Friday, February 24, 2012        Edition: #4692

Another Sheetload of Bull!

BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is officially set to launch his own TV network called ‘Revolt’ in 2013 with cable provider Comcast as distributor (it will showcase music videos, news, live performances, and interviews) . . . Aspiring director Sean Stone (son of legendary filmmaker Oliver Stone) converted to Islam in Iran last week and has already started griping about how he’s getting the cold shoulder in Hollywood (he has a new movie coming out – coincidence?) . . . TV actress Christa Miller’s former manager is claiming the “Cougar Town” star owes her 200-grand for landing her a gig on the show (kind of funny because Miller’s married to the show’s creator Bill Lawrence) . . . “Glee” star Amber Riley (‘Mercedes Jones’) says she decided to revamp her eating habits 8 months ago and has since managed to drop 2 dress sizes (the bad news is, they’re size 34 and 32) . . . In the March edition of “Playboy”, TV actor David Cross (“The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret”) claims he once snorted cocaine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner while sitting just 65 feet away from President Obama (good luck ever getting another invite, Mr Blabby) . . . TV actress Sarah Hyland’s boyfriend, Matt Prokop, has just landed a role alongside her on “Modern Family” playing – her boyfriend (proving it pays to date the famous) . . . It looks like things are still going strong between actors Zoe Saldana (“Avatar”) & Bradley Cooper (“The Hangover”) as she was recently spotted on a movie date – with his mom (you know things are getting serious when …) . . . And it’s been confirmed by the publisher that actress Angelina Jolie has written the foreword for her ex Billy Bob Thorton’s new memoir, “The Billy Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts” (we presume he used their collected blood for ink).

WEEKEND SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Academy Awards” (ABC/CTV) – Sunday Billy Crystal hosts the 84th annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences gala from Hollywood. A few highlights …
– Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” has an impressive 11 nominations to top all others.
– “The Artist”, a French silent film, is considered the odds-on favorite to win ‘Best Picture’. If it does, it would be the first silent film to do so since “Wings” at the first-ever Oscars in 1929.
– Rapper/producer Pharrell Williams is a ‘music consultant’ for the broadcast.
– The Oscars permanent home, the ‘Kodak Theatre’, is no longer being called that as the struggling company has withdrawn sponsorship. The venue is now referred to as the ‘Hollywood & Highland Center’ (until naming rights are re-sold).
• “Daytona 500” (FOX) – Sunday is the 54th annual running of the ‘Great American Race’ at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach FL, which kicks off the NASCAR racing season. Lenny Kravitz performs a pre-race concert; Pat Monahan (Train) sings the anthem; WWE star John Cena is the hononary starter for the race.
NET: http://www.daytonaintlspeedway.com
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – Tonight the Joy Formidable (“The Big Roar”).
• “Late Show With David Letterman” (CBS/NTV/Omni1) – Tonight We Are Augustines (“Rise Ye Sunken Ships”).
• “Live With Kelly” (syndicated/CTV) – Today Colbie Caillat (“All Of You”).
• “NBA All-Star Game” (TNT/TSN) – Sunday the 61st annual from Amway Center in Orlando FL. Mary J Blige sings the pre-game anthem; Pitbull w/Ne-Yo and Nicki Minaj perform at halftime.
• “Saturday Night Live” (NBC/Global) – Host Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”); musical guest Maroon 5 (“Hands All Over”).
• “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” (NBC/CTV2) – Tonight Adam Levine (Maroon 5); Chiddy Bang (“The Preview”).

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Adele – Someone’s taken the time to calculate that a copy of her album “21” was purchased every 8 seconds in 2011. And new stats show that sales of “21” increased by 207% following her multiple “Grammy Award” wins.
• Aretha Franklin – She’s told the media to ‘stop the BS’ about why she didn’t attend Whitney Houston’s funeral last weekend. She was having leg spasms, people! (Huh?)
• Chris Brown – Friends of he and Rihanna are reportedly begging them NOT to get back together for their own good. A source tells TMZ that Brown has extremely strong feelings for Rihanna … current girlfriend Karrueche Tran be damned.
• Johnny Cash – He’ll be the focus of a series of tributes this year (he would have turned 80 February 26th), starting with Sunday’s official ground-breaking of the ‘Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Project’ in Dyess, Arkansas, a restoration of the house he grew up in.
• Reba McEntire – Sunday she’s the headliner at the day-long “International Festival of Country Music” at Wembley Arena in London, England, her first UK appearance in a dozen years. Also on the bill: Lonestar, reunited with original lead singer Richie McDonald. Similar events are planned for upcoming dates in Ireland, Switzerland, and Germany.
• Rolling Stones – Ronnie Wood has started another 50th anniversary tour rumor, saying that the band has already had a jam together and are ‘ready to go’. They’ll celebrate their half-centenary on June 20, 2012.
• Whitney Houston – Ever the author of non-classy moves, her ex-husband Bobby Brown is reportedly shopping a tell-all book about their relationship that he wrote in 2008, according to HuffingtonPost.com. Back then interest in a book on Whitney wasn’t all that great.

