Thursday, August 22, 2024 – Edition: #7777
Deja Moo!
BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
★ Ben Affleck has been spotted for the first time since Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce. He stepped out without his wedding ring as he headed to an office building in Los Angeles, on Tuesday, after news broke of J-Lo’s divorce filing. Affleck was photographed walking in the parking lot of the building while wearing a gray T-shirt, jeans and black-tinted sunglasses. He has been spotted on several other occasions at the same building in recent weeks, as he spent the summer apart from Lopez, amid reports of a split. She filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, without an attorney, and listed a separation date of April 26, 2024.
-People
★ A Victoria Beckham docuseries is in the works. Netflix has announced that it is in production on a project with the Spice Girls star, posting on X: “The series will follow her reinvention as a Creative Director of her own brand, offering exclusive access to Victoria, her fashion and beauty business, and her never-before-seen archives.” Victoria’s venture comes nearly a year after husband David Beckham launched his own docuseries “Beckham” with Netflix. That project, which featured the soccer star’s journey from the sports world to parenthood, not only sparked several viral moments, it also received 5 Emmy nominations.
-E!
★ Patrick J. Adams might be trading his suit in for a saddle, thanks to his new role in the “Yellowstone” spinoff series “The Madison”. Paramount has announced that Adams — who played ‘Mike Ross’ in the 2010s legal-dram “Suits”, has joined the cast of the latest Taylor Sheridan series. He’ll star as ‘Russell McIntosh’, a young investment banker. It was previously revealed that the upcoming spinoff has landed Michelle Pfeiffer as both star and executive producer.
-EW
★ Netflix has set September 19 for the premiere of “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”, the second installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology series. The streamer also released a teaser trailer, which opens with the words on-screen “On August 20, 1989 Lyle and Erik Menendez Murdered Their Parents,” as the 2 brothers drive up and walk in to the Menendez estate. As they open the door, a lone gunshot is heard. The series chronicles the case of the real-life brothers who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/ymwb3arz
-Deadline
★ Millie Bobby Brown is set to adapt her own novel “Nineteen Steps” into a feature film for Netflix. Best known for her role as ‘Eleven’ in “Stranger Things”, she released the novel in 2023, with the plot, inspired by her own family, following a teenager in 1940s Britain as they navigate both adolescence and wartime life. She is expected to both star in and produce the film.
-DigitalSpy
TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/Global): Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs, Gabby Thomas, Pepe Aguilar, guest host RuPaul
• “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV): Zoë Kravitz, Sabrina Carpenter
• “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS/Global): Live from Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre
• “After Midnight” (CBS/Global): Anna Faris, Melissa Villaseñor, Andy Richter (R)
• “Late Night with Seth Meyers” (NBC/CTV): Amy Poehler, Fred Armisen, Bob Mould
• “The Daily Show” (COM): Jon Stewart hosts “Indecision 2024” live from Chicago’s Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture
• “The View” (ABC/CTV): The Political View with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Jenn Tran (R)
• “The Talk” (CBS): Wayne Brady, Deborah Cox (R)
• “Live with Kelly and Mark” (ABC/CTV): Ariana DeBose, Cole Sprouse, Danai Gurira
• “The Kelly Clarkson Show” (Check local listings): Jean Smart, Nicholas Galitzine (R)
• “The Drew Barrymore Show” (Check local listings): Reba McEntire (R)
• “Jennifer Hudson Show” (Check local listings): Sherri Shepherd (R)
• “Big Brother” (CBS): Live. A houseguest is evicted and interviewed.
• “Democratic National Convention (Check local listings): From Chicago: coverage continues.
• “Bonds Will Be Broken” (LMN): A woman infiltrates a mysterious self-improvement cult to save her sister from its sinister leader.
• “The First 48” (A&E): When a home invasion leaves a father-to-be dead, Detective Dianna Baumann’s only hope for answers is a suspect fighting for his own life.
BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Avicii – His personal belongings are going up for auction to raise funds for the late DJ’s charity. The Tim Bergling Foundation was set up in memory of the dance music star – who took his own life at age 28 in 2018. The Avicii Collection sale, including his clothes and memorabilia, will take place on October 1 in Stockholm, with the option to bid online.
• Billie Eilish – is now Spotify’s most-streamed monthly artist. Spotify announced on Monday that Eilish currently has 100,105,704 monthly listeners, enough to take the title from The Weeknd. Eilish also has 8 songs that have racked up over a billion streams, which means fully 10% of her discography is among the most listened-to music in the world.
• Phil Collins – Had an awkward moment with the Queen. Craig Brown’s new book “A Voyage Around The Queen” tells the story of Collins whistling the theme from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, after speaking with Queen Elizabeth II at a formal gathering. She asked him, “What was that?” Collins was speechless, but a radio presenter nearby stepped in, joking: “He was calling ET, ma’am”.
• Foreigner – Just in time for their Rock Hall of Fame induction on Oct. 19, they have dropped the previously-unreleased song ‘Turning Back the Time’, featuring original and long-time singer Lou Gramm. A new career-spanning collection bearing the same title will drop on Oct. 4. The song was recorded in 1996. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/bddeam2j
• The Black Crowes — Now that they’re no longer opening for Aerosmith, they have added more dates to their upcoming “Happiness Bastards Tour”. 14 new shows have been added, including stops in New Orleans, St. Louis, Tulsa, San Antonio, Austin, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. They’ve also rescheduled a handful of dates. The tour kicks off Sept. 27 in Northfield, Ohio.
• Poison – Singer Brett Michaels is one of the interview guests who appear in the new trailer for the Paramount+ docuseries “Nöthin’ But A Good Time: The Uncensored Story Of ’80s Hair Metal”. The 3-part series will premiere September 17, and will also feature commentary from Stephen Pearcy (Ratt), Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), Dave “Snake” Sabo (Skid Row), Corey Taylor (Slipknot), and more. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/4zschmxv
• Shabozey – ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)’ is currently enjoying its 10th week at the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. That ties Beyoncé’s ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ for the longest run at #1 this year. The song is also at #1 on the Hot 100, for a 6th week.
• Miranda Lambert – says reached “a pretty high level of burnout” last year. In a podcast appearance, she said: “I didn’t realize what it was until I was like, ‘I think this is what they call burnout’” She wrapped up her Vegas residency last summer, and now recognizes that she needs to find a better “balance” in the future.
• Mickey Guyton – Her second album “House On Fire” will drop Sept. 27. She posted a reveal of the album’s cover and a snippet of the new song ‘My Side of the Country’, which will hit digital platforms tomorrow. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/57eea6vn
SHOOTING THE BULL
PET TALES:
The Insurance company Nationwide has announced the finalists for its “Hambone Award”, which celebrates the most unusual pet insurance claims of the year. The Hambone Award is named in honor of a dog who ate an entire holiday ham while stuck in a refrigerator. The company says its intention is “to shed light on the everyday and sometimes bizarre incidents that can befall our beloved pets.” This year’s finalists include:
• Archie, a New Jersey dog who injured his paws when he broke through a vintage plate glass door while trying to alert his family of the mail carrier’s arrival.
• Bear, a Pennsylvania corgi, who bit into a bottle of nail adhesive and glued his mouth shut.
• A New Jersey parrot named Clover whose growth spurt caused the toenails on her feet to hook together.
• A Florida dog named Irma who suffered from gastrointestinal issues that turned out to have been caused by eating metal wire pieces from a barbecue brush.
• A Virginia dog named Gordon who swallowed 2 large rocks from her owner’s garden.
• And Lambeau, a North Carolina dog who ate more than 250 jigsaw puzzle pieces.
All of the nominated pets are fine now, and the public is invited to vote on the Hambone Award. The winner will be announced Aug. 27.
