Monday, July 9, 2007 Edition: #3570
It’s Another Running Of The Bull!
WEEKEND TABLOID & BLOG BS:
• She was once a “Maneater” but a kinder, gentler Nelly Furtado is soon headed down the aisle. She and boyfriend/producer Demacio Castellon are officially engaged. The couple met while working on her album “Loose”. (It seems her “Promiscuous” may be over.)
– “NY Daily News”
• Katie Holmes has movie-movies-movies on the brain! After just finishing up “Mad Money” in Louisiana, she’s reportedly auditioning for a role in the bigscreen musical, “Nine”, which once played on the Broadway stage. But Holmes isn’t the only heavy hitter in Hollywood wanting to join the cast. Director Rob Marshall (“Chicago”) is also talking to Demi Moore, Renée Zellweger, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. (Tough job, Rob!)
– “Star Magazine”
• Prolific pop & TV producer Simon Fuller has had years to put together his perfect Spice Girls reunion package. Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without the reality TV svengali introducing a new money-making show. His plan is to start a new worldwide search for … the ‘Spice Boys’. The worldwide TV contest will pick the backup dancers for the Spice Girls reunion tour later this year. The girls will reportedly be on the judging panel, but the winners will be chosen by viewer voting. (Based on buns.)
– PopBitch.com
• SATURDAY Actress Eva Longoria & NBA star Tony Parker wed for the 2nd time at the Saint-Germain-l’Auxerroix Church in Paris after a civil ceremony in a town hall the day before. Guests at the star-studded event included Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta Jones, Denzel Washington, Victoria Beckham, and Longoria’s “Desperate Housewives” co-stars Felicity Huffman, Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross, and Nicollette Sheridan. Guests were ferried to and from the wedding venue in Hummers and limousines specially imported for the occasion from California. (Thereby flipping the bird at the day’s other big event … “Live Earth”.)
– “People”
• Here’s the “Live Earth” concert you didn’t hear much about. An indie rock band made up of 5 British scientists represented the continent of Antarctica SATURDAY by performing on a glacier at a research station in Rothera. The lead singer of group known as Nunatak, Matt Balmer, says the pick-up band never imagined they’d take part in a global concert. (The audience entailed 3 penguins and a frozen seal carcass.)
– StarPulse News Blog
• “American Idol” runner-up Clay Aiken has reportedly been involved in an air-rage episode on a flight from LA to Tulsa OK. The story is a female seat-mate gave him a ‘minor shove’ because his foot was on her armrest and that led to a more major altercation. When the plane landed, passengers were held at Tulsa International until they were interviewed by the FBI. At a concert later Aiken told fans he’d been ‘beaten up by a girl’. (But witnesses say Clay put up a real cat fight.)
– pr-inside.com
• A report in a British biz mag says Rupert Murdoch has completed negotiations for his News Corp to acquire Dow Jones, publisher of the “Wall Street Journal”, for $5 billion. It’s expected that a formal announcement will be made THIS WEEK. (Will this cause the Dow Jones to go up or down?)
– “The Business”
BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Amy Winehouse – She reportedly stormed out of a restaurant after ordering huge amounts of booze and reacting to friends’ advice that she needs to seek medical help. “Rehab” perhaps?
• Arctic Monkeys – Drummer Matt Helders says they refused to participate in “Live Earth” because it would have been hypocritical. After all, their road show uses enough juice to power 10 houses … just for lighting. The guy has a point.
• Brad Paisley – The country star is now a member of the advisory board of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in honor of an uncle who was killed by a DUI motorist before Brad was born.
• Enrique Iglesias – He’s become the first Western pop star to perform a concert in Syria in over 30 years. Wow, the gigs must be getting hard to come by.
• Pearl Jam – Eddie Vedder has written several original songs for the movie “Into The Wild”, directed by Sean Penn and due out THIS FALL.
• Pussycat Dolls – Nicole Scherzinger is frustrated that her celebrity status is frightening away potential suitors. She says fame, coupled with her self-confidence, seems to be a deterrent to the opposite gender.
• Snow Patrol – Keyboard Player Tom Simpson was arrested just hours after the band performed at “Live Earth” in London. He was taken into custody for failing to appear in a Scottish court on drug possession charges.
• Train – Frontman Pat Monahan says the band is on temporary hiatus and there is no set timetable for their next album. Meantime, he’ll release his solo debut, “Last of Seven”, in SEPTEMBER.
TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• Corinne Bailey Rae – She sings “Like A Star” on the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated/CityTV).
