BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
★ Camille Cosby is no longer willing to stand by her man, says a source close to the family. Bill Cosby’s wife has tried desperately to get out of testifying in an upcoming deposition, not to protect her famous comedian husband … but because she feels humiliated. The insider says Camille has been “sickened” hearing details from the 50 women who have stepped forward with claims of being drugged and raped. The 71-year-old has reportedly told her friend: “My husband doesn’t deserve jail, but he does deserve every bit of the hell he’s going through now.”
– “NY Post”
★ Filmmaker Michael Bay has confirmed he will return to direct the 5th installment of the “Transformers” franchise and also that it will be his last. Bay has been at the helm of the blockbuster action series since the first film in 2007 but says the as-yet-untitled “Transformers 5”, due in 2017, will be his last in the director’s chair. He was initially only signed to executive produce the latest sequel. It will feature the return of star Mark Wahlberg, who led 2014’s “Transformers: Age of Extinction”.
– “Rolling Stone”
★ Meantime Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed “The Avengers”, “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, and created TV show “Agents of SHIELD”, says he’s walking away from the Marvel comic book-to-movie empire. He tells the Oxford Union in England it has nothing to do with any sort of falling out. Quote: “It’s important to me, not just to have my own thing and do something smaller, but also to create a new challenge for myself because I will start to repeat myself.”
– WENN.com

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “American Crime” (ABC) – Season 2 premiere.
• “American Idol” (FOX/YES) – Host Ryan Seacrest and judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Harry Connick Jr return for part 1 of a 2-night debut. The 15th and final season runs through April in a condensed competition. The once-hot reality show got its start back in 2002.
• “Conan” (TBS/CTV) – Grizfolk (“From the Spark”).
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/CityTV) – The Internet (“Ego Death”).
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – Heartless Bastards (“Restless Ones”).
• “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (NBC/CTV) – Sam Hunt performs his hit “Break Up In a Small Town” (“Montevallo”).
• “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS/Global) – Andra Day (“Cheers To the Fall”).
• “People’s Choice Awards” (CBS) – Jane Lynch hosts the annual fan-voted entertainment awards live from LA’s Microsoft Theatre. The Weeknd leads music nominations with 5; Dwayne Johnson tops acting categories with 3 nods. “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, “Furious 7”, “Inside Out”, “Jurassic World”, and “Pitch Perfect 2” battle it out for ‘Favorite Movie’.
• “Tavis Smiley” (PBS) – Ringo Starr (“Postcards from Paradise”).
• “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV2) – Billy Joel (“She’s Got a Way: Love Songs”).

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Adele – “25” is #1 for the 6th week in-a-row on the ‘Billboard 200’ chart. It was the best-selling album of 2015, with 7.44 million copies sold, according to “Billboard”.
• Blink-182 – Travis Barker ignored the advice of paramedics by continuing his solo concert in Las Vegas on Saturday after falling sick. While he admitted feeling nauseous, he refused to cancel the show. His 6-date residency at the Hyde Bellagio nightclub runs through March 19th.
• Chris Stapleton – He’ll be the only traditional country act playing Coachella this year. He’ll play on Sundays, April 17th and 24th at the 2-weekend festival at Indio CA.
• Guns ‘N Roses – The original lineup is reuniting and has been confirmed as a headliner for the 2016 edition of the Coachella music festival in the California desert.
• Miranda Lambert – Just who is her new boyfriend Anderson East? He’s a singer-songwriter from Alabama who’s lived in Nashville TN for 8 years. He has an album out called “Delilah”. It’s his first major-label debut, although he previously recorded under his real name Mike Anderson.
• Motorhead – Fans in Britain have launched a campaign to get the band’s classic track “Ace of Spades” to the top of the UK chart as a tribute to late frontman Lemmy Kilmister, who died in December. The new #1 will be announced on Friday.
• Shawn Mendes – The 17-year-old “Stitches” singer has inked a deal with top modeling agency Wilhelmina Models. Canadian-born Mendes had a breakout in 2015 with his debut album reaching #1 on the ‘Billboard 200’. He’s also named on “Forbes” magazine’s just-released ’30 Under 30′ list of influential young artists.
• Taylor Smith – On Monday “E! News” reported that she’s living with her boyfriend, Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, while her own home undergoes renovation. But her rep has put the kibosh on the story stating simply, “They are absolutely not living together.”