TODAY’S MOVIE OPENINGS:
• “Act of Valor” ( R-Rated Action Adventure ): An elite team of Navy SEALs embarks on a covert mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent. Stars Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sanchez, Nestor Serrano, Alexander Asefa. Features actual, active-duty US Navy SEALs.
NET: http://www.actofvalor.com
• “Gone” ( PG-13 Thriller ): Amanda Seyfried plays a young woman who becomes convinced that a serial killer who kidnapped her 2 years previously has returned when her sister disappears. Co-stars Jennifer Carpenter, Wes Bentley, Daniel Sunjata.
NET: http://www.gone-movie.com
• “Good Deeds” ( PG-13 Romantic Comedy ): In his latest project, Tyler Perry plays a businessman jolted out of his mundane life when he meets a single mother who works on the cleaning crew in his office building. Co-stars Gabrielle Union, Thandie Newton, Eddie Cibrian.
NET: http://www.gooddeedsmovie.com
• “Wanderlust” ( R-Rated Comedy ): Jennifer Aniston & Paul Rudd play a newly unemployed Manhattan couple who experiment with living on a rural commune where free love rules. Co-stars Justin Theroux. Word has it Aniston’s topless scene did not make the final cut.
NET: http://www.wanderlustmovie.net

WHAT MAKES YUMMY YUMMY:
As humans, we’re designed to prefer sweet foods and dislike bitter ones. Sweet equals survival – think breast milk – and bitter may mean something’s toxic. Some foods might register as a big ‘yuck’ with your child because he/she actually has more taste buds than you do (we lose them as we age), so the flavor of foods is amplified for little ones. Your child could also be genetically wired to be more sensitive to bitter foods, as research clearly shows some kids are. (Good luck with the lima beans!)
– “Parenting Magazine”

LIFE BY THE NUMBERS:
A statistical look at who we are and the things we do …
• 78% of women say their partner annoyingly leaves dirty dishes in the sink every day. (Gotta give them marks for consistency!)
• 33% of women carry an extra pair of shoes with them daily. (The ‘sensible’ ones.)
• 20% of pet owners allow their critter to share their bed. (Substantially less if their pet is a bird.)
• 17% of women admit they have accidentally dropped makeup in a toilet. (No stats on retrieval.)
• 11% of us clean the tableware before eating in a restaurant. (Unfortunately it’s with the dirty napkin.)
• 8% of parents admit they have ‘baby name regret’. (How do you think little Trixibelle feels?)

‘HAPPY HOUR’ ISN’T:
Happy hour is not when you might expect it to be, according to a new analysis of a half-billion Twitter messages from around-the-globe. On average, we’re the most chipper when we wake up and become grouchier as the day wears on. This pattern holds true on weekends but is delayed by about 2 hours – a trend confirmed in tweets from the United Arab Emirates, where the work week is Sunday through Thursday. The findings suggest that our sleep schedule strongly influences our mood cycles. (Clearly, the reason we go for a drink at 5 pm is NOT because we’re happy.)
– ScientificAmerican.com

PITTER-PATTER PASSWORD:
An encryption system that uses the unique pattern of your heartbeat as a secret identifier could potentially be used to make a hard-drive that will only decrypt in response to your touch. Our heartbeats follow an irregular pattern that never quite repeats and that is unique to everyone. Researchers at the National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, Taiwan have successfully used an electrocardiograph to extract the unique mathematical features underlying this pattern. They then used the info to generate a secret key. (Works well … until you return from jogging.)
– NewScientist.com

BS AMAZING FACT:
Mobile devices will outnumber humans sometime this year, according to a Cisco analysis of global mobile data traffic. By 2016, it predicts that there will be 10 billion mobile connected devices worldwide.
– BBC News

BS CHRONOMETER 02.24.12