Thursday, August 4, 2011        Edition: #4564

Here’s More Bull Roar!

BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
CBS-TV’s upcoming “Two-And-a-Half Men season opener on September 19th will begin with the funeral of Charlie Sheen’s character ‘Charlie Harper’ (it tapes in front of a live studio audience tomorrow) . . . Jazz musician Bobby Sanabria & composer Mark Levine have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Grammy Awards in a bid to get categories that have been cut from the annual ceremony reinstated (yeah, we’re gonna really miss those awards for Latin Jazz and Hawaiian Music) . . . Media mogul Oprah Winfrey will be presented the 2011 ‘Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award’ at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences “Governors Awards” in November (bestowed on an individual in the movie industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the biz) . . . 39-year-old actress Sofia Vergara (“Modern Family”, “The Smurfs”) tells “Parade” magazine she’s considering having a child with boyfriend Nick Loeb, even though her son Manolo is 19, because ‘Nick wants babies’ (well, there’s a good reason) . . . And the Wasilla, Alaska beauty salon credited with designing Sarah Palin’s trademark ‘up-do’ hairstyle will be the subject of its own reality TV show on TLC, entitled “Big Hair Alaska” (appropriately this clip-joint is named … ‘The Beehive’).

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated/A Channel) – Rascal Flatts (“Nothing Like This”). Rerun.
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – Matt & Kim (“Sidewalks”); Screaming Females (“Castle Talk”). Rerun.
• “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/A Channel) – Bruce Hornsby (“Bride Of the Noisemakers”); Fountains of Wayne (“Sky Full of Holes”).
• “Late Show With David Letterman” (CBS/NTV/Omni) – Typhoon (“New Kind of House”).
• “Lopez Tonight” (TBS) – Nicole Scherzinger (“Killer Love”).
• “So You Think You Can Dance” (FOX/CTV) – Former “American Idol” contestant Pia Toscano performs; 2 contestants are eliminated; the 4 finalists are revealed.
• “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” (NBC/A Channel) – Lykke Li (“Wounded Rhymes”).
• “We Fest” (Detroit Lakes MN) – This 3-day country music & camping fest features performances by Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts, and Sugarland.
NET: http://www.wefest.com

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Amy Winehouse – Her family and boyfriend Reg Traviss are going on a 10-day vacation ‘to mourn her’. (BS translation: Details of the will have been settled.)
• Beastie Boys – Limited-edition action figures of Ad-Rock, MCA, and Mike D, created for the video “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win”, are being sold off with proceeds going to charity.
NET: http://shop.beastieboys.com
• Cheap Trick – The classic rockers have cancelled a show scheduled for September 1st in Vancouver, British Columbia after finding out the stage is being built by Berger, the same company responsible for one that collapsed around them at the Ottawa Bluesfest during a freak storm July 17th.
• Green Day – They’ve been crowned ‘Best Punk Act Ever’ in a new “Rolling Stone” online poll, beating out The Clash, the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols.
• Kelly Clarkson – She’s formed a girl group called Already Famous with her touring backing singers, Jill & Kate. They’ve already started writing songs and recording in the studio.
• Ozzy Osbourne – He’s performing tonight in Wacken, Germany despite the fact that … his 2 front teeth have fallen out. The bottom crowns apparently came loose a few days ago.
• The Sheepdogs – The Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based rock band is the winner of Atlantic Records/”Rolling Stone” magazine’s “Do You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star?” contest. They’ll be featured in the August 18th issue, the first-ever artist not signed to a major label to appear on the cover. (They’re most certainly signed now.)
• Rod Stewart – The 66-year-old, who became a father for the 8th time in February when wife Penny Lancaster gave birth to their 2nd son together, admits he sometimes forgets the names of his kids. (At 66 he forgets a lot of other stuff too.)
• Sean Kingston – The 21-year-old tells MTV News he underwent 2 rounds of open-heart surgery for a torn aorta following his jet-ski crash in May. He was hospitalized for 3 weeks following the accident in Miami Beach but now says he’s ‘100%’ and heading to LA to work on his 3rd studio album. (In order to pay the freakin’ hospital bills!)
• Trace Adkins – He tells “Hollywood Reporter” he’s eternally grateful to his manager for staging an intervention after his alcohol addiction spiraled out of control and he was charged with DUI in 2001. He’s now celebrating 9 years of sobriety. (Here’s to ya!)
• Zac Brown Band – “Knee Deep” f/Jimmy Buffett tops today’s new “Billboard” magazine ‘Country Songs’ chart. It’s their 7th #1 hit.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:
A BS selection of movies in the making …
• “Arrested Development” – Seems the long-rumored bigscreen treatment of the cult 2003-06 TV show may actually be happening. Series star Will Arnett says the film is in the works and should be in theaters next year. The Facebook page for the show still has more than 1.2 million fans. It’s one of the most popular shows of all-time on Hulu and is also available on Netflix.
• “Expendables 2” – John Travolta has reportedly been added to a cast that already includes Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger for this sequel to the 2010 action film to be filmed in Bulgaria. “Con-Air” director Simon West is helming the project when shooting (literally) begins the 2nd week of September.
• “The Gangster Squad” – An A-list ensemble cast is being assembled for this period crime pic, including Emma Stone, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, and Sean Penn. The movie is based on a series of articles in the “LA Times” chronicling the LAPD’s efforts to keep East Coast mobsters out of Los Angeles in the 1940s by forming an elite squad.
• “Star Trek 2” – Filmmaker JJ Abrams (“Super 8”) is reportedly leading a writing team working on the script for this sequel to his 2009 reboot of the series. Chris Pine is set to reprise his role as ‘Captain James T Kirk’ alongside Zoe Saldana as linguistics officer ‘Nyota Uhura’. Production is likely to start in January with a late-2012 or early-2013 release date expected.
• “Wish List” – Reese Witherspoon will star in this Disney comedy about a grown-up woman who, as a child, made 10 wishes in a well after throwing a coin in that became stuck. Now she must deal with the consequences of all of them coming true. The movie was initially intended to have a male lead, but is now being re-written to accommodate the 35-year-old actress.