BS BUZZWORDS:
Cutting-edge vocab …
• ‘Digital Amnesia’ – The inability to remember basic things, such as telephone numbers, dates, etc, as a result of over-reliance on smartphones and the Internet for storing information.
• ‘Food Swamp’ – An area, in a mall for instance, that has an abundance of fast-food restaurants and other low-nutrition food options.
• ‘Wavy’ – New Brit teen slang for ‘stylish’ (“You’re wearing wavy kicks, dude!”). The opposite would be ‘basic’ … something unattractive, unpleasant, or unsophisticated (“Those shoes are so basic!”).

CES 2016:
Here’s a look at what to expect from the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas NV. It opens to the public today and runs through Saturday. Amongst the cutting-edge technology …
• A ‘smart button’ designed to control all of a home’s Internet-connected appliances has been developed by a French start-up. The makers of ‘Concierge’ say the button can switch off the lights, start the dishwasher, and water the garden when you leave the house, all with one press.
But it does not come cheap … the company expects it to cost circa $185.
• A machine that can mix a custom-made moisturizing cream to suit an individual’s needs. The device from cosmetics company Romy Paris ingests small capsules with different functions – for example hydration, UV filtration, and anti-aging – and mixes them into a bespoke serum.
• As far as TV innovations, expect the focus on be on ‘HDR’ (High Dynamic Range), which can show millions more shades of color and added shades of brightness, thereby enhancing detail. Also expected – bendable screens that you can peel off the wall.
• ‘PowerUp FPV’, a piece of kit from an Israeli start-up that transforms a paper airplane into a controllable aircraft that streams views back to a Virtual Reality headset.
• And a company called Digitsole has new shoes that tie up their own laces … something we’ve been waiting for ever since “Back to the Future II”.
(VHS, HD-TV, Xbox, and Blu-ray all made their debut at past shows. It will be interesting to see which products at this year’s will stick and become everyday household items.)
NET: http://cesweb.org
– Sourced from BBC News

BANNED WORDS & PHRASES 2016:
Michigan’s Lake Superior State University has put out an ‘Annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Over-use, and General Uselessness’ ever since 1976. Among this year’s terms to be turfed out …
✗ ‘Break the Internet’ – An annoying bit of hyperbole about the latest saucy picture or controversy that is already becoming trite.
✗ ‘Conversation’ – Online sites invite us to “join the conversation”, which is usually more of a scream-fest and/or an upchuck of ill-informed comments.
✗ ‘Physicality’ – A nonsense term that’s overused by every sports broadcaster and writer. What the heck does it mean?
✗ ‘So’ – When it’s used as an adjective, as in “I am SO down with this!”
– Reuters.com

ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO INDULGE:
Chocolate may be even more wonderful than we thought. It’s not a cure for cancer, but a new study shows dark chocolate can help ward off one of the most lethal cancers, pancreatic. Indiana University researchers say chocolate contains magnesium, which may partially explain its benefits. Magnesium has been shown to dramatically lower the rates of pancreatic cancer, the 4th leading cause of cancer deaths. Many foods have magnesium, but dark chocolate is a silver bullet because a single square – about an ounce – provides roughly a quarter of the daily recommended magnesium requirement. Magnesium is also found in spinach, Swiss chard, soybeans, sesame seeds, quinoa, black beans, cashews, and sunflower seeds. (Uh, can any of those possibly compete with mmm … ooey-gooey chocolate?)
– @NYDailyNews

FROM THE BS POLL VAULT:
A statistical look at who we are and the things we do …
• 82% of women say that, when it comes to household chores, only a man should take out the trash.
• 65% of singles say they will not date someone if he or she doesn’t like pets.
• 19% of people in relationships wish they could change their partner’s laugh.
• 14% of men would never admit that they enjoy watching a TV soap opera.
• 5% of people say they wait a year into a relationship before allowing their partner to drive their car.
• 4% of us regularly perform vacuum cleaning … in our underwear.

DO YOU DARE BARE YOUR DERRIERE?
Relatively unknown model Phoebe Price has the Internet in a tizzy and the fashion-conscious hoping the trend of ‘bottomless jeans’ is a giant hoax. Photos of Price refueling a car in what look like bottomless chaps have surfaced online this week. As odd as they may seem, the jeans really exist for everyone to buy. Price has reportedly shot an entire promotional calendar for Xpoz Jeans, the company that makes these bottomless beauties. Made of denim, lycra, and cotton, the jeans come in 3 different styles … ‘rear tight’, ‘rear loose’, and ‘front cut’.
NET: http://tinyurl.com/gmnukd9
– PostMedia Network

