Wednesday, June 28, 2023 — Edition: #7505
Thanks For Being a Bull Market!
BS SUBSCRIBER NOTE:
There’ll be no “BS” service for Monday, July 3, to observe the Canada Day holiday. All subscribers will receive credit for the non-service day. The Bull Sheet will resume publication on Tuesday, July 4.
BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
[***UPDATE***] ★ Ryan Seacrest has been named the new host of “Wheel of Fortune”. He has signed a multi-year agreement to host the show and serve as a consulting producer, beginning next year. In a statement Tuesday, Seacrest said: “I’m truly humbled to be stepping into the footsteps of the legendary Pat Sajak…I can’t wait to continue the tradition of spinning the wheel and working alongside the great Vanna White.”
-CNN
★ Trevor Noah is making moves following his departure from “The Daily Show”. He has been announced as the host of Amazon’s first South African original series, “LOL: Last One Laughing”. The show will launch in 2024. LOL: Last One Laughing, which has already been adapted in more than 20 countries, sees 10 comedians and entertainers competing. It puts the contestants together, with the goal being to keep a straight face the longest. Throughout the competition, each comedian who laughs at another’s joke or bit gets the boot. The winner of LOL: Last One Laughing’s South African version will get the grand prize of 1 million South African rand, which will go to their charity of choice.
-PopCulture
★ The dress worn by Carrie Fisher in the final scene of the original “Star Wars,” which was long believed to have been destroyed, has been found and restored, and is now up for auction — and could go for as much as $2 million. The dress — worn during the scene where ‘Princess Leia’ gives medals to ‘Han’ and ‘Luke’ — was found in an attic in London, belonging to one of the film’s crew members. It was restored by hand over an 8-month period, according to Prop Store Auction, which is handling the sale. It’s the only surviving costume worn by Carrie Fisher in Star Wars.
-TheWrap
★ Angela Bassett is finally getting her Oscar. The “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” nominee will receive an honorary Academy Award alongside comedy legend Mel Brooks and editor Carol Littleton, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has announced. Bassett has long been touted as one of Hollywood’s greatest unsung actresses, with many labeling it a robbery when she lost Best Supporting Actress to Jamie Lee Curtis in March. The recipients were chosen by the Academy’s Board of Governors and the awards will be presented Nov. 18 in Los Angeles.
-TheWrap, EW
★ Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman revealed on Monday — the 4th anniversary of his late wife Beth Chapman’s death — that he has secretly fathered a son named Jon. Dog posted a photo on Instagram of Jon standing with his arm around his wife, Jodi, and shared that the discovery of his son has created a “new meaning” for what used to be a heartbreaking day. He wrote: “God redeemed this day when I discovered my son Jon, who I just met recently, was born on this day.”
-PageSix
★ Aire Webster’s name is now legal. After Kylie Jenner announced earlier this year that she and Travis Scott chose the new moniker for their newborn—who was initially named Wolf Jacques Webster—his name change has been legally confirmed, according to court documents. The official paperwork comes more than a year after she shared that the couple, who also have daughter Stormi, decided that they had a change of heart on the name they had picked out when they welcomed the now 16-month-old in February, 2022.
-E!
★ Lindsay Lohan’s first little bundle of joy is almost here, and that bundle of joy will be a . . . boy. TMZ reports that sources with direct knowledge said Lohan and her husband, Bader Shammas, are expecting a baby boy — and she’s very close to giving birth. Her mother, Dina, will be by her side in Dubai for the birth. The “Freaky Friday” star made her pregnancy announcement in March.
-TMZ
TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/Global): Ringo Starr, Shaun White, James Adomian (R)
• “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV): Kevin Bacon, Jo Koy, Katherine Blanford (R)
• “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS/Global): Billy Eichner, Samantha Power (R)
• “Late Night with Seth Meyers” (NBC/CTV): Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, Kaitlyn Dever (R)
• “Watch What Happens Live” (Bravo): Taylor Armstrong, S.E. Cupp
• “The View” (ABC/CTV): Karine Jean-Pierre
• “The Talk” (CBS): Yvette Nicole Brown, Lisa Guerrero, guest co-hosts Lisa Rinna & Morris Chestnut (R)
• “Live with Kelly and Mark” (ABC/CTV): Jimmy Kimmel, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Gabourey Sidibe
• “The Kelly Clarkson Show” (Check local listings): Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Brynn Cartelli (R)
• “The Drew Barrymore Show” (Check local listings): Jon Hamm, Bobby Moynihan, Betty Gilpin (R)
• “Jennifer Hudson Show” (Check local listings): Drew Carey, Storm Reid (R)
• “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed” (HBO): Archival footage and interviews with close friends provide insight into the life and career of the Hollywood icon.
