Friday, December 10, 2004 Edition: #2928
Jingle Bull … Jingle Bull …
BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
TODAY the only signed copy of Marilyn Monroe’s famous nude “Playboy” centerfold goes up for auction simultaneously in LA and on eBay and is expected to fetch more than $20,000; the famous billowy white dress shoe wore in “The Seven Year Itch” is expected to sell for $80,000-plus . . . TODAY 19-year-old former “American Idol” contestant Camile Velasco returns to her native Philippines to perform in the “All You Need Is Love” Christmas concert . . . TONIGHT at NYC’s Madison Square Garden, Z100’s annual “Jingle Ball” concert features Destiny’s Child, Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, Ashlee Simpson, Hilary Duff, Good Charlotte, Vanessa Carlton & Switchfoot among others . . . SUNDAY CBC-TV airs the made-for-TV movie “A Bear Named Winnie”, the story of the black bear cub bought 90 years ago by Lt Harry Colebourn who named it after his hometown Winnipeg then donated it to the London Zoo during WW1, thereby inspiring AA Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” stories . . . Production has begun on the CTV movie “Plague City” about the SARS outbreak blamed for 44 deaths in the Toronto area in Spring 2003 . . . The Mark Burnett-produced return of Martha Stewart to TV NEXT FALL will feature a new format with a live audience and celebrity guests . . . The upcoming Broadway musical about John Lennon’s life will feature 2 of his songs that were never released – “India, India” and “I Don’t Want to Lose You” . . . “OC” creator Josh Schwartz has confirmed that Mischa Barton’s ‘Marissa’ character will fall for another girl in an upcoming episode, but denies the girl-on-girl plot twist has anything to do with sagging ratings (translation: it has EVERYTHING to do with sagging ratings).
BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Alanis Morissette – She’ll star in “We’re With the Band”, a new tongue-in-cheek Comedy Central series about a rock star’s life on the road. Her ‘road crew’ will be made up of improv actors.
• Doobie Bros – California’s BR Cohn Winery is now bottling ‘Doobie Red’, a blended wine that features cover art from their classic rock albums on the label. Who would slap an aging rock band on a wine label? Their former manager … he owns the winery.
• Elton John – He’s fueling reports that he’ll soon wed his long-time partner David Furnish by suggesting he’ll pick Lulu as his ‘Maid of Honor’ and Victoria Beckham as ‘Best Man’. Perhaps they’ll wed in Canada where the Supreme Court has just ruled same-sex marriage is legal Furnish is a Toronto native.
• Jessica Simpson – She’s developing an exercise video and a line of exercise equipment. She claims she does more than 2 hours of ‘squats & lunges’ a day to stay in shape.
• Tim McGraw – He’s being sent lots of movie scripts since his bigscreen debut in “Friday Night Lights” and he says he’ll probably begin work on another film sometime NEXT YEAR.
TODAY’S MOVIE OPENINGS:
“Ocean’s Twelve” (PG-13 Crime Comedy): ‘Danny Ocean’ (George Clooney) recruits one more team member (Catherine Zeta-Jones) so he can pull off 3 major European heists in this sequel to 2001’s “Ocean’s 11″. The original ‘brat pack’ returns – Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Julia Roberts et al. Filmed in Amsterdam, Paris & Rome, among other places. Word has it the ending leaves the door open for an “Ocean’s 13″.
SAD CASE:
You’ve probably heard of the psychological syndrome called ‘SAD’ or ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’, a form of depression many are thought to suffer during the doldrums of winter when there’s fewer daylight hours. Well now psychiatrist Richard Morriss of the University of Liverpool questions whether it really exists, and points out that the World Health Organization doesn’t recognize it as a distinct mental disorder. He suggests psychiatrists may have manufactured the diagnosis to explain away normal human misery. (Damn, another excuse to skip work down the drain!)
– “Nature”
‘BINGE EXERCISING’ BAD FOR HEALTH:
While hitting the gym can take you a long way toward being healthy, experts are now warning that you should avoid ‘binge exercising’ as it can have disastrous long-term effects. Researchers at the Institute of Sport & Recreation Management say that most people are over-enthusiastic when they first start exercising which makes them overdo it. This, in turn, leads to various physical problems such as damage to muscles, bones and joints. (Yeah, that’s why I cut back to one sit-up per day … first thing in the morning.)
