BITS AND PIECES 12/08
PUSSSYKATT
--Supermodel/"Good Day New York" reporter Carol Alt will serve as Grand Marshal
of the inaugural Macy's Holiday Parade, which will run for a month at Universal
Studios in Orlando, Fla. beginning this Friday. Alt will report live for "GDNY"
on Friday. Also scheduled to march in the opening of the parade are Food
Network's Emeril Lagasse and Lance Bass and Joey Fatone (N*SYNC). This marks
the first time in its 76-year history that the New York Macy's Parade - a
Thanksgiving staple - will hit the road.
--Robert Marianetti and David Wachtenheim want everyone to know that their
studio has been been the primary animation home for Robert Smigel's "TV
Funhouse" segments on "Saturday Night Live" for the past four years.
Wachtenheim/Marianetti LLC was formed when Wachtenheim and Marianetti - who had
worked at J.J. Sedelmaier's studio - were asked by Smigel to continue doing his
animation through their own company. They were the Animation Creative Directors
on Smigel's Comedy Central show ("TV Funhouse") and they did an "X-Presidents"
graphic novel for Smigel a couple of years ago. Their next "SNL" 'toon will air
Dec. 14 - when Smigel (who also voices "Late Night's" Triumph the Insult Comic
Dog), takes on "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in his own twisted way. Al Gore
hosts that show, with Phish as the musical guest.
--HBO's "Sex and the City" begins airing back-to-back episodes tonight (8-9
p.m.). Those episodes will air every Sunday through Jan. 19, starting with
episode #61, "The Good Fight" (from the bonus season 4) and continuing with all
eight episodes from season 5. These same episodes will also air in a
mini-marathon on New Year's Eve from 10 p.m. to 5:10 a.m. New Year's Day.
Meanwhile, the show's book, "Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell" (Pocket Books) is
still available as a good stocking stuffer. It includes interviews with all the
cast members and much more.
--Roone Arledge's family will be receiving friends today from 5 to 8 p.m. at
Frank E. Campbell, 1076 Madison Ave. at 81st St. A funeral service will be held
tomorrow (10:30 a.m.) at St. Bartholomew's Church, 109 East 50th. between Park
and Lexington.
--Eight new episodes of "War Stories with Oliver North" begin airing tonight (8
p.m.) on Fox News Channel.
--"Sopranos" star Jamie-Lynn Sigler (Meadow) hanging out at The World Bar in
Trump World Tower after her performances as Belle in "Beauty and the Beast" -
but refusing to let anyone know what happens in tonight's "Sopranos" season
finale.
--Tony LoBianco huddling with Court TV chief Henry Schleiff about starring in
an original movie for the network.
NY POST/PAGE SIX...
--RAPPER Busta Rhymes rues the day when people started posting embarrassing
concert tour riders on the Internet. "We used to ask promoters to have [women]
backstage!" Rhymes reminisces to vh1.com. "We'd have some condoms and get some
[women] backstage. Break it out or we ain't coming! Then the Internet came into
effect. When the whole world can find out that you asked for 12 packs of
condoms or an ounce of weed on your rider, it creates a whole other issue for
you to deal with."
--Pete Sampras, who has some Jewish blood, emphasized his Greek Orthodox Church
heritage when it came to naming his son. He and his beautiful wife, who has a
hot-tub scene in "Extreme Ops," named the boy Christian . . .
--Robert Downey Jr. is still best buds with his estranged wife, singer Deborah
Falconer. The pair is hosting Flaunt magazine’s fourth-anniversary party at
the W Hotel in Union Square tomorrow. Falconer - who had a son, Indio, 9, with
Downey before they split - will perform some of her songs . . .
--Tyrese will replace Vin Diesel in the sequel to "The Fast and the Furious."
Shooting starts after the singer promotes his album "I Wanna Go There" . . .
--Robin Leach bought some expensive baubles for his favorite lady from jeweler
Dana Duneier, but wouldn’t reveal her name . . .
--Jack Osbourne will grace the cover of DNR Dec. 16 and inside pages, modeling
everything from Dolce & Gabbana to Roberto Cavalli.