• “The $100,000 Pyramid” (ABC): Celebrity contestants Rob Riggle, Joe Tessitore, Mark Duplass and Ali Larter.
• “2023 NHL Draft” (SN, ESPN): Round #1, from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Taylor Swift – A guitar she signed was the top earning item at the 2023 OK Kids Korral auction, which benefits children battling cancer and their families. The Swift-signed axe went for a whopping $120 thousand, bringing the charity’s total event earnings up to a record $1.8 million.
• Olivia Rodrigo – Monday, she announced that her highly anticipated sophomore album “GUTS” will arrive Sept. 8. She posted the album artwork to Instagram, and wrote: “i am so proud of this record and I can’t wait to share it with you all!” LINK: https://tinyurl.com/yzhmudyh
• Elton John – raised the roof at Glastonbury on Sunday in what was probably his last ever UK performance, and he was watched by more than 7 million viewers on the BBC. His 3-hour performance drew a near-50% audience share. He was joined on stage by Stephen Sanchez and The Killers’ Brandon Flowers.
• Sheila E. – The “Queen of Percussion”, who has worked as a solo artist and as drummer, songwriter and musical director for Prince’s backup band, will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The July 12 unveiling ceremony will feature speakers H.E.R. and Ringo Starr.
• Nickelback – Sunday, they were officially inducted into Canada’s Music Hall of Fame. A new Nickelback exhibit has also opened in Calgary’s National Music Centre, featuring instruments used by the band, some personal items, concert footage, and behind-the-scenes photos. It runs through February 24, 2024. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/ntvyp2cb
• Tenille Townes – joined forces with pop-rock band Train and rapper Bryce Vine on the new summer-tinged song ‘I Know’. She posted the video, and wrote: “For a girl who has sang Drops of Jupiter a million times, I sure got excited for the invite to sing on the new @train song!!!” LINK: https://tinyurl.com/hdkd2en8
• Keith Urban – During one of his shows at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, he knelt on stage to talk to some fans. One asked if he could talk to her daughter. Next, Urban exclaimed: “Oh, (shoot), she did FaceTime!” The woman, Lindsay, on the other end of the call, was elated over the “insane” surprise. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/msptm63s
• Morgan Wallen & Luke Combs – Wallen’s ‘Last Night’ has notched a 12th week at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. Meanwhile Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ has ridden to #2, up from #3, meaning that country songs are in the top 2 spots for the first time in over 42 years. In 1981, The top 2 songs were Eddie Rabbitt’s ‘I Love a Rainy Night’ and Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’.
SHOOTING THE BULL
RELATIONSTUFF:
A new study took a look into what couples do in order to keep their relationships strong, and found that tactics are surprisingly similar across all types of relationships. Researchers from Greece found there are no fewer than 81 “acts that people were likely to perform” in order to improve their union with their partner, and narrowed them to the most common. The top-5 are, in order:
• Try to understand her/his needs
• Discuss our problems together
• Show more interest in my partner
• Create experiences together
• Build trust
The researchers found that although these are the ‘most commonly-used’ methods of improving relationships, the most ‘effective’ methods are the top 2, plus “showing one’s love to a partner”. And interestingly, “efforts of self-improvement and enhancing appearances” were both the least common and the least effective strategies.
(Hmmm…nothing here that indicates spending all day every Saturday at Walmart and the garden center will make my relationship better. So, what have I been doing with my life?)
(Well, they’re right – self-improvement does suck!)
-Stylist
ON THE PHONE:
⇒ How often do you power down your smartphone, giving it a chance to reboot and refresh? According to a Reader’s Digest, article, written in consultation with “experts”, your smartphone has a hard and fast rule you should live by: once a week, shut it off, let it rest at least one minute, and then fire it back up. There are a number of good reasons for this, including: retaining memory, preventing crashes, making it run more smoothly, and prolonging battery life. How so? Restarting the phone clears open apps and memory leaks, and gets rid of anything draining your battery. (Oh, believe me…my phone lets me know when it’s time to restart it!)