– ANI
HOLIDAY WEIGHT GAINS:
Conventional wisdom says we gain 10 lbs over the holiday season. Wrong! A recent study finds that holiday feasting causes an average gain of only 1 lb. The bad news is – most of us never drop it and over the years those 1-lb gains can easily add up to a great big belly. (That shakes when you laugh like a bowl full of jelly.)
– “New England Journal of Medicine”
CHEATING IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM:
In China, cheating on college-entrance exams has gone hi-tech. Educators have discovered students using mobile phones to send digital photos of exam questions to an outside accomplice who then sends the answers back via text message. (But CN U RD them?)
– “The Chronicle of Higher Education”
FRIENDS CAN ADD YEARS:
A new study by the advocacy group Age Concern reveals that having friends can add up to 7 years to seniors’ lives because it makes them feel active and positive. That’s twice the benefit of quitting smoking in later life. The group encourages young people to befriend pensioners, because the side-benefit may be lengthening their lives. (Is that why people with big wills don’t have friends?)
– “Daily Mirror”
FOR THE RECORD:
SATURDAY an attempt will be made to construct the ‘World’s Largest Poutine’ – the largest pile of fries, gravy & cheese curds – at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto. Anyone who buys a serving of the French-Canadian treat will be donating directly to Toronto’s ‘Daily Bread Food Bank’.
– chartattack.com
BS AMAZING FACTS:
• The average mall Santa Claus is 44-years-old, 6 feet tall, 220 pounds and has 3.2 children of his own.
• Some of the most popular Christmas toys are also the oldest. Crayola Crayons have been around 101 years, Lego for 74, Silly Putty 57, and good ol’ Mr Potato Head is now 52 years old.
THE BULL SHEET 12.10.2K4
TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1960 [44] Kenneth Branagh, Belfast N IRE, movie actor (“Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets”)/movie director (“Hamlet”) UP NEXT: Has a role in “Mission: Impossible 3″.
1969 [35] Rob Blake, Simcoe ON, 6′-4″, 225-lb NHL defenceman (Colorado Avalanche)
1970 [34] Kevin Sharp, Redding CA, country singer (“Love Is All That Matters”)
1985 [19] Raven-Symone (Pearman), Atlanta GA, TV actress (“That’s So Raven”)/movie actress (“The Princess Diaries 2″) COMING UP: “Fat Albert”, opening DECEMBER 25th.
SATURDAY’S BIRTHDAYS . . .
Oldies singer Brenda Lee (“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”) is 60; Bassist Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue) is 46; Gary Dourdan (“CSI”) is 38.
SUNDAYS BIRTHDAYS . . .
TV host Bob Barker (“The Price is Right”) is 81; Actress Jennifer Connelly (“A Beautiful Mind”) is 34; Model Bridget Hall (Victoria’s Secret) is 27.
BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
[Inuit] “Festival for the Souls of Dead Whales”
TODAY is “Dewey Decimal Day”, honoring Melville Dewey who was born December 10, 1851 in the small town of Adams Center in upstate New York . Keenly interested in simplified spelling, he shortened his first name to ‘Melvil’ as a young adult and even spelled his last name as ‘Dui’. Dewey invented the ‘Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) System’ when he was 21 and working as a student assistant in the library of Amherst College. His work created a revolution in library science. He’s known as the ‘Father of Modern Librarianship’.
TODAY is “International Human Rights Day”, honoring the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
TODAY is “Nobel Prize Awards Day”. The awards were established by the will of Swedish chemist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and have been held on this date since 1901. The current value of each award is over $1 million. TOMORROW Tom Cruise & Oprah Winfrey host the “Nobel Peace Prize Concert” in Oslo, Norway which will feature performances by Joss Stone, Andrea Bocelli, Diana Krall, Cyndi Lauper & Patti LaBelle among others.
