CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

1. . . . People do say that on their cell phones. Especially in the subway. It’s one of Verizon’s slogans in their TV commercials. But when they say that, does that mean the person didn’t hear you before and therefore the service isn’t so good the first time? Just asking.
2. P. Diddy’s got a new hairstyle. It looks like a modified mohawk. Guess it’s hip-hop inspired. Real close on the sides and then on the top in the middle sits a mound of hair that goes down the back of the head. He wore it in the New York City Marathon.
3. WONDERLAND. Story of porn star John (Johnny Wadd) Holmes after his film hey day and his connection to a murder spree. He’s all drugs now and in with a rough crowd. Good performance by Val Kilmer as the icon. And yes, he does show his member, but to people in the movie at a party. The film doesn’t show it. It’s real violent and, of course, lots of drug use. Lisa Kudrow plays his estranged wife and does a good job. Has brown - not blond - hair with extra long ponytail. Stylishly directed, mixing in newspaper headlines from the time. Nitty gritty looking.
4. Cal Ripken’s minor league stadium (Ripken Stadium), home of the IronBirds, and future home of a state-of-the-art youth baseball academy in Aberdeen, Md. is right next to my hometown - Havre de Grace. About three miles down the road.
5. EVERYBODY GETS DOLLED UP FOR TV. Even Jessica Lynch. In those promos for her upcoming 90-minute Primetime special with Diane Sawyer her hair’s as blond as Amber Frey’s got when she cropped up in the Scott Peterson case. She wasn’t that light-haired in Iraq – more reddish.
6. J. Lo’s got a development deal with Universal TV for a syndicated talk show to start in the fall of next year. Four women hosts, including sister Linda, will talk culture, beauty, fashion a la The View, reports the Reuters news service. J.Lo herself will make occasional appearances. Gee, can’t wait.
7. If anybody’s wondering, Crystal Gayle, youngest sister of Loretta Lynn and the one with that long brown hair trailing down her back, is still around. She got good reviews for her shows at Feinstein’s at the Regency in New York last week. Singing mostly pop standards now. She’s the Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue (1971) gal. The New York Times got the title wrong. They said Your Brown Eyes. T’ain’t true.
8. MEN WEAR JEWELRY TOO. Rapper Nelly and singer Michelle Branch were burglarized last week in Las Vegas while there for the 2003 Radio Music Awards show. The thieves made away with $1 million in jewelry from Nelly’s hotel room and computer equipment from Branch’s. You’d think it would be the other way around.
9. Rosie O’Donnell’s talking too much after her trial each day. What does she think she’s doing, her TV show out there in front of the cameras? She better shut up.
10. Illusionist David Blaine, who spent 44 days without food in a plastic box suspended above the ground near Tower Bridge in London, pooped in diapers while he was up there. I read it.
11. Tovah Feldshuh, who plays Golda Meir in Golda’s Balcony on Broadway, looks something like Ruth Buzzi did when she played that old woman who used to bang people on the head on Laugh- In. It’s the Red Cross shoes and the thick support hose that look similar.
12. The movie preview for Will Ferrell’s Christmas movie Elf looks totally unfunny.
13. DRESSING DOWN AGAIN. Oops, there’s another picture of Tom Cruise in his standard black T and jeans. This time on the cover of women’s mag, Marie Claire. It’s the first time in 10 years they’ve put a man on it. He’s got one hand in the pocket of his Diesel jeans and the other one’s fingering through his long locks. How may shots in this pose have we seen?
14. "CUFF ‘IM." That’s what tough guy David Caruso (Horatio) said to a cop when they handcuffed the bad guy on CSI: Miami last week. Short and sweet.
15. Kiwi, the shoe polish people, now have a disinfectant spray called Fresh Force. A funky smelling sneaker turns into a skunk in the commercial to illustrate the point. The product sprays two ways when you put it in the shoe - one toward the heel and one toward the toe. No more stink and no more skunk.
16. The government says it’s okay to eat cloned animals. I’ll be darned if I would. What if another one reproduces itself in my stomach?
17. Some people are asking why Leon Harris left CNN to come to D.C.’s Channel 7 to do the news. The answer to that is probably, mainly this: Money.
18. Natalie Cole’s 1975 hit single, This Will Be, is used to ear-deafening effect in the movie preview for the new Hugh Grant film, Love Always. When you see it in the movies and on TV, the vocal is so sharp and high-pitched it cuts right through your eardrums. Take out a little treble and add some bass, will ya please?
19. CSI: CRIME SCENE INSECTS. What? An exhibit inspired by the TV show is at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul. It explores forensics and how studying insects - like maggots - can crack cases and bring killers to justice. They can help investigators determine things like elapsed time since death. Cool.
20. THING HAPPENING. Male anchors and reporters not wearing a tie with their jackets. Bob Goen and Mark Steines at Entertainment Tonight have been doing it for awhile and it’s filtering to some news types. Some sports anchors and weathermen are doing it too. The young CNN tech news reporter Daniel Sieberg does it and even Terry Moran of ABC, when he traveled with the president to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, appeared two times on World News Tonight without a nagging old tie on. Think Brian Williams will do it?
21. The dancing shtick that Ellen DeGeneres does on her show after the monologue was somewhat halted one day a couple weeks ago. The DJ was playing Rock Steady by Aretha Franklin and Ellen was beginning her dance but she wasn’t very into it because she couldn’t hear it through the studio speakers. It needed to be turned up. So don’t let it happen a second time and fire somebody if it does.
22. Ann Curry of the Today show made a good Annie Oakley on Halloween. The hair bangs, the rifle, the cowgirl hat and two-toned boots that looked like spats were a hoot.
23. Long-time TV anchor Carole Simpson has left World News Tonight Sunday to become an "ambassador" for ABC News. She’ll visit public schools to talk to students about the media and reporting but will continue to do on-air work for ABC on TV, radio and specials. She had an impressive long run on that show
24. "NEVER WEAR BLACK WITHOUT THE BLUE." Selsun Blue, that is. That stuff work without eating through your scalp?
25. So Dennis Miller’s gonna get a late-night talk show on CNBC in January. Who cares? (Used to be a fan. He wore it out.)
26. SHATTERED GLASS. Pretty good movie. Base on a true story of New Republic writer Stephen Glass who was found to have made up most of his stories for the magazine in the mid- 1990s. Hayden Christensen, Anakin Skywalker in the last and upcoming Star Wars movies, plays Glass and Peter Sarsgaard plays mag editor Chuck Lane who’s onto him. Both performances are good but Sarsgaard’s is really shrewd and cold. Terrific. And the same movie could be made all over again of the most recently caught fabricator, Jayson Blair.
27. That picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger sitting down with Sen. Dianne Feinstein last week while he was on Capitol Hill to ask for money to help with the California wildfires was nice except for one thing.. Conservatively dressed he was, but it looked like he had clown shoes on his feet. They looked like Doc Martens or something.
28. A friend of mine is sick of George Clooney being in Washington. (Shooting K Street for HBO) "He makes me wanna get outta town." she said.
29. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, was in her neighborhood Petco where the birds are last weekend with owner Sally. I was there, talking to the birds and Hanalie started barking up a storm. She was jealous I was doing that. She wants all the attention.
30. Matt Lauer overdoes his homework. He acts sometimes like he knows more than the guests.
31. UH . . . All I Know - Art Garfunkel on Columbia. 1973.

rocci@roccifisch.com

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