WEEKEND TABLOID & BLOG BS:
• Brit pop star Cheryl Cole is suing the USA edition of “The X Factor”, claiming she was not paid in full for her ill-fated stint as a judge on the show (never made it past auditions). Simon Cowell brought her to the US last year after her successful sojourn on the Brit version, but she failed to impress and was axed, eventually being replaced by Nicole Scherzinger. Even though she exited with a $1.8-million fee, the suit claims she’s owed an additional $2 million for a 2nd season as part of a ‘pay or play’ clause in her contract, plus expenses ($100,000 wardrobe allowance; $25,000 stylist budget; $15,000-per-month accommodation; $2,500-per-month living allowance, security and travel costs, etc etc etc).
– WENN.com
• Rapper Rick Ross has called off the rest of his “Maybach Music Tour” amidst fears for his own personal safety after a warning video linked to a local gang was posted online. As first reported in “Charlotte Observer”, Ross canceled shows in both Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina on the weekend after receiving death threats from the Gangster Disciples gang, seemingly because he ‘dishonored’ gang leader Larry Hoover in his track “BMF (Blowin’ Money Fast)” and scorned their gang symbol by recreating the design on his “Black Bar Mitzvah” mixtape. Although it was thought he would continue the tour, which also featured Wale and Meek Mill, he’s decided to pack the whole thing in and return home. (So, who’s the gangsta now?)
– Allhiphop.com
• Hundreds of Bob Hope fans descended on the late comedian’s California home Saturday as his daughter Linda opened the doors for a massive garage sale. Line-ups began before sunrise outside the Toluca Lake mansion where the objects for sale included holiday decorations, books, knickknacks, and toys. The sale was staged to help empty out the property before its upcoming auction next year, when some of its more expensive contents such as furniture and art will also go under the hammer. Hope died in 2003 at age 100; his wife Dolores passed away in 2011. (Many of those under 50 at the sale were heard to say, “So who the hell’s Bob Hope again?”)
– Contactmusic.com
• Chaz Bono wants to be a WeightWatchers spokesman. The onetime “Dancing With the Stars” contestant, who was born a girl named Chastity and began gender reassignment treatment in 2008, has reportedly approached the weight-loss company because he wants to shed 50-to-80 pounds and thinks he’s the ideal person to follow in the footsteps of previous spokespeople such as Jennifer Hudson. A friend says Bono also believes that he and WeightWatchers could bridge the gender divide over weight issues. (Another plus – unlike current spokesbody Jessica Simpson – he’s unlikely to get pregnant … er, we think.)
– StarMagazine.com
• And the scary show biz mom of “Modern Family” star Ariel Winter has now threatened to sue a Hollywood publicist over an alleged plot to create a naked picture scandal. Chrystal Workman, who is currently not the 14-year-old actress’s legal guardian after being removed from her care by a court, claims that PR man Jonathan Hay fabricated a story about her trying to leak racy photos of her eldest daughter Shanelle Workman (34), who has been awarded temporary custody of Ariel. Chrisoula has sent a cease & desist letter to the publicist … despite admitting she sent him the scantily clad pics of Shanelle. (Geez, this woman makes Lindsay Lohan’s string-pulling mom Dina seem like a saint!)
– TMZ.com

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “American Chopper” (Discovery) – Tonight the 1st of a 2-part live bike-building special airs, which serves as the show’s finalé after 10 years and 233 episodes on-air. Part 2 airs tomorrow.
• “American Country Awards” (FOX) – Trace Adkins & Kristin Chenoweth return to host the 3rd annual fan-voted accolades, airing live from Las Vegas. Luke Bryan leads nominations with 7, followed by Lady Antebellum and Zac Brown Band with 6 apiece. (Did we really need another country awards show?)
NET: http://theacas.com
• “Colbert Report” (Comedy Central/CTV) – Married musical couple Diana Krall (“Glad Rag Doll”) & Elvis Costello (“In Motion Pictures”).
• “Conan” (TBS/CTV) – Jack White (“Blunderbuss”).
• “Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated/CTV2) – Fergie (Black Eyed Peas).
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – The Hives (“Lex Hives”).
• “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV2) – Solange Knowles (“True”).
• “Live With Kelly & Michael” (syndicated/CTV) – Richard Marx (“Christmas Spirit”).
• “Michael Bublé: Home For the Holidays” (NBC/CityTV) – Christmas classics performed by Bublé and guests Blake Shelton (“Cheers, It’ Christmas”); Carly Rae Jepson (“Kiss”); and
Rod Stewart (“Merry Christmas, Baby”).
• “Russell Peters Christmas” (CTV) – A re-airing of last year’s holiday season special with guests Ben Mulroney, Jon Lovitz, Michael Bublé, Pamela Anderson, and Scott Thompson. Airs again this Saturday on the Comedy Network.
• “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” (NBC/CTV2) – Of Monsters & Men (“My Head Is an Animal”).
• “The View” (ABC/CTV) – Jason Mraz (“Love Is a Four Letter Word”).
• “The Voice” (NBC/CTV) – Michael Bublé (“Christmas”) performs; the top 4 artists perform.