THE AGE OF HAPPINESS:
A new University of Pennsylvania study indicates there are at least 2 different kinds of happiness … one associated with excitement and one associated with with peacefulness. The difference appears to result from the importance placed on the future versus the present. Younger people, generally more concerned with the future, base their happiness more on things that are exciting; while older people place a higher value on the present, so contentment tends to be a greater source of happiness. (“Hey, nothing’s hurting today … I’m so happy!”)
– OrganizedWisdom.com

HOW TO BE HAPPY:
5 things that research has shown can improve happiness …
• Be Grateful – People who write letters of gratitude to those who’ve helped them in some way report a lasting increase in happiness for weeks, even months.
• Be Optimistic – People who visualize an ideal future and describe that image in a journal entry report increased feelings of well-being.
• Count Your Blessings – People who practice writing down 3 good things that have happened to them every week show significant boosts in happiness.
• Use Your Strengths – Another study asked people to identify their greatest strengths and then try to use them in new ways. This habit, too, seems to heighten happiness.
• Commit Acts of Kindness – Helping others also helps ourselves. People who donate time or money to charity, or who assist people in need, report improvements in their own happiness.
– MSNBC.com

BODY TALK:
A Charlton, England man has been cured of a rare medical condition which caused him to hear … his eyeballs moving in their sockets. The 57-year-old was diagnosed with an unusual ear condition in which sounds inside the body are heard very loudly. The condition caused the noise from chewing food to become deafening. He could also hear his own heart beating. The operation to cure the problem involved a 5-cm incision behind the ear, making a channel through the bone to find the ‘balance organ’, then using the patient’s own bone to create a seal around the defect. (Remember that morning after the tequila party? You could hear your eyeballs move, couldn’t you?)
– “Daily Telegraph”

HEALTHIEST BACKYARD WEEDS:
You likely have weeds in your garden or neighborhood that are thriving in the heat and are actually far more healthful than almost anything you can grow or buy. Among them …
• Dandelion – The entire plant is edible. The leaves are loaded with vitamins and minerals.
• Lamb’s-Quarters (aka Goosefoot) – Like spinach, except healthier, tastier, and easier to grow.
• Plantain – Not the banana-like fruit, but the healthy, hardy weed that has a nutritional profile similar to dandelion and a nutty, asparagus-like taste.
• Purslane – Aside from being surprisingly tasty for a sidewalk-crack dweller, it tops the list of plants with omega-3 fatty acids.
• Stinging Nettles – Beware the tiny, acid-filled needles, but this plant is delicious cooked or prepared as a tea.
– LiveScience.com

THE NEW SPIDER-MAN:
In the world of the “Ultimate Spider-Man” comics, ‘Peter Parker’ is dead and a younger man is stepping up to take his place … ‘Miles Morales’, a half-black, half-Hispanic American teenager. According to Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Axel Alonso it’s not a publicity stunt, but a decision he’s been mulling over for a while. The new ‘Spider-Man’ will only appear in one part of the Marvel empire, as the “Ultimate” imprint is separate from the rest of its comics where ‘Peter Parker’ is still alive and well. The adventures of ‘Miles’ begin in September with issue #1 of “Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man”.
– CBC.ca

