Tuesday, August 13, 2024 — Edition: #7770
You’d Better Bull-ieve it!
BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
★ Netflix has released a teaser for “Squid Game” season 2. The streamer shared a video that opens with classical music, before quickly cutting to a more ominous soundtrack. Lee Jung-jae reprises his role as the champion and sole survivor from Season 1 in the clip, which features a series of faceless players in their green tracksuits, the last of which is revealed to be his character ‘Seong Gi-hun’. Season 2 takes place 3 years after Gi-hun vowed revenge at the end of season 1, as he returns and joins the game again. Season 2 of Squid Game will premiere on December 26. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/3suzh2yy
-Deadline, DigitalSpy
★ Ángel Salazar, best known as Al Pacino’s trusted sidekick ‘Chi Chi’ in the 1983 film “Scarface”, has died. Salazar passed away in his sleep at age 68. According to his rep, he was found dead in bed Sunday at a friend’s home in Brooklyn. A cause of death was not revealed, but he did suffer from heart issues. Following Scarface, Salazar went on to co-star with Tom Hanks as ‘Rico’ in the 1988 film “Punchline”, and he reunited with Pacino in 1993’s “Carlito’s Way”.
-Deadline
★ Elle King claims her dad, “SNL” actor Rob Schneider, sent her to a “fat camp” when she was a child. In an interview on Bunnie Xo’s “Dumb Blonde” podcast, King revealed she was “a really, really heavy child”, and once at ‘fat camp’, she “got in trouble” when she sprained her ankle and didn’t lose weight as a result, which she called “very toxic”. The ‘Ex’s & Oh’s’ singer, who is 35, also spoke about her strained relationship with the “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” actor, saying she stopped talking to him for “4 or 5 years” due to his opinions on social issues. King also alleges Schneider “forgot about every single” of her birthdays.” No comment so far from Schneider.
-PageSix, USAToday
★ “Catfish” host Nev Schulman is in recovery after sustaining what he described as “medical trauma and severe injury” in a bike accident. On Saturday, the MTV reality show MC disclosed on Instagram that he was hit by a truck while riding his bike to pick up his son from school on Aug. 5. He wrote: “I never made it to pick up my son. I was alone on impact. Me and the truck. And then I guess the pavement.” Beneath graphic photos taken at the hospital, Schulman detailed his injuries, including breaking his neck — though he is not paralyzed. After thanking medical staff, Schulman wrote: “I’m lucky to be here, alive, standing and hugging my family, projected to make a full recovery.”
-TVLine
★ Filled with viral moments, star-studded competitions and splashy Parisian backdrops, the Paris Olympics racked up more than 1.3 million posts on TikTok, an increase of 1,828% on the Tokyo Games, according to figures unveiled by the platform. TikTok, which partnered with Team GB during the event, also said that over 233,0000 creators made content under the hashtag #Olympics, an 822% increase on Tokyo. The hashtag #Paris2024 garnered over 526,700 posts. The 2 biggest viral stars of the Olympics were Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen, aka Muffin Man, and U.S. pommel horse superstar Stephen Nedoroscik. (Uh, did they forget about the Turkish ‘hand in his pocket’ pistol shooter who everyone thinks is a hitman?)
-Variety
TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/Global): John Cena, Omar Sy, Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra ft. Haley Reinhart; guest host Jeff Goldblum
• “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV): Elizabeth Banks, Foster the People
• “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS/Global): Bowen Yang, Nick Cave
• “After Midnight” (CBS/Global): Jenna Ushkowitz, Kate Micucci, Eliot Glazer (R)
• “Late Night with Seth Meyers” (NBC/CTV): Mia Farrow, Patti LuPone, Myha’la, Simon Rich, Todd Sucherman
• “Watch What Happens Live” (Bravo): Sara Al Madani, Ariana Madix
• “The Daily Show” (COM): TBA
• “The View” (ABC/CTV): 35th-anniversary reunion with the cast of “A Different World”, Huey Lewis (R)
• “The Talk” (CBS): Utkarsh Ambudkar, Phil Rosenthal (R)
• “Live with Kelly and Mark” (ABC/CTV): Arnold Schwarzenegger; Hannah Waddingham; a hip-hop dance lesson from Tweet Boogie.