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Alice In Chains – Jerry Cantrell tells “Guitar World” that they’ve just finished recording a new album, expected out in 2013.
• Arcade Fire – Manager Scott Rodger has confirmed the indie rockers have been working in the studio on their much-anticipated 4th album. He says they have too many songs (around 35), which is ‘a good problem to have’.
• John Lennon – Fans around-the-world remembered him on Saturday’s 32nd anniversary of his 1980 assassination by Mark David Chapman outside his Dakota apartment in NYC. Interestingly, much of the tribute was paid on the Internet, something he would have never heard of.
• Kenny Chesney – He already holds the record for most sold-out concerts for any artist in any genre at Boston’s Gillette Stadium with 8. Now he’s added an additional date at the venue for next Summer’s “No Shoes Nation Tour” on August 23rd, which will be the final show of the tour.
• Lady Antebellum – 26-year-old Hillary Scott & husband Chris Tyrrell have just announced they’re set to become first-time parents in 2013.
• Metallica – After years of fighting with digital music services such as Napster (which they practically single-handedly killed), they’ve now fully embraced the digital age and are streaming their entire catalogue on Spotify, calling it ‘by far the best streaming service’.
• Phoenix – They’ll release a new album in 2013, the follow-up to their breakthrough 2009 record “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”. The French indie rock band recently completed the new project at a studio in Paris.
• Rihanna – Lost amid the excited press releases about her fashion reality show “Styled to Rock”, coming to Style network next year, is the fact the show has already aired in the UK and was such a turkey it was dropped.
• Rolling Stones – Saturday they took to the stage at Brooklyn’s new Barclays Center to perform the 3rd of their 5 reunion shows. And after weeks of rumors, they’ve officially joined the lineup of Wednesday’s “12.12.12” Hurricane Sandy relief concert at NYC’s Madison Square Garden.
• Taylor Swift – She’s scored another “Billboard” chart record as “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” has topped the ‘Hot Country Songs’ list for 9 weeks, making it the longest-running #1 country hit for a female artist. Who previously held that record? Connie Smith’s “Once a Day” lasted 8 weeks at #1 way back in 1964.

SMARTPHONES SOON TO SENSE FEELINGS:
University of Rochester researchers have been working on software that allows a computer or smartphone to figure out (with 81% accuracy) how a speaker is feeling based on his or her voice. The recognition is only based on tone, so the actual words don’t matter. Thus, whether you scream at it in Klingon or moan at it in gibberish, it would still be able to get the drift. The research is still in preliminary stages, but it’s already been baked into a prototype app. So far that app just displays it’s answers, sort of a party trick, but the technology could be wrapped into other functionality down the road. (Someday we’ll be telling the shrink, “Doc, my phone doesn’t understand me …”)
– Gizmodo.com

FORMULATED DECOR:
Getting Christmas tree decorations just right requires a definite talent. Thank goodness scientists have come up with an equation for the ideal tree. The mathematical formula devised by researchers at Britain’s Sheffield University states that a tree 180 cm tall (5 ft-11 in) needs precisely 37 baubles, 919 cm (30 ft-2 in) of tinsel, and 565 cm (18 ft-6 in) of lights. An angel 18 cm high (7 in) is needed on top in order to complete the perfect look. This winning formula has actually been used by UK department store chain Debenhams to dress its festive window displays this year. According to the formula, to determine the perfect number of ornaments appropriate for your tree, take the square root of 17, divide by 20, and multiply by the height of the tree in centimeters. (Um, maybe we’ll just eye it out thank-you very much.)
– Sun.co.uk

DEFINITION OF BRIEF:
Twitter.com has just announced that beginning in February it will shorten the number of characters you can use in tweets containing URLs to 118 characters. Twitter says the shortening is a result of changes to its ‘link shortener’. When you tweet out hyperlinks that Twitter shortens, those links will now take up a little more space, reducing the content you’ll be able to add to the message. The changes will go into effect February 20, 2013. (What that means: Chris Brown will have even fewer characters in which to say something truly offensive and stupid.)
– FastCompany.com

BS AMAZING FACTS:
• The average person’s DNA has 400 flaws. (We’re all far from perfect.)
– BBC News
• Lobsters sometimes eat each other. (Do they add butter?)
– Salon.com

BS CHRONOMETER 12.10.12

TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1960 [52] (Sir) Kenneth Branagh, Belfast, Northern Ireland, movie actor (“Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets”, “Henry V”)/movie director (“Thor”, “Sleuth”)/screenwriter (“Hamlet”)

1964 [48] Bobby Flay, NYC, TV chef (8 different Food Network programs)

1974 [38] Meg White, Grosse Pointe Farms MI, former rock drummer (White Stripes-“Icky Thump”, “Seven Nation Army”)

1981 [31] Noah Harmon, Tucson AZ, rock bassist-vocalist (Airborne Toxic Event-“Changing”, “Sometime Around Midnight”)

BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Dewey Decimal Day”, honoring Melville Dewey who was born December 10, 1851 in Adams Center NY. When he was just 21, he invented the ‘Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) System’ while working as a student assistant in the Amherst College library. For creating this revolutionary new filing system, he’s known as the ‘Father of Modern Librarianship’.