SOMETHING TO CHEW ON:
A new report by Rajat Singh of Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine might help to explain why it’s so frustratingly difficult to stick to a diet. When we don’t eat, he’s discovered, hunger-inducing neurons in the brain start eating … bits of themselves. This act of self-cannibalism, known as autophagia, turns up our hunger signals to prompt eating. It’s thought that treatments aimed at blocking autophagia might prove useful as hunger-fighting weapons in the war against obesity. (“But I have to have another donut … I’m eating my brain!”)
– ScienceDaily.com

WORLD’S LARGEST LIBRARY:
50-year-old MIT-trained computer scientist Brewster Kahle founded the nonprofit Internet Archive in 1996 to save a copy of every web page ever posted. Now he’s attempting to collect a physical copy of … every book ever published. So far he’s gathered some 500,000 in a California warehouse. He knows complete success is unlikely – an estimated 130 million books have been published worldwide – but he’s determined to do what he can to preserve physical copies as a hedge against uncertain future technology changes. Plus he hates to see books thrown away. (Look for him scouring boxes at your yard sale this Saturday.)
– “Escapist Magazine”

DID YOU KNOW?
• Fresh-cut flowers will last longer if you add a multi-vitamin, an aspirin, a teaspoon of sugar, or a pinch of baking soda to the water in the vase.
– “Tightwad Living Magazine”
• In the past year alone, an estimated 10 million-plus surveillance cameras have been installed in China.
– “The Guardian”

BS CHRONOMETER 08.04.11

TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1944 [67] Richard Belzer, Bridgeport CT, TV actor (‘Detective John Munch’ on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” since 1999)

1955 [56] Billy Bob Thornton, Hot Springs AR, movie actor (“The Informers”, 1997 Oscar-“Sling Blade”)/married 5 times, most notably to actress Angelina Jolie 2000-03

1961 [50] Barack Obama, Honolulu HI, 44th US President since 2009/Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2009)/US Senator (IL) 2005-08/Illinois State Senator 1997-2004

1971 [40] Jeff Gordon, Vallejo CA, auto racer (4-time NASCAR champ, 3-time “Daytona 500” winner)

1985 [26] Crystal Bowersox, Elliston OH, pop singer (“Up To the Mountain”)/”American Idol 9” runner-up (2010)

BS REASON TO PARTY . . .
• “Chocolate Chip Day”, saluting those tiny little morsels of decadence that make almost any dessert taste better. There’s hardly any calories in them, right? They’re just little. (Unless you inhale the whole bag.)

• “Coast Guard Day” in America. The ‘Revenue Cutter Service’, formed on this date in 1790, merged with the ‘Life Saving Service’ in 1915 to become the US Coast Guard.

THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
1998 [13] Consumer ‘HDTV’ television sets are introduced, with a MSRP of $5,500

2006 [05] Irreverent stock car racing comedy “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”, starring Will Ferrell, opens in movie theaters

TODAY’S MUSIC EVENT . . .
1993 [18] Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain checks into LA’s Cedars-Sinai Hospital to be treated for heroin addiction (dies a year later)

TODAY’S FIRST . . .
1990 [21] Mariah Carey’s debut single, “Vision Of Love”, hits #1 on pop charts

COMING UP . . .
[Fri] “The Change-Up”; “Rise Of the Planet Of the Apes” open in movie theaters
[Fri] “Lollapalooza” festival begins (Chicago)
[Fri] International Beer Day
[Fri] Work Like a Dog Day
[Sat] Fresh Breath Day
[Sun] “2011 Teen Choice Awards” (FOX)
[Sun] Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day
[Sun] Sisters Day
This Week Is … World Breastfeeding Week
This Month Is … What Will Be Your Legacy Month

BULL’S BITS

BS SIGNS YOU PICKED THE WRONG MOVER:
• They loaded up your entertainment center, computer, and jewelry 7 weeks ago and never asked for your new address.
• They don’t use peanuts to pack your fine crystal, they use peanut butter.
• They keep flicking ashes in Grandma’s urn.
• Nothing gets broken during the loading and unloading, but you see more crack than a narc.
• Before moving the furniture, they remove all the drawers … their drawers.
• Your collection of private home videos made with the wife shows up several weeks after the move … online.
• An hour after the truck pulls away, all your stuff is listed on eBay.
• The box marked ‘knickknacks’ seems to be barking.
– Thanks to Chris White

BS PHONE STARTER:
Which favorite childhood game do you wish you could still indulge in?

BS RANDOM JOKE:
Drive defensively … buy a tank.

BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Today’s Question: According to a recent poll, 3-out-of-10 employed people have had THIS.
Answer to Give Out Next Show: A workplace romance.

BS DEEP THOUGHT:
Anything is possible, but nothing is easy.