--RON Silver tipping 25 percent at Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse in D.C. after
dinner with an extremely high-ranking Bush administration official . . . BROOKE
Astor, in mink, braving Thursday’s snowstorm with Annette de la Renta to hit
the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House’s Holiday Bazaar at Sotheby’s. She bid
$600 on a pair of dog beds for dachshunds Boysie and Girlie.
--AXL Rose never got to the birthday party photographer David LaChappelle threw
for his transsexual muse, Amanda Lapore, at Spa Thursday night. The Guns N’
Roses frontman arrived at about 3 a.m., but he was wearing a fur coat, and the
club has a policy against fur. One of the women in Axl’s entourage checked
her fur at a nearby parking garage, but angry Axl stalked off as his friends
went in to find Robert Downey Jr., who confessed he was a big fan of
LaChappelle’s photos of Lapore’s fake breasts. Downey asked if he could
kiss them. Sure, she said. So he did.
--GEORGE Brett was a pioneer nearly 20 years ago when the Hall of Famer missed
some Kansas City Royals games with hemorrhoids and ended up with a lucrative
contract to endorse Preparation H. Now both Rafael Palmeiro, first baseman for
the Texas Rangers, and Brazilian soccer legend Pele are in ads for Viagra.
Forbes.com, in a feature on "celebrity drug pushers," reports TV "Wonder Woman"
Lynda Carter hawks Zelnorm, a drug for irritable-bowel syndrome, from which her
mother suffered for 30 years. Ice skater Dorothy Hamill touts the benefits of
Vioxx, a medicine from Merck for osteoarthritis. Football’s Ricky Williams
touts Paxil (GlaxoSmithKline) to relieve his social anxiety. Debbie Reynolds
pushes Detrol LA (Pharmacia) to relieve her overactive bladder. Kathleen Turner
plugs Embrel (Amgel) for her rheumatoid arthritis. And Rob Lowe promotes
Neutasta (Amgen), which might have prevented his father from getting an
infection during chemotherapy.
--FLAMBOYANT interior decorator Bobby Trendy is still baring his claws at his
former employer Anna Nicole Smith. Trendy - who is trying to have $50,000 of
Smith’s furniture repossessed for nonpayment - brought a drag queen Anna
impersonator with him to Motorola’s Christmas party at the Lot in West
Hollywood Thursday night. "It was hilarious," chuckles our spy. "Everyone
thought it was Anna at first, but at second look, you could tell it was a man."
Trendy and his hulking Smith lookalike drew stares from the likes of Demi
Moore, Christina Aguilera, Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Tori Spelling, Paris
Hilton and Johnny Knoxville.
NY DAILY NEWS/RUSH AND MOLLOY...
--Rocker Chrissie Hynde is now using business scandals to promote her new CD.
The Pretenders singer says that the solution to the socioeconomic problems
caused by multinational corporations and the politicians that aid them is to
whack 'em. Hynde says in the final issue of Pulse magazine that multinational
companies "are destroying the planet." "The last resort is for someone to go in
and actually take these guys out," she says. "Maybe it will have to be an
out-and-out assassination. When no one will listen anymore, then individuals
have to take the law into their own hands and it can get very ugly. When some
people decide to run the world for their own economic interests, then someone
has to take them out." Hynde's spokeswoman Sage Robinson says: "I'm sure she
didn't mean that. I don't know what the context of that article is. There may
be a misconception about what she said." Maybe. But this is the same volatile
vegetarian vixen who has called for McDonald's restaurants to be burned down.
Look forward to more words of wisdom from Hynde come February, when The
Pretenders hit New York to promote their new release, "Loose Screw."