(But when you think about it, really, are there any winners here?)
(I think we can do better. What “Hamboned” thing did your pet do?)
-UPI
DOING IT THE WRITE WAY:
Nowadays, it’s common for people to speak to their smart devices to make grocery lists – and students are more likely to takes notes in class on a computer than write them down. And how many of us keep track of appointments digitally, rather than on a paper calendar? It turns out, though, that using digital devices aren’t very effective at helping us remember things. A growing amount of research shows that handwriting stimulates specific brain connections that are very important in creating new memories. The most recent study was published earlier this year in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Researchers in Norway asked university students to write individual words either using a digital pen on a touchscreen or using a single finger to type — while measuring electrical activity in their brains. They found that brain connectivity patterns were far more elaborate and widespread for those who wrote by hand compared to those who typed. They concluded that the precisely-controlled hand movements that occur when writing lead to complex patterns in the brain that promote learning.
(Precisely-controlled hand movements? Obviously, these guys have never seen ME write!)
(Maybe so. But remembering where I left my pen? That’s a whole ‘nother story!)
-PsychologyToday
BAD START TO THE DAY:
Do you ever have one of those mornings when you just KNOW it’s going to be a bad day? Apparently a lot of us do, because according to a new survey, the average person knows they’re in for a tough time by 8:36am. The poll of 2,000 Americans also found that the average person endures 4 bad days per month, which totals 48 days — or a month and a half — of bad days each year. The poll also found that for just over one-quarter of us, when something goes sideways in the morning, it seems like the day is completely lost. Here are the top-5 morning “incidents” that mean a bad day is on the way…
1. Waking up feeling sick (35%)
2. Sleeping poorly throughout the night (31%)
3. Waking up with a headache (29%)
4. Losing keys (26%)
5. Forgetting phone at home (25%)
Other common signs of a bad day include running out of toilet paper (22%), forgetting a wallet (22%), and oversleeping (18%).
(That’s strange. For me, oversleeping is the start to a PERFECT day!)
(The way things have been going lately, it’s not unusual for me to have had 4 bad days by 8:36 in the morning!)
-StudyFinds
STATE FAIR FUN:
It’s State Fair season in the USA! And while they may have originated as a way to buy and sell agricultural products, they’ve since grown to encompass some of the oddest, quirkiest, and most wholesome competitions. Here are a few you’re unlikely to find anywhere else…
★ The mullet competition: Several state fairs feature this hair-raising event, including in Indiana and Illinois. According to the official USA Mullet Championship, judges consider 4 criteria: length, style, uniqueness…and showmanship?
★ The husband calling competition: In this one, well, the title says it all. Some repeatedly yell their husband’s name, while others adopt a more artistic yodel. (You may have seen it on TikTok…or at the local grocery store!)
★ The grocery bagging competition: This is a fav at the South Dakota State Fair. To be eligible, contestants must hold a job where they spend at least 40% of their time bagging groceries. Points are awarded based on speed, technique, weight distribution between bags, style, attitude, and appearance.
★ Pet Rock Olympics: This Colorado State Fair event is broken into 2 categories: best dressed and farthest roller. And for one family, the competition is a tradition that spans 3 generations. (3 VERY BORING generations…)
★ The skillet toss and anvil throw: The goal of this competition, at the Fryeburg Fair in Maine, is to throw the iron objects as far and straight as possible without going out of bounds. Women toss a cast iron skillet — men throw an anvil. (It one of the few competitions where the spectators wear a helmet!)
(I’m pretty sure that a US state fair is also the only place you can still see the equally-redneck event of a Ted Nugent concert…if you’re into that kind of thing!)
-MorningBrew
DID YOU KNOW?
Just in case you need it, Zoom has announced that you can now hop on a video call with up to one million participants. This was after various political groups used the video conferencing platform to raise money for US Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign. The company now offers various tiers for webinar calls that feature max capacities of 10,000 connections — through to one million attendees — for a price. Booking a one-time webinar for a million people will cost you a cool $100,000. (That’s a lot of “Can you hear me’s”!)