BS AMAZING FACT:
People who panic act quicker in a crisis.
– “The Times”

BS CHRONOMETER 01.06.16

TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1953 [63] Malcolm Young, Glasgow, Scotland, rock guitarist (AC/DC-“Thunderstruck”)/Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (2003)/left band in 2014 to receive treatment for dementia

1955 [61] Rowan Atkinson, Consett UK, movie actor (“Bean”, “Four Weddings & A Funeral”)/former TV comic (“Mr Bean”, “Blackadder”)/Order Of the British Empire (2013)

1960 [56] Nigella Lawson, London UK, celebrity chef (“Simply Nigella” since 2015, “The Taste” 2013-14, “Nigella Bites” 1999-2001)

1960 [56] Howie Long, Charlestown MA, TV football analyst (“FOX NFL Sunday”)/former NFL DE (Raiders 1981-93)/Pro Football Hall of Fame (2000)

1969 [47] Norman Reedus, Hollywood FL, TV actor (‘Daryl Dixon’ on “The Walking Dead” since 2010)

1970 [46] Julie Chen, Queens NY, TV host (“The Talk” since 2010, “Big Brother” since 2000)/wed to CBS-TV president-CEO Leslie Moonves since 2004

1982 [34] Eddie Redmayne, London UK, movie actor (“The Danish Girl”, “The Theory of Everything”)

1986 [30] Alex Turner, Sheffield UK, indie rock singer-songwriter-guitarist (Arctic Monkeys-“Do I Wanna Know?”, “When the Sun Goes Down”)

TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Carnival Season” begins, which runs from today (“Epiphany”) until “Shrove Tuesday” (February 9th).

• “Cuddle Up Day”, an opportunity to snuggle up to someone or something on a cold Winter’s day.

• “Epiphany” (aka “Three Kings Day”), a Christian celebration and public holiday in Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Puerto Rico. In Ireland it’s known as “Little Christmas”; in Italy the kindly witch ‘La Befana’ slides down chimneys on her broom to bring toys & goodies for kids; in Mexico, where it’s known as “Dia de los Santos Reyes”, kids put straw out and leave shoes on balconies to be filled with toys by ‘Los Tres Reyes’ (The Three Kings), who tote gifts while riding camel-back.

• “Smith Day”, celebrating the most-common surname in the English-speaking world.

THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
1997 [19] Matt Lauer replaces Bryant Gumbel as co-host of NBC-TV’s “Today Show” (Gumbel had hosted 15 years)

TODAY’S MUSIC EVENT . . .
1989 [27] Pop singer Madonna and movie actor Sean Penn announce they’re getting a divorce after 4 tumultuous years of marriage

TODAY’S FIRST . . .
2001 [15] US Congress formally certifies George W Bush the winner of the bitterly contested 2000 presidential election over Vice President Al Gore

TODAY’S RECORD . . .
1980 [36] Philadelphia Flyers set an NHL record of 35 consecutive games without a defeat

COMING UP . . .
[Thurs] I’m Not Going to Take It Anymore Day
[Thurs] Orthodox Christmas
[Fri] “The Forest” opens in movie theaters; “The Revenant” opens wide
[Fri] Bubble Bath Day
[Fri] Show & Tell at Work Day
This Week Is … Lose Weight/Feel Great Week
This Month Is … Learn to Ski & Snowboard Month

BULL’S BITS

NIHILISTIC PASSWORD SECURITY QUESTIONS:
• “What is the name of your least favorite child?”
• “In what year did you abandon your dreams?”
• “What is the maiden name of your father’s mistress?”
• “At what age did your childhood pet run away?”
• “What was the name of your favorite unpaid internship?”
• “In what city did you first experience ennui?”
• “What is your ex-wife’s newest last name?”
• “What is the name of your favorite canceled TV show?”
• “What was the middle name of your first rebound?”
• “On what street did you lose your childlike sense of wonder?”
• “When did you stop trying?”
– Adapted from McSweeneys.net

BS U-PICK TRIVIA:
Which was the first country to offer regular ‘High Definition TV’ broadcasts, beginning in 1989?
a. Japan [CORRECT]
b. South Korea
c. USA
– Wikipedia.org

BS RANDOM JOKE:
This morning I was at the corner of Walk and Don’t Walk …”

BS PHONE STARTER:
☎ If money and time were no object, what is one thing you would change about your home?

BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question: 1-in-3 wives wish their husbands would do THIS more often.
Answer: Hold hands.

BS DEEP THOUGHT:
If you can’t learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.