SATURDAY is “National Noodle Day”. Besides the versatile egg noodle, there are a gazillion types of pasta noodles including – angel hair, fettuccine, fusilli, gnocchi, lasagne, macaroni, manicotti, penne, rigatoni, rotini, spaghetti, vermicelli, and ziti. So what’s your fave?
For over 400 years, since 1602, SATURDAY has been celebrated as “Scaling Day” in Geneva, Switzerland. That’s when stores sell pot-shaped chocolate candies to represent the soup pots women used in medieval days to pour scalding water on any invaders attempting to ‘scale’ city walls. (Local children also chop melons with cleavers in gleeful re-creation of beheadings.)
THIS WEEKEND the annual “Festival of Whirling Dervishes” spins in Konya, Turkey. Traditionally-dressed male dancers present their ‘sena’ or whirling ceremony when they spin in tight circles to achieve mystical union with heaven. This dizzy custom goes back 700 years.
THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
1990 [14] 1st “Billboard Music Awards” (Janet Jackson picks up 8 trophies)
TODAY’S MUSIC EVENTS . . .
1984 [20] African famine relief song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” by Band Aid is released
1994 [20] Kenny G’s “Miracles: The Holiday Album” hits #1 on album charts and becomes best-selling Christmas album in history, selling over 8 million units
TODAY’S FIRST . . .
1998 [06] Team of 6 astronauts becomes 1st to occupy the International Space Station
TODAY’S RECORD . . .
1972 [32] ‘Longest non-scoring pass’ in NFL history as St Louis Cardinals QB Jim Hart passes from his own 1-yard-line to Bobby Moore (now known as Ahmad Rashad) who’s tackled at LA Rams’ 1-yard-line – a total of 98 yards with no score!
AND REMEMBER . . .
[Sun] Poinsettia Day
[Sun] National Ding-A-Ling Day
[Mon] Gemini Awards Gala
[Tues] Bouillabaisse Day
This Week Is . . . Civil Rights Week
This Month Is . . . Colorectal Cancer Education & Awareness Month
BULL’S BITS . . .
BS QUICK-PICK XMAS QUIZ:
• How many ‘la’s in a single line of “Deck the Halls”?
a. 9
b. 6
c. 8 plus 1 ‘fa’. [CORRECT]
• How many ‘swans a-swimming’ in “The 12 Days of Christmas”?
a. 7 [CORRECT]
b. 3
c. 8 plus 1 ugly duckling.
• Who first had a “Blue Christmas”?
a. “Bad Santa”
b. Ray Charles
c. Elvis [CORRECT]
• Who played ‘Santa’ in “The Santa Clause”?
a. Jim Carrey
b. Tim Allen [CORRECT]
c. Edmund Gwenn
• What is the country of origin of the poinsettia?
a. Mexico [CORRECT]
b. Zambia
c. Saskatoon
• How do you say “Merry Christmas” in Spanish?
a. Oye Como Va
b. Adeste Fideles
c. Feliz Navidad [CORRECT]
• In “The Night Before Christmas”, what visions danced in the children’s heads?
a. Toys and drums.
b. Sugar plums. [CORRECT]
c. Halo 2.
TOP SWAPS:
The week’s most requested music files on the Internet …
1. Usher – “My Boo”
2. Snoop Dogg – “Drop It Like It’s Hot”
3. Destiny’s Child – “Lose My Breath”
4. Fabolous – “Breathe”
5. Mario – “Let Me Love You”
– Big Champagne Online Music Measurement
BS HOT TIP:
This is NOT a paid endorsement. We’ve been test-driving Mozilla’s new ‘Firefox’ Web browser and its counterpart e-mail program ‘Thunderbird’. Everything we’ve heard seems to be true – it IS indeed faster, more versatile and more secure than Microsoft’s ‘Explorer’ and even tops the most recent Netscape versions we’d been using. One of its best features is that it automatically imports all the settings, bookmarks, etc from your previous browser when you install it. We highly recommend giving it a try … it’s also free!
NET: http://getfirefox.com
BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Today’s Question: As soon as you notice your co-worker has one of THESE, odds are 40% that you’re going to get one too.
Answer to Give Out Next Show: A headache.
BS DEEP THOUGHT:
Better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot.