-Engadget
BS CHRONOMETER 08.22.24
TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Eat a Peach Day”. The best way to eat a peach is while standing under a peach tree, immediately after picking it, with the juice running down your arm.
• “Southern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo Day”, a time for everyone Down Under to go outdoors at noon and yell ‘Hoodie-Hoo!’ to chase away Winter, and make ready for Spring.
• “Tooth Fairy Day”, honoring the tradition of bartering molars for moolah. Where’s it come from? No one knows for sure, but there was a fairy tale in 18th-Century France about a ‘tooth mouse’ who hides under a pillow. The tooth fairy, as we now know her, first appeared in the early 1900s. So how much is she paying for prime enamel these days?
• “Bao Day”. At first, one might consider it to be just a simple steamed bun. Dumplings aside, this is the flavorful Chinese dough used to make bāozi, or bao, and is stuffed with savory meats or sweets.
• “Be an Angel Day”, encouraging us to become someone’s angel of sorts. Whether it is a grand gesture (like sponsoring someone’s education) or small (simply saying ‘thank you’), a good gesture goes a long way towards sending goodwill out into the world.
• “Pecan Torte Day”. Do you know these ‘Pecan Fast Facts’? No peekin’. . .
→ Pecans provide nearly 10% of the recommended Daily Value for zinc. If the body doesn’t get enough zinc, it may have difficulty producing testosterone – key for sexual desire in both men and women.
→ Pecan trees usually range in height from 70-100 feet, but some grow 150 feet (46m) or higher.
→ It would take 11,624 pecans, stacked end to end, to reach the top of the Empire State Building.
→ Texas adopted the pecan tree as its state tree in 1919. In fact, Governor James Hogg liked pecan trees so much that he asked for one to be planted at his gravesite when he died.
→ Albany, Georgia, which boasts more than 600,000 pecan trees, is the pecan capital of the US. Albany hosts the annual National Pecan Festival, which includes a race, parade, pecan-cooking contest, and the crowning of the National Pecan Queen.
AND REMEMBER . . .
[Fri] Sponge Cake Day
[Fri] Hug Your Sweetheart Day
[Sat] Waffle Day
[Sun] Kiss and Make Up Day
This Month is…Water Quality Month
This Month is…Goat Cheese Month
TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1945 [79] Steve Kroft, Kokomo IN, retired broadcast journalist (“60 Minutes” 1989-2019)/9 Emmys
1961 [63] Roland Orzabal, Portsmouth England, pop singer/guitarist-keyboardist (Tears for Fears-‘Shout’, ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’)
1963 [61] (Myra) ‘Tori’ Amos, Newton NC, alt-rock singer (‘God’, ‘Caught a Lite Sneeze’)
1967 [57] Ty Burrell, Grants Pass OR, TV actor (‘Phil Dunphy’ on “Modern Family” 2009-2020)/movie actor (“Dawn of the Dead” [2004], “The Incredible Hulk”)
1970 [54] Giada DeLaurentiis, Rome Italy, TV chef (“Giada at Home”)/Culinary Hall of Fame, 2012
1972 [52] Paul Doucette, North Huntington PA, rock guitarist (Matchbox Twenty-‘3A.M.’, ‘Unwell’)
1973 [51] Howie Dorough, Orlando FL, pop singer (Backstreet Boys-‘I Want It That Way’)
1973 [51] Kristen Wiig, Canandaigua NY, movie actress (“Bridesmaids”, Ghostbusters” [2016])/TV comic (“Saturday Night Live” 2005-12)
1978 [46] James Corden, London England, comedian/TV host (“The Late Late Show” 2015-2023, 2-time “Tony Awards” host, 2-time Grammys host)/stage actor (2012 Tony for “One Man, Two Guvnors”)/TV actor (“Gavin & Stacey”)/Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 2015. COMING UP . . . “The Smurfs Movie”, 2025
1995 [29] Dua Lipa, London England, pop singer (‘Don’t Start Now’, ‘Dance the Night’)
THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
2006 [18] Paramount Pictures severs all ties with Tom Cruise after 14 years, citing ‘bizarre antics’ (sofa-jumping on “Oprah”) and ‘erratic behavior’ off-screen (BS translation: Scientology) They later reconsider.