• Smashing Pumpkins – They perform on “Late Show With David Letterman” (CBS).
• William Hutt – A public funeral for the legendary Canadian stage actor is being held in Stratford ON, where he often performed in the annual Shakespearean festival. Hutt was 87.
OK, HOW ABOUT PET ROCKS?
A Chinese company which was denied the right to sell Moon land by the Chinese government has been struck down again, this time for trying to sell bags of “World Cup Air.” The company had been trying to market green plastic bags full of air from stadiums which hosted soccer matches during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Instead, Beijing’s People Court ruled that air is too vague and unstable a concept to be covered by commercial classifications. (Try water from the lost continent of Atlantis?)
– Xinhua News Agency
RELAXED-FIT GENES:
Lazy-ass slackers in Denmark have formed the ‘B-Society’ for people who hate to follow the timetable set by society. According to the group, A-people are those go-getters who get up bright and early and get to work. Meanwhile, B-people are genetically programmed to be more alert later in the day. The society’s manifesto calls for an uprising against the tyranny of early rising. Perhaps not surprisingly, the group already boasts several thousand members after just 6 months in operation. (Unfortunately for us, [co-host] is a B girl in an A job.)
– BBC News
ROSWELL REVISITED:
Lieutenant Walter Haut was the PR officer at Roswell airbase in 1947, and was the man who supervised the publicity campaign to persuade people there was no extra-terrestrial encounter but that a weather balloon had crashed. Haut has just died and left an affidavit to be opened on his death. It said that this had just been a cover story, that there really had been a UFO and that he had seen small humanoid alien bodies. (A brilliant joke to go out on?)
– news.com.au
THE NEWS THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO HEAR:
An advocacy group’s annual listing of news stories that are being suppressed …
• “Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran”
• “Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger”
• “Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act”
• “Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed”
• “Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever”
• “Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem”
– ProjectCensored.org
WOMEN & STRESS:
It is well-established that people often eat to relieve stress but a recent Penn State University study finds that women who are stressed eat more fatty foods … even after the stress has ended. On the other hand, men’s snack preferences stay the same regardless of their stress levels. (For women, it’s just another excuse to eat chocolate.)
– “Journal of Applied Social Psychology”
IT’S A WEIRD WORLD:
• In Ecuador, airline company Icaro has launched mid-air lingerie fashion shows, with voluptuous models strutting up and down the aisles in underwear and heels.
• In Oregon, a man who shot a snorkeler in the head after mistaking him for a rodent has been sentenced to prison. William Roderick had been smoking weed and thought he saw a nutria, a cross between a beaver and a muskrat, in the water.
• In Romania, a teen boy has been arrested after he tried to pay a prostitute with fake money which he’d printed on his home computer. During the investigation police also discovered homemade doctors’ certificates recommending the lad skip school and also bogus bus passes.
• In Kansas, a pair of parents have burdened their new baby with the name ‘Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K’, the first word being pronounced ‘your highness’.
• In Britain, a 29-year-old mother of 2 has died of skin cancer after using a sunbed twice a day … for 7 years. She began the hazardous habit when she was just 14-years-old.
DID YOU KNOW?
• For the first time since DVDs debuted more than a decade ago, annual sales are down compared with figures a year earlier.
– “Home Media Magazine”
HE SAID IT:
“I think this will do for global warming what ‘Live 8′ did for ending world hunger.”
– Comedian Chris Rock, apparently unconvinced “Live Earth” will have much lasting impact.
SHE SAID IT:
“I felt like was cheating on Kate, but I just had to do it.”
– South African model Lindi Hingston, claiming that her one-night-stand with rocker Pete Doherty is what’s caused model Kate Moss to dump him. Uh, what’s the attraction with this guy?