⇒ Be honest: Do you spend too much time on your phone – sometimes at the expense of paying attention to the people around you? Well, there’s a new term for that – “phubbing”. Research shows that the average person spends 3 hours 23 minutes every day on their phone, equivalent to around 50 days a year. But all this screen time is not just bad for the eyes, it can harm relationships. And admit it, at some point we’ve all been guilty of ‘phubbing’. Also known as ‘phone snubbing’, research shows that we’re most likely to phub the people closest to us. Partners are phubbed the most, followed close friends, siblings, children and parents. Younger people phub more than older people, but there was no noticeable difference between how often males and females phubbed. (Yes, I’m guilty of this sometimes…but sometimes, I don’t feel guilty at all!)
-ReadersDigest, Stylist
MOST-VISITED WEBSITES, 2023 (so far):
As hard as it is to believe, TikTok isn’t even in the top 10 most popular websites in the world, according to the latest data from Similarweb.com, which tracks this type of thing (TikTok is #15). Here are the world’s 10 most popular domains so far this year…
1) Google.com
2) YouTube.com
3) Facebook.com
4) Twitter.com
5) Instagram.com
6) Baidu.com (Chinese tech company, search engine)
7) Wikipedia.org
8) Yandex.ru (Russian tech company, search engine)
9) Yahoo.com
10) Whatsapp.com
(For those wondering, Amazon.com is at #14, but my wife is doing her darndest to vault it into the top-10!)
(Much less interesting: The list of “Least visited websites”!)
-SimilarWeb
DID YOU KNOW?
A man from Spain has broken the world record for the 100-meter sprint — while wearing high heels. Christian Roberto López Rodríguez donned 2.76-inch stilettos and ran the distance in 12.82 seconds, earning his 57th Guinness World Record. And listen to this: His time was only 3.24 seconds slower than eight-time Olympic gold-medal winner Usain Bolt’s 100-meter sprint world record. 34-year-old Rodríguez said: “In Spain, there are races like this, and they have always gone well for me.” LINK: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct1QarMqdrA/
-NYPost
BS CHRONOMETER 6.28.23
TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Insurance Awareness Day”. Hmm, now who do you think came up with this one? Insurance is a gamble. If you buy it, you’re betting that something will go wrong. If you don’t buy it, you’re betting that nothing will go wrong. (And even if it doesn’t, your rates still go up!)
• “International Body Piercing Day”, celebrated in piercing and modification communities worldwide. It coincides with the birthday of Jim Ward, the ‘father of modern piercing’. (How do you suppose they recommend you observe this day?)
• “Tapioca Day”, honoring that stuff you put in pudding that looks like fish eyes in glue.
• “INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY”, to poke fun at those who unnecessarily capitalize letters, words, and phrases. (NOW STOP YELLING!)
• “Paul Bunyan Day”, celebrating the famous American fable about the giant lumberjack who performed incredible feats such as scooping out the Great Lakes to get water for ‘Babe’, his blue ox.
• “National Logistics Day”, Logistics refers to the process of moving and coordinating resources from one location to another. There are many different facets involved, from packaging to shipping. There is also a wealth of equipment, inventory, materials, and people involved. Today, we recognize and appreciate the importance that the logistics sector plays. (All this explains why there’s a charge for shipping!)
AND REMEMBER . . .
[Thurs] Camera Day
[Thurs] Waffle Iron Day
[Fri] International Asteroid Day
[Sat] Chicken Wing Day
This Week is…Tire Safety Week
This Month is…Soul Food Month
TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1926 [97] Mel Brooks (Kaminsky), Brooklyn NY, movie director (“Blazing Saddles”, “Spaceballs”)/movie actor (“Blazing Saddles”, “Spaceballs”)/Broadway producer (“The Producers”)/COMING UP…”Fairy Tale Forest”
1948 [75] Kathy Bates, Memphis TN, movie actress (“Titanic”, “Misery”), TV actress (“American Horror Story”, “The Office”) COMING UP…”A Family Affair”, 2023
1966 [57] Mary Stuart Masterson, New York City NY, movie actress (“Some Kind of Wonderful”, “Benny & Joon”) COMING UP…”The Senior”
1966 [57] John Cusack, Evanston IL, movie actor (“Say Anything”, “Grosse Pointe Blank”)/brother of Joan Cusack and Ann Cusack. COMING UP…”Fog of War”
1970 [53] Mike White, Pasadena CA, TV Producer (“The White Lotus”, “School of Rock”)
1971 [52] Elon Musk, Pretoria South Africa, entrepreneur (founder of PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors, owner of Twitter)/current net worth: $237 billion, #1 in the world)
1977 [46] Mark Stoermer, Houston TX, rock bassist (The Killers-‘Somebody Told Me’)
1986 [37] Kellie Pickler, Albemarle NC, TV personality-actress (“American Idol” finalist 2006, “I Love Kellie Pickler”, “Dancing With the Stars” winner 2013/country singer (‘Red High Heels’)
THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
1998 [25] It’s the first-ever TV ratings week in which more people watch cable/satellite channels than broadcast channels (That CSPAN-3 channel sure is riveting, isn’t it?)