• “The Kelly Clarkson Show” (Check local listings): Scarlett Johansson, Trixie Mattel (R)
• “The Drew Barrymore Show” (Check local listings): Theresa Caputo
• “Jennifer Hudson Show” (Check local listings): Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Tyla (R)
• “America’s Got Talent” (NBC): 11 acts take the stage, and for the first time ever, a live golden buzzer will send one directly to the finals.
• “Celebrity Family Feud” (ABC): Flavor Flav, Bobby Lee, Donny Osmond and Ken Marino.
• “Big Brother” (CBS): Previous winners Jag Bains, Taylor Hale and Cody Calafiore analyze the wildest blowups, biggest moves and most jaw-dropping moments of Season 26.
• “100 Day Hotel Challenge” (HGTV): Series premiere.
BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Drake – Venice soccer club GQ Italia says he played an integral role in helping raise $40 million to allow the club to avoid bankruptcy. The team was drowning in red ink when a mutual connection contacted Drake’s team for help. Within a few weeks, the $40 million came from “a group of North American investors”, thanks to Drake’s involvement.
• Kesha – celebrated her 2009 hit ‘Tik Tok’ surpassing a billion streams on Spotify by recreating one of its lyrics. She posted a video of herself actually brushing her teeth with Jack Daniels. In the clip, she unboxes her honorary Spotify plaque in the bathroom, then pulls out a bottle of whiskey, pours some into the plaque’s dish, swirls her toothbrush in it, then proceeds to brush her teeth. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/mrc63nde
• The Doors — guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police are among the stars confirmed for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp’s The Masters of Rock: 2025. Taking place in Los Angeles Feb. 20-23, it will also feature “Skunk” Baxter of The Doobie Brothers and Nickelback’s Mike Kroeger. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/4x5yk9n7
• Pink Floyd — David Gilmour has shared a video for his new solo single ‘Dark And Velvet Nights’. It’ll appear on the upcoming album “Luck And Strange”, out Sept. 6. It’s Gilmour’s first album of new material in 9 years. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/yc8emfuv
• U2 – Some artists are happy to collect huge paychecks to play private gigs, such as weddings and birthday parties, but not U2. A promoter claims the group was recently offered $10-12 million to perform on an island in the Caribbean for a private client, which they “quickly declined.” He said other acts who “never” do private shows include Springsteen, AC/DC, Taylor Swift, and The Cure.
• Jason Aldean – Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar is opening its 4th location, this time in Las Vegas. The restaurant chain made the announcement last week on X, which Aldean shared. The new location is scheduled to open this fall at 63 City Center on the Las Vegas Strip. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/2758ap4p
• Carly Pearce – Over the weekend, she shared a snippet of an unreleased song, explaining: “I never post new songs, but I wrote this one last week and thought it was important.” She let the lyrics of the song, which seems to be about social media trolls, speak for themselves, by simply writing: “We are more than just a social media handle. We all have feelings, too.” LINK: https://tinyurl.com/5y2ru6k6
• Sugarland – has dropped the 4-song EP “There Goes the Neighborhood.” Kristian Bush shared that in preparation for its release, the group asked some of Nashville’s best songwriters to send them their best songs. Included are compositions by Thomas Rhett, Maren Morris, Rhett Akins, Ryan Hurd and Emily Weisband. They will tour this fall with Little Big Town.
SHOOTING THE BULL
TIKTOK TALK:
It turns out that those supposedly ‘helpful’ TikTokers who share their weight loss tips might be causing more harm than good. Research out of Charles Sturt University in Australia says that spending time on the social media platform — especially watching pro-anorexia content — could damage a young woman’s self-esteem and increase her risk of developing an eating disorder. The researchers wrote that even just 8 minutes of exposure to this type of content had “negative consequences for body image states and internalization of appearance ideals.” Their study of 273 university-aged women found that psychological harm can occur, even when this type of content is NOT sought out, and TikTok use is of a short duration. Women who used TikTok more than 2 hours a day reported even more disordered eating behaviors.
(While I don’t feel I’m at risk of developing anorexia, it’s starting to become obvious I’ve got to stop watching all content from “decadent dessert” creators!)
(I hate to jump on the “TikTok” is evil bandwagon, but…yeah…TikTok IS evil!)
