Thursday, January 19, 2012        Edition: #4672

We’re Bullish on Radio!

BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
Filmmaker George Lucas tells “NY Times” he’s retiring and ‘moving away’ from the movie biz, a decision he says is prompted by the rejection he’s felt for his new film “Red Tails”, an action film featuring an all-black cast (opening Friday) . . . “Glee” actor Cory Monteith tells E! Online he’ll be back for the show’s 4th season, even though he’ll be graduating from ‘McKinley High’ and his character ‘Finn’ has proposed to girlfriend ‘Rachel’ (played by Lea Michele) . . . Meantime, movie actor Jeff Goldblum & Broadway star Brian Stokes will team up to play the same-sex adoptive parents of ‘Rachel’ in a special Valentine’s Day “Glee” episode (in case you ever wanted to hear Goldblum sing) . . . 32-year-old “New Girl” star Zooey Deschanel tells the February issue of “Allure” magazine she was bullied in middle school and high school, some girls actually spitting in her face (success is the best revenge!) . . . Facing a lawsuit for further compensation, producers of the snake-bit Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” have now filed a counter-suit against former director Julie Taymor, accusing her of putting together a sub-standard show (this production has been a tragedy from day one) . . . Britney Spears’ former bodyguard, Fernando Flores, claims to have inked a $1-million deal to release a tell-all book about her ‘threesomes, orgies, girls making out, and hot tub sessions’ while on tour (funny, he fails to name the publisher) . . . 37-year-old movie star Leonardo DiCaprio says he’s not motivated by winning awards but by ‘being able to work with great people’ to create a body of work he can be proud of (BS translation: He doesn’t expect to win an Oscar this year either) . . . And Suri Cruise tops a new poll of the ‘Best Dressed Celebrity Children’, the 5-year-old daughter of Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes beating out the likes of David & Victoria Beckham’s Harper Seven, Madonna’s daughter Lourdes, and Brangelina’s Zahara Jolie Pitt (all of whom will likely need therapy in later life).

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated/CTV2) – Adam Lambert (“Trespassing”, out March 20th).
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/CHCH) – Filter (“Trouble With Angels”).
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – Foster the People (“Torches”). Rerun.
• “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV2) – Avett Brothers (“Live – Volume 3”).
• “Late Show With David Letterman” (CBS/NTV/Omni1) – Joseph Arthur (“Graduation Ceremony”).
• “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” (NBC/CTV2) – David Nail (“The Sound Of a Million Dreams”).
• “Wendy Williams” (syndicated) – Ne-Yo (“The Apprenticeship of Mr Smith”).

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Beyoncé – A newly discovered horsefly in Australia has been named after her. Bryan Lessard, a researcher at the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization, says the ‘Scaptia (Plinthina) Beyonceae’ is bootylicious due to its … gold-colored backside.
• Big Time Rush – A new ebook has been released featuring the Nickelodeon band. “Big Time Rush: The Graphic Novel” chronicles their lives from childhood to their recent huge success.
• Blake Shelton – This week the country star has postponed several concerts on his “Well Lit & Amplified Tour 2012” due to the death of his father Tuesday night. Shows in Montana, North & South Dakota are being rescheduled.
• Bruno Mars – Yesterday a cocaine possession charge stemming from his 2010 arrest at a Las Vegas hotel was dismissed, thanks to his completion of court-ordered drug education classes and  230 hours of community service … 30 more than required.
• Eric Church – Tonight his 50-city “Blood, Sweat & Beers Tour” begins in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  His first arena tour as a headliner is in support of his 3rd album, “Chief”.
• Katy Perry – Electronic Arts has announced plans to develop multiple ‘Sims’ games with Katy-themed content. She’ll also work closely with the studio to create accessories, clothing, hairstyles, furniture and props in the games. The first release will be a collector’s edition of “The Sims 3: Showtime”, due out in March.
• Lady Antebellum – “Just a Kiss” has just reached Double-Platinum status, signifying 2 million digital downloads.
• Taylor Swift – In the February edition of “Vogue”, she admits she’s a bit of a fretter. Quote: “I overanalyze myself into being a big bag of worries.” She’s the first country singer to ever appear on the mag’s cover.
• Weezer – Today the 5-day ‘Weezer Cruise’ sets sail from Miami, Florida. During the trek, frontman Rivers Cuomo does a reading from his “Pinkerton Diaries”, guitarist Brian Bell hosts ‘Movie Night’, drummer Pat Wilson runs a shuffleboard tournament, and bassist Scott Shriner leads couples in wedding-vow renewals.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:
A BS selection of movies in the making …
• “Eating Animals”– 30-year-old actress Natalie Portman has reportedly signed on to shoot a movie about the benefits of becoming a vegan. According to author Jonathan Safran Foer, Portman approached him last Summer about adapting his book for a film project. Three years ago, she publicly credited the book with helping her to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
• “From These Roots” – Aretha Franklin has revealed her wish-list for the cast of the bio-pic based on her 1999 autobiography. She wants Halle Berry to play her in the movie, and Nia Long, Kerry Washington, and Blair Underwood in supporting roles. Berry claims she won’t be able to take on the lead role because she can’t sing. Hey, nobody sings like the ‘Queen of Soul’.
• “Oldboy” – Director Spike Lee’s remake of Korean filmmaker Chan-wook Park’s 2003 movie is having trouble keeping a cast. Josh Brolin will star, but both Colin Firth and then Clive Owen bailed on the role as the key villain; and Mia Wasikowska (“Alice in Wonderland”) has had to be brought in to fill the female lead vacated by Rooney Mara (“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”).
• “Skyfall” – Budget cuts are causing the 23rd instalment of the ‘James Bond’ franchise to be shot almost entirely in Britain instead of on location in 6 different countries as planned, including Bali and China. Turkey is now the sole foreign location being used. Shooting is already underway in London with an eye to a November release date.
• “Snow Piercer” – Tilda Swinton and Jamie Bell are in talks to join Chris Evans in this indie drama that follows a group of train passengers who must help each other in order to survive severe Winter conditions. It will be the first American movie by Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho (“The Host”). Production is expected to start in March.