BS CHRONOMETER 07.09.07
TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1947 [60] OJ (Orenthal James) Simpson, San Francisco CA, pseudo-author (“If I Did It”) found not guilty of Nicole Brown Simpson-Ronald Goldman murders (1995) but financially liable in civil suit (1997)/NFL RB (San Francisco 49ers 1978-79, Buffalo Bills 1969-77)/Pro Football Hall of Fame (1985)/sometime actor (“Naked Gun” movies)
1952 [55] John Tesh, Garden City NY, syndicated radio host (“The John Tesh Radio Show”)/former TV host (“Entertainment Tonight” 1986-96)/quasi-musician (“Live from Red Rocks”)
1955 [52] Jimmy Smits, Brooklyn NY, TV actor (“The West Wing” 2004-06, “NYPD Blue”1994-2004)/movie actor (“Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith”)
1956 [51] Tom Hanks, Concord CA, movie actor (“The Da Vinci Code”, Academy Awards-“Forrest Gump”, “Philadelphia”)
1964 [43] Courtney Love, San Francisco CA, sometime singer (“America’s Sweetheart”, Hole-“Malibu”)/sometime actress (“People vs Larry Flynt”, “Sid & Nancy”)/Mrs Kurt Cobain (1992-94) FACTOID: Nirvana fans are angry she’s sold out her late husband’s image & signature for a variety of licensed products from the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, including a lunchbox, a keychain that doubles as a small flask, a wallet, a wristband, dog tags, and 2 action figures (one with an electric guitar and one from Nirvana’s “Unplugged” MTV performance, complete with tattered librarian sweater, music stand and Martin acoustic guitar).
1976 [31] Dan Estrin, Agoura Hills CA, rock singer/guitarist (Hoobastank-“The Reason”, “Running Away”)
BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Intern Appreciation Day”, a day to express gratitude to those dedicated young people who are attempting to kick off their careers by sweating it out on-the-job for free. (Now let’s see, how can we get even with the little b*stards?)
• “Nude Recreation Week”, the 31st annual when the American Association for Nude Recreation (serving the US & Canada) encourages us to experience the stress-relieving freedom of nude recreation and visit one of nearly 270 affiliated clothing-optional clubs in North America. (Why is it always during “Mosquito Week”?)
PHONER: 800.879.6833 / 407.933.2064 (AANR, Kissimmee FL)
NET: http://www.aanr.com
THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
1999 [08] Mick Jagger’s marriage to model Jerry Hall is officially annulled in a London court, ending 8 years of marriage and a 22-year relationship
TODAY’S MUSIC EVENT . . .
1983 [24] The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” reaches #1, a position it holds for 9 weeks
COMING UP . . .
[Tues] Don’t Step on a Bee Day
[Tues] Orangemen’s Day
[Tues] “Second City’s Next Comedy Legend” debuts (CBC)
[Tues] MLB All-Star Game (San Francisco)
[Wed] UN World Population Day
[Wed] International Town Criers Day
[Wed] Nicole Richie’s DUI court date
[Wed] “Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix” opens in movie theaters
THIS WEEK IS . . .
Farriers Week / Laundry Workers Week / Mosquito Week / Nude Recreation Week / Special Recognition Week / Therapeutic Recreation Week
BULL’S BITS
REJECTED INDIE BAND NAMES:
Got a new band in your garage with no name on it? We’re here to help …
• Pictures From an Execution (emo)
• The Enamels (modern dentist office rock)
• The Cap Guns (road rage tunes)
• Pastrami Curtain (Italian metal fusion)
• Coathanger Barbecue (angular acid punk)
• Freezer Burn (Swedish nu metal)
• Los Fibrilators (Tejano punk country)
• Trombone Mockery (big band thrash)
• Neon Theocracy (Christian hair metal)
• The Concrete Mexicans (heavy Texican)
But what about my new Tibetan dance music band? Any ideas, people?
BS INTERVIEW:
Here’s where you go to secure a spot in a retirement home … for your cat. Florida company Palm Meow offers a pre-paid ‘Cat Retirement Plan’, designed to cover your cat’s options when you become too old to care for it or pass on to cat-lovers’ heaven. You see, if you plan ahead, you’ll know exactly where your kitty will live and what services it will receive. The company’s ‘Pet Trusts & Estate Planning’ service assists caring ‘pet guardians’ (you’re not an ‘owner’ anymore) in setting aside monies to provide life-long care for their pet in a ‘safe & loving environment’. (Hey, how come there’s a smokestack out back of their building?)
PHONER: 954.929.8230 (Palm Meow Inc, Hollywood FL)
NET: http://www.palm-meow.com/
BS PHONE STARTER:
Do you have the right to an odor-free work space? A municipal employee is suing the city of Detroit MI, claiming a co-worker’s fragrance prohibits her from working. The lawsuit says her co-worker wears strong perfume and also plugs in a scented room deodorizer, which causes her to go home sick. The suit claims the work environment violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Huh? She’s asking for a ban on such scents at work and unspecified damages.
BS RANDOM JOKE:
Start off every day with a smile … and get it over with.
BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Today’s Question: 65% per cent of the brand names in THIS store department are more than 50-years-old.
Answer to Give Out Next Show: Candy.
BS DEEP THOUGHT:
The best thing you can do is get good at being you.