2018 [06] Forbes says George Clooney has made more money in a single year than any actor ever at the time ($239 million), mostly due to sale of his tequila company.
TODAY’S MUSIC EVENTS . . .
2012 [12] LL Cool J confronts a burglar at his LA home. One broken nose, jaw, and rib later, Cool J had subdued the intruder, then police took the suspect into custody. (No word on whether LL quoted ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ during the altercation)
2020 [04] ‘WAP’ by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion hits #1 in the US, becoming the most sexually explicit song ever to top the chart. It’s bumped off 2 weeks later by a wholesome slice of K-pop: ‘Dynamite’ by BTS.
TODAY’S FIRST . . .
1989 [35] British Telecom unveils the world’s first ‘Pocket Phone’ (It wasn’t a smartphone yet, but it was definitely a status symbol!)
TODAY’S RECORD . . .
2007 [17] Texas Rangers rout Baltimore Orioles 30-3, the most runs scored by one team in a modern Major League Baseball game.
BULL’S BITS
BS WHACK FACTS:
✓ Your brain uses only about one-tenth of a calorie per minute.
✓ One trait of intelligent people is being easily annoyed by others, but saying nothing in order to avoid a meaningless argument.
✓ At any point in time, the overall energy being used by Google for searches could power 200,000 homes.
✓ It took Leonardo da Vinci 12 years just to paint Mona Lisa’s lips.
✓ Mushroom clouds can be created by any huge explosion.
✓ The average North American lives 13 years longer than the average celebrity.
✓ The inventor of the television banned it from his home.
–TheBathroomReadersInstitute, TheFactSite
Best of BS . . .
COMPLAINTS OF MODERN-DAY PIRATES:
• Girls expect us all to look like Jack Sparrow.
• Can’t use a smartphone with my hook.
• All the looting and pillaging is done on Wall Street now.
• Being swiped left on, on ‘Shiver me Tinders’.
• Feel that use of the name ‘Arrrrby’s’ is cultural appropriation.
• A buccaneer is too much to pay for corn, damn it!
• No Wi-Fi is the new scurvy.
• Having to wait in line for a personal watercraft sticker.
• I feel ‘Meh’, not ‘Arrrrrr!’
• Not getting enough booty.
-Twitter, first published in BS in 2018
BS THINGS NEVER SAID ON STAR TREK:
• “Transporters are working perfectly fine and I’ll be able to resolve the problem shortly”
• “Have you tried switching it off and on again?”
• “Beam me sideways, Scottie.”
• “Sorry Captain but you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
• “Don’t you know about the bird, Spock?” “Yes. Logic dictates that bird is undoubtedly “the word”, Jim.
• “If you would have gone to LUDICROUS speed, we’d have been there by now.”
• “I’m really glad we actually stuck to the prime directive this time and just left the planet without incident”.
• “We’re going to build a wall! It will be YUGE! And the Romulans will pay for it!”
• “If you like it then you shoulda put a Klingon it.”
-Twitter, first published in BS in 2017
BE WEB GOODIE:
Makes me laugh every time: https://tinyurl.com/2p9mkawb
BS RANDOM JOKE:
Remember as a kid when you fell on a trampoline, and everyone would keep jumping so you couldn’t get back up? That’s basically life as an adult.
BS PHONE STARTER:
☎ What’s the silliest or oddest thing you’ve ever Googled?
BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
A survey found that the average person spends about 45 hours a year doing THIS. What is it?
Answer: Talking about the weather
BS DEEP THOUGHT:
Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.