2003 [20] “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”, starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, premieres at Disneyland
TODAY’S MUSIC EVENTS . . .
2003 [20] After Ruben Studdard beats Clay Aiken to win Season 2 of “American Idol”, their first singles debut at the top of the Hot 100. Aiken becomes the first new artist to go straight to #1 with ‘This is the Night’
2007 [16] Spice Girls announce they’ll reform for a world tour to take place in December 2007 and January 2008 with the original line-up (They’ve had 2 more reunions since)
THIS DAY IN SPORTS . . .
1981 [42] Terry Fox, whose one-legged “Marathon of Hope” across Canada in 1980 inspired millions and raised millions of dollars for cancer research, dies of cancer at 22
TODAY’S FIRST . . .
2009 [14] Professor Stephen Hawking hosts a ‘party for time travellers’ at the University of Cambridge, not sending out the invites until after the party. It was poorly-attended
TODAY’S RECORD . . .
1988 [35] An ostrich in Israel lays the ‘Heaviest Bird Egg Ever Recorded’ … 5.1 lbs (2.3 kg). Current record: 5.7 lbs (2.6kg), in 2008
BULL’S BITS
BS WHACK FACTS:
✓ It takes food 7 seconds to travel from the mouth to the stomach.
✓ After smoking, drinking or eating spicy goods, your tastebuds need 24 hours to fully recover.
✓ A person’s sharpest memories are from early adulthood (our 20s).
✓ A day in the age of dinosaurs was just 23 hours long.
✓ A seahorse can move its eyes in opposite directions.
✓ The magic word “abracadabra” was originally intended to be spoken to cure hay fever.
-BestLife, MentalFloss
Best of BS . . .
BS RETIREMENT HOME PICK-UP LINES:
• “Can I borrow your oxygen tank? Because you took my breath away.”
• “Matlock and chill?”
• “Pardon me, but have we met? No, really…honest question.”
• “Your teeth are like stars. They come out at night.”
• “If I said you had a beautiful heating pad, would you hold it against me?”
• “Mmmm, what that intoxicating scent? Vick’s Vapo-rub?”
• “There’s a denture glass by my bed with your name on it.”
• “Hey, baby, I put the ‘O’ in BINGO!”
• “I could die in your arms tonight.”
• “Are those new slacks?”
-Twitter, first published in BS in 2022
CANADIAN PARTY GAMES:
(Canada Day is this Saturday . . .)
• Moose Trap
• Drakes and Ladders
• Are You Smarter Than a Grade Fiver?
• Crazy Ehs
• Rock, Paper, Sorry
• Guess Which Rush Song I’m Air-Drumming
• You Don’t Know Jacques
• Cards Supporting Humanity
• Simon Asks Politely
• Free Operation
-Twitter, first published in BS in 2019
BS WEB GOODIE:
I gotta be me: https://tinyurl.com/mryntxru
BS RANDOM JOKE:
I’m pretty sure that texting “LOL” has gone from meaning “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say.”
BS WOULD YOU RATHER?
(***Run down the list while your participant decides which choice is more palatable …***)
• Would you rather be able to shrink down to the size of an ant, or grow to the size of a skyscraper?
• Would you rather be physically stronger than most people, or be able to fly?
• Would you rather be Adele, or Miley Cyrus?
• Would you rather be Ryan Reynolds, or Brad Pitt?
• Would you rather be reincarnated as a sea creature, or an airborne creature?
• Would you rather eat a raw egg, or a raw onion?
• Would you rather have to always wear heavy boots, or never be able to wear shoes?
• Would you rather live in a country with a low cost of living but horrible weather, or live in a country with a high cost of living and amazing weather?
• Would you rather never have air conditioning, or never be able to use deodorant?
• Would you rather get your wisdom teeth pulled, or your butt cheeks pierced?
BS PHONE STARTER:
What’s the first major news story you remember as a kid?
BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question: Men are 11 times more likely than women to brag about THIS. What is it?
Answer: Their lawn
BS DEEP THOUGHT:
A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.