• “International Human Rights Day”, honoring the UN Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

• “Nobel Prize Awards Day”. The awards were established by the will of Swedish chemist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and have been held on this date since 1901. The current value of each award is over $1 million.

THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
2009 [03] James Cameron’s 3-D sci-fi epic “Avatar” has its world premiere in London (goes on to become highest-grossing movie of all-time at close to $2.8 billion)

TODAY’S MUSIC EVENTS . . .
1967 [45] Soul legend Otis Redding (“Dock Of the Bay”) dies in a plane crash near Madison, Wisconsin

1984 [28] African famine relief song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” by Band Aid is released

TODAY’S FIRST . . .
1998 [14] A team of 6 astronauts becomes 1st to occupy the International Space Station  BS FACTOID: Here’s where you go to answer the question: How many people are in space right now?
NET: http://bit.ly/WLDZRd

TODAY’S RECORD . . .
2006 [06] San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson racks up his 29th touchdown, breaking the NFL record for TDs in a single season (finishes season with 31)

COMING UP . . .
[Tues] “Viva Forever” opens (London)
[Tues] International Mountain Day
[Tues] UNICEF Birthday
[Wed] Gingerbread House Day
[Wed] Poinsettia Day
[Thurs] Rolling Stones play Newark NJ

THIS WEEK IS . . .
Halcyon Days / Human Rights Week

BULL’S BITS

BEST OF BS:
A highlight bit culled from 19 years of “Bull Sheet” back issues …
BS EUPHEMISMS FOR SANTA’S PEE BREAK:
(as overheard at the mall on the weekend)
• “Santa’s gotta go empty his toy sack.”
• “Santa’s gotta go scold an elf.”
• “Santa’s gotta go do something about his South Pole.”
• “Excuse me kids, but you don’t buy milk and cookies, you only rent ‘em.”
• “Santa’s gotta go drop another Yule log on the fire.”
• “Santa’s gotta Dasher outta here before he makes Blitzen in his pants.”
– First published in “BS” 2003.
NET: http://www.FreeRadioPrep.com

BS RANDOM JOKE:
Don’t make a fool out of me … I’m doing OK by myself!

BS PHONE STARTER:
☎ Which is the absolute earworm tune of the year, the one you got stuck in your head and just couldn’t get rid of? (“Call Me Maybe”, “Gangnam Style”, or “Someone That I Used to Know”?)

BS U-PICK TRIVIA:
In what year did Ford Motor Company build its 1 millionth car?
a. 1985.
b. 1955.
c. 1915 [CORRECT]
– History.com

BULL’S EYE:
Sydney, Australia’s 2Day FM morning personalities Mel Greig & Michael Christian became world famous after their crank call last week duping nurses at the London hospital where expectant mom Kate Middleton is under treatment. Now Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who initially took the call and forwarded it, has committed suicide. We don’t want to speculate but there may be other circumstances surrounding her decision to end her life, however the story is unlikely to go down that way. In today’s 140-character world, it will be summed up ‘Radio prank leads to nurse’s death’. In their defence, the morning duo say they never dreamed the call would be put through; they hadn’t thought through the consequences if it was. Now they’re suspended from their jobs, undergoing counseling to help get them through the tragedy, and are unlikely to want to resume broadcasting (how many times can you apologize?). 2Day FM could face prosecution if it’s found the ‘private’ conversation was recorded and broadcast without permission from the recipient. It was an ill-conceived, off-the-cuff stunt that’s mushroomed way beyond its relevance. This morning team has learned the hard way the old broadcasting axiom … ‘When in doubt, don’t do it!’

BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question: Close to one-quarter of all Christmas cards include THIS.
Answer: The family pet’s ‘signature’ (scrawled name, paw print, etc).

BS DEEP THOUGHT:
People don’t judge your generosity by the amount of advice you give away.

NOW ON OUR SHEET LIST:
James Gonzaga @ 93.3 FLZ [WFLZ] Tampa, Florida; Natasha van der Merwe @ 2 Oceans Vibe FM, Johannesburg, South Africa; Deongello @ Power 98.3 [KKFR] Phoenix, Arizona; Brian Salmon @ 91.7 Giant-FM [CIXL] Welland, Ontario; and Brian Bautista @ 105.1 The Kat [KGUM]  Dededo, Guam.