--New York plunged into Middle Earth at the premiere of "The Lord of the Rings:
The Two Towers," Thursday night. The main branch of the Public Library was
turned into a banquet hall, where models dressed as elves scampered around a
sculpture of "Rings" star Ian McKellen sitting on a horse. Gov. Pataki,
Muhammad Ali, Monica Lewinsky, Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, James Caan, Matthew
Modine and Susan Sarandon were among those who feasted on shepherd's pie and
slabs of meat and talked with cast members Liv Tyler, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin
and Bill Boyd. For all the merriment, director Peter Jackson said his fantasy
movie resonates in a post-9/11 world. "What happened in New York last year was
a murderous act," Jackson told us. "The attackers have to be hunted down and
punished." Jackson said that he and New Line executives considered changing the
name of the movie after the attack. But "it just didn't feel appropriate to
change" the J.R.R. Tolkien title. Elsewhere, "Rings" actor John Rhys-Davies
showed us the "hospital buzz cut" he got in Croatia after his injury on the set
of "La Femme Musketeer." "A wall dropped on me," said the actor who plays
Gimley the Dwarf. "It took 30 men to lift it off me."
--A mini-desert-storm has broken out over HBO's Gulf War docudrama, "Live From
Baghdad." The cable net will update the telemovie after viewers - including
Harper's magazine publisher John R. MacArthur - expressed concern over a
potentially misleading scene in the dramatization of CNN's reporting during the
last Iraqi conflict. In the film, which aired last night, CNN investigates
claims that Iraqi soldiers murdered sick Kuwaiti babies by dumping them from
their incubators. A nervous Kuwaiti doctor, accompanied by Iraqi soldiers who
are clearly pulling his strings, denies it ever happened. The CNN producers
whisper to each other: "This sucks, he's scared," before the Iraqi handlers
abruptly halt questioning. Trouble is, the doctor was telling the truth. It
really didn't happen. The baby-killing story was a fabrication told by the
Kuwaiti ambassador's daughter to Congress to whip up sympathy for their cause.
MacArthur, who broke the news that the story wasn't true, told us: "It's a
distortion. The atrocity was entirely fake." An HBO rep said, "We're
sympathetic to some of the inquiries we've received and are going to add a coda
to the film that will clarify the situation. "It's not humanly possible to have
it in time for the premiere on Saturday, but we will try to have it for repeat
screenings. [But] every subsequent version, including the home video and DVD,
will have it."
Las Vegas Review-Journal/NORM CLARKE
--In this June 18 file photo, "Real World Las Vegas" cast members Arissa, left,
and Alton talk about their experiences during the show's taping. The "Real
World Las Vegas" book is out, and the cast came away with the same impressions
of Las Vegas as most of us do. There are some weird people in this town.
Arissa, the only cast member still living in Las Vegas, said the group was
approached by "this one gentleman who we thought was cool in the beginning. But
then he started singing to us -- every time he saw us. "Then one time we were
at ghostbar (Palms), and the next thing you know his CD comes on. And anytime
we were around him, he would get his CD on somehow. That was damn tiresome."
Cast member Irulan came away thinking, "Vegas guys are like guys from New
Jersey. They had the plucked eyebrows, the tight shirts, the gold chains, the
frosted lips and the shades -- they were ridiculous."
--Michael Jackson has reportedly canceled out of Monday's Billboard Music
Awards show, where he was to be recognized for the 20th anniversary of
"Thriller," the biggest-selling album in history. Jackson missed a court
appearance late last week in Santa Maria, Calif., after suffering a spider bite
at his Neverland ranch. ...
--Future Hall of Fame pitchers Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson and recording
artists Jewel and George Strait at Thomas & Mack for the NFR. ...
--The Stratosphere, aglow Saturday night from top to bottom in changing hues of
green, purple, blue and red, for a taping of Creed for Monday's Billboard
telecast.
--Justin Timberlake, rehearsing "Cry Me a River" with a cast on his ankle
Saturday at the MGM Grand, in preparation for the Billboard show. ...
E! ONLINE...by Marcus Errico
--Hundreds of the 14,000 fans on hand for a sold-out Guns N' Roses show
reportedly tore through Philadelphia's First Union Center after the band
canceled. An unnamed band member was said to be ill. A similar riot occurred a
month ago in Vancouver when Axl Rose was AWOL.
--With Liam Gallagher's two front teeth repaired, Oasis due to resume its
European tour Sunday in Wales. Gallagher lost the choppers in a Munich bar
fight last weekend.
--Miss Turkey Azra Akin won the Miss World crown Saturday. The pageant had to
be relocated to London after deadly riots in Nigeria.
