotgun at age 27. His body isn’t discovered until three days later when an electrician enters his home to install an alarm
2002 [19] Singer Layne Staley of Alice in Chains dies at age 34 of a drug overdose
TODAY’S FIRSTS . . .
1993 [29] The first female PA announcer at a Major League Baseball park (Sherry Davis wins the San Francisco Giants job over 499 others who audition)
2008 [13] Apple’s iTunes overtakes Walmart to become the largest music retailer
TODAY’S LAST . . .
2017 [04] A Pepsi ad featuring Kendall Jenner is pulled after being criticized for trivializing demonstrations
TODAY’S RECORD . . .
2000 [21] ‘Loudest Burp’ on record occurs when Paul Hunn lets one fly that registers 118.1 decibels, the equivalent of sitting in the front row at a rock concert
BULL’S BITS
BS WHACK FACTS:
✓ Michael Jordan once turned down a $1 million endorsement because he didn’t want to say the name of the product — “Beanee Weenees” pork and beans.
✓ As a teenager, Christopher Walken worked as a lion tamer for a circus.
✓ Halle Berry was named after a department store.
✓ Martin Luther King, Jr. was a huge “Star Trek” fan.
✓ Michael J. Fox’s middle name doesn’t start with a “J.” It’s Andrew.
✓ Madonna launched a skincare line called MDNA Skin, and it includes a $600 clay facemask, which she uses on her butt!
-Ranker, BuzzFeed
Best of BS . . .
Baseball season is underway, so here are . . .
BS WARNING SIGNS YOUR BASEBALL TEAM IS REALLY BAD:
✗ Players routinely leave the game early to beat traffic.
✗ The mascot doubles as a starting outfielder.
✗ Your team name contains the words ‘Pittsburgh’ and ‘Pirates’.
✗ Regular spirited locker room debates about how many strikes to an out.
✗ Your cleanup hitter is 5-months-pregnant.
✗ Your 9 starters who made the ‘Performance Enhancing Drug All-Star Team’ have all been suspended.
✗ The team owner has changed team name to ‘Losers’.
-First published in BS in 2013
TODAY’S SCOOP OF BS:
➠ The 2021 MLB season is now underway. (. . . and [my team] stinks. They’re so bad, their games are being broadcast on Comedy Central.)
➠ NYC mortuary workers have been accused of stealing dead people’s credit cards. (It’s the newest form of ‘Crypto-Currency’!)
➠ The 56th Academy of Country Music Awards will be held April 18th. (And sadly, once the ACMs finish-up, there are only 78 more country music awards shows left this year…)
➠ Doctor’s claim that squeezing a breast can actually help prevent breast cancer cells from growing. (Maybe, but I’ll let YOU explain that to your son’s first grade teacher!)
➠ A study claims that watching porn can lead to short-term memory loss. (In other news, there’s a study claiming that watching porn can lead to short-term memory loss…)
BS U-PICK TRIVIA:
• Which is NOT a spice?
a) Goldenrod
b) Curry
c) Salt [CORRECT. It is a seasoning. It’s also the only rock that humans eat.)
d) Saffron
• What part of the plant is cinnamon?
a) Seeds
b) Root
c) Bark [CORRECT]
d) Fruit
• How many spices are combined to make “allspice”?
a) 1 [CORRECT]
b) 5
c) 8
d) 1,256
BS WEB GOODIE:
If husbands were toddlers: https://tinyurl.com/eju59hxc
BS RANDOM JOKE:
I came up with a new word yesterday: Plagiarism.
BS PHONE STARTER:
What, as an adult, do you still need to hide from your parents?
BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question: Women are twice as likely as men to daydream about THIS. What is it?
Answer: Quitting their job
BS DEEP THOUGHT:
Go as far as you can see. When you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.