FAKIN’ IT:
An economics professor at Emory University has developed what he calls a ‘Rational Expectations Signaling Model of Lovemaking’ that makes predictions about the likelihood of … faking orgasm. Specifically, he predicts that middle-aged women are less likely to fake than older and younger women, and that true love makes people more likely to fake. Testing the model against survey data, he’s found that middle-aged women are indeed less likely to fake, but only if they’re in love. He’s also found an unexpected result … more highly educated men and women are more likely to fake it. (As well as ‘professional ladies’.)
– “Boston Globe”

WORLD’S STRANGEST CONVENTIONS:
Actual annual get-togethers that just might be weirder than anything we could make up …
• Fur-Con – A gathering people who are interested in the concept of fictional non-human characters with human characteristics. In other words … people who dress up as animals.
• Lebowski Fest – A yearly gathering of fans of the 1998 cult film-pop culture phenomenon “The Big Lebowski”. ‘The Dude’ himself (Jeff Bridges) attended the 2005 edition in Los Angeles.
• Office Convention – An annual get-together for fans of the NBC-TV comedy “The Office”. The 3-day convention is held in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the show is based.
• RedHead Day – Every Summer in the city of Bréda in The Netherlands, thousands of redheads gather for a free festival to celebrate having naturally red hair.
• Sideshow Convention – Held annually in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, it attracts carnival performers who walk on glass, swallow swords, eat lightbulbs, put hooks in their eyes, etc.
• TattooFest – This 4-day festival held in Tampa Bay, Florida each Spring attracts tattoo artists from all over the world for competitions, plus on-the-spot tattooing and body piercing.
– Oddee.com

WEB PROTEST:
You may have noticed some of your favorite websites, ie: Wikipedia, have been voluntarily shut down for the past 24 hours. So what’s that all about? It’s a protest over the proposed ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ (SOPA) currently before the US Congress. It aims to protect intellectual property in the digital age by stopping Internet piracy and copyright infringement. Opponents say the bill endangers free speech and sets a precedent for Internet censorship. (We’re against web regulation … as well as huge corporations like Google and Facebook manipulating the web to invade users’ privacy.)
– CNN Money

LOST IN TRANSLATION:
According to the book “Japanese Jive” by George Fields, English-language brand names are hot in Japan, no matter if they make sense or not.  See if you can guess what these English-named Japanese products are …
• ‘Creap’ (coffee creamer)
• ‘Love Love’ (razor)
• ‘Meltykiss’ (chocolates)
• ‘Mouth Jazz’ (mouthwash)
• ‘Super Winky’ (condoms)
– PA News

PHANTOM BUZZ:
BlackBerrys and iPhones are meant to help workers manage their workload by giving them access to messages and alerts while away from the office, but the authors of a new study say many people have become so obsessive about checking email and social networking sites they’ve actually become more stressed as a result. Some are so hooked on their devices they even experience ‘phantom vibrations’ whereby they mistakenly believe their phone is buzzing in their pocket. (Try a day without a phone … watch your blood pressure go down like 50%.)
– “Telegraph”

BS AMAZING FACTS:
• Bacteria-infested water droplets from a sneeze can float in the air for up to 40 minutes.  (Take about air pollution!)
– “Omni”
• More US soldiers killed themselves than died in combat in 2010, a first in the history of any American war.
– TTP

BS CHRONOMETER 01.19.12