--Latin singer Marc Anthony and his wife, former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres,
renewing their wedding vows Saturday at San Juan Cathedral, Anthony's publicist
said. The wedding comes five months after they announced they were separating.
ASSOCIATED PRESS...
--Katharine Hepburn has given a gift to her town — a portrait of her that had
hung over the fireplace in her New York City apartment. The oil painting, which
is being framed in a Hartford gallery, will be installed in the archives
building of the town historical society. "It's an outstanding work of art,"
said Judy Ramirez, the museum chairwoman. "The artist caught her expressions
wonderfully — even the little thing she does with her mouth. It's so
lifelike." The town learned of the gift this summer when Hepburn's New York
accountant, Erik Hanson, called and said the four-time Oscar winner wanted to
give the oil painting of herself to the town. The portrait, which shows Hepburn
dressed casually in khakis, a black turtleneck and sneakers, was painted by her
old friend Myfanwy Pavelic. Pavelic, a well-known portrait artist from British
Columbia, did the painting about 30 years ago. The 95-year-old actress is in
frail health and lives in seclusion in her house in Fenwick. The home was a
summer enclave she first began visiting with her family in 1913.
--For the younger generation of military fighters overseas, comic actor Robin
Williams may be the 21st century's Bob Hope. "They love him. He's all they talk
about," Hollywood ambassador Johnny Grant said Friday after completing a 10-day
USO trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan to visit U.S. service personnel fighting
the war on terrorism. It was Grant's 56th overseas mission to entertain
American fighting men and women. His troupe included Dennis Haskins of "Saved
by the Bell," Kate Linder of "The Young and the Restless," and LeeAnn Tweedon
of Fox Sports' "The Best Damn Sports Show Period." Grant, 79, never goes
overseas without conducting his ritual poll asking military personnel to name
the celebrities they would most like to meet. "Robin Williams is the big
thing," said Grant, who arrived in Afghanistan three weeks after Williams
visited them. "The young GIs now have their own Bob Hope and it's Robin
Williams. They were all talking about him. I think they really appreciated him
coming home and calling big names and asking them to go over there." Other
favorites requested were Adam Sandler, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, George
Clooney, Denzel Washington and Josh Hartnett. Athletes are also very big —
"Charles Barkley would be a huge hit," Grant said.
--Yoko Ono called for peace and global solidarity Sunday, the anniversary of
the murder of her husband, the Beatle John Lennon, in New York 22 years ago.
www.zap2it.com...
-- In a move to open up its schedule for more acquired programming, BET is
canceling two of its news shows and a public-affairs series aimed at teenagers.
"BET Tonight with Ed Gordon" and "Lead Story" will leave the cable network's
lineup at the end of the year. "Teen Summit" has stopped production, but fresh
episodes will continue to air into 2003. About 40 people will lose their jobs
as a result. The cancellations leave the network, which targets African
Americans, with one regular news program, "BET Nightly News." Network
president Debra Lee says the shows were bumped as part of a decision to focus
more on "acquired" programming -- shows made by outside providers. "Our new
focus will strike a better balance between original programming and an increase
in acquired shows," Lee tells the Washington Post. "It's always difficult to
lose people as part of a business process, but these changes are our effort to
support our new programming direction at BET." It's unclear whether Gordon,
who's hosted "BET Tonight" since 1999, will remain with the network. Media
conglomerate Viacom, which also owns CBS, UPN and MTV Networks, acquired BET
last year.
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Julie B.
his
> former employer Anna Nicole Smith. Trendy - who is trying to have $50,000
of
> Smith's furniture repossessed for nonpayment - brought a drag queen Anna
> impersonator with him to Motorola's Christmas party at the Lot in West
> Hollywood Thursday night. "It was hilarious," chuckles our spy. "Everyone
> thought it was Anna at first, but at second look, you could tell it was a
man."
> Trendy and his hulking Smith lookalike drew stares from the likes of Demi
> Moore, Christina Aguilera, Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Tori Spelling,
Paris
> Hilton and Johnny Knoxville.
I can't stand ANS, but the depths of my annoyance with Bobby Trendy almost
make me LIKE her.
--
Julie B.
Remove the "NOSPAM" to e-mail me.