-NYPost
SIGNS OF THE TIMES:
⇒ The old cliché is that it happens earlier every year. But that phrase is usually made in reference to ‘Back to School’ sales and when they start piping Christmas music into stores. This year, Starbucks in the UK has declared Pumpkin Spice season earlier than ever before. The iconic cold-season drink arrived in select stores last week – a month earlier than usual. However, to be among the fortunate customers who get to savor the Pumpkin Spice range, you’ll need to be a Starbucks Rewards member. Everyone else will have to wait until Aug. 22 – and until Sept. 5 for some Autumn food items. No word on a pumpkin spice release date for Starbucks outlets in other countries – yet. (Still — This is great news for those of us who have already decorated the house for Halloween!)
⇒ McDonald’s Canada has unveiled what it is calling the “perfect fall McFlurry”. For a limited time, the fast-food chain is offering the S’mores McFlurry. It says the new flavor takes their vanilla soft serve and blends it with graham crackers, mini marshmallows, and hot fudge, similar to what people have been roasting over an open campfire for decades. Last week, food blogger Snackolator shared a photo and description of the new S’mores McFlurry via Instagram, calling it “another McFlurry flavor that is both simple and yet perfect that is for some reason not coming to the states.” Commenters quickly responded, asking McD’s to bring the flavor to the US. (Now they know how Canadians feel about what’s available on Netflix in America!)
-DailyRecord, Parade
LESSONS LEARNED:
A back-to-school poll of parents has unveiled some startling statistics about the modern school lunch experience. The survey of 2,000 Americans with school-age kids found that, on average, 21% of each child’s lunch returns home uneaten each day. No doubt related to that is the fact that 29% of moms and dads said they end up eating their children’s lunch leftovers for dinner. And 54% of parents reported that their children are more likely to eat food if its packaging features their favorite TV show character.
(I know! . . .and since a third of that stuff comes home anyway, I’ve been buying sandwich bags with MY favorite TV characters on them!)
(The way kids trade their lunches these days, I’ve been forced to learn the fav TV shows of every kid in the class!)
-StudyFinds
ANIMAL MYTHBUSTING:
✗ Toads give you warts: Let’s just get this one out of the way first. They can’t. (They can, however, cause humans a bad case of the “heebie-jeebies”!)
✗Lemmings engage in mass suicide: They don’t plunge off cliffs en masse into the sea below. The truth is that lemmings sometimes move as a herd to find more food, and when they cross bodies of water, some don’t make it.
✗ Sloths are lazy: Yes, they are excruciatingly slow, but this is due to a very low metabolic rate, which means they need to conserve energy for survival—not because they’re unmotivated. (So, can I still call my teenager a ‘lazy sloth’, or no?)
✗ Elephants are scared of mice: Research has consistently showed that elephants don’t find mice particularly threatening. But like humans, they don’t like it when little things scurry out and take them by surprise.
✗ Turtles don’t feel their shells: The top layer of most turtle shells is made of keratin, like our fingernails. And just as we can experience pain through our fingernails, so do turtles feel pain in their shells.
✗ Birds abandon their babies if you touch them: Birds are better parents than we give them credit for. Feel free to return a fallen baby bird to its nest.
✗ Bulls can’t see red: Surprise! Despite the common belief that the choice of a matador’s cape is actually arbitrary, because cattle are supposedly color-blind, bulls can discriminate some colors and shades, and have been shown to charge more forcefully when the object in question is a warm color.
✗Armadillos curl up into balls and roll away from predators: Actually, only 2 species of armadillo can roll up into balls at all. And they don’t roll away – it’s simply a way of using their armor to protect themselves.
✗ Each lion pride has a king: Prides actually tend to be led by females, and it’s never a single “queen.” Lionesses form a sort of sisterhood. They have babies around the same time and raise them together. (Disney be darned!)
✗ Horses only sleep standing up: While they are good at grabbing some ZZZs while standing, they lie down when deeper sleep is needed, and will only do so when they are able to relax in a comfortable, safe place.
-MentalFloss
DID YOU KNOW?
In honor of “Peanuts’” 75th birthday, over 80 farms across 35 states and provinces in the US and Canada will create corn mazes based on the comic strip. The mazes, located from California to New York, and Ontario to Texas — are expected to attract more than 2 million visitors this summer and fall. Mazes range in size from 1.5 acres to 20 acres — and are made mostly of corn, and sometimes sunflowers. They’re custom created by the world’s largest corn maze consulting company, The MAiZE Inc. Farmers are signing up for the free service because the mazes are sure to attract crowds, who may also buy fresh produce, and participate in things like hay rides and pumpkin carvings. (That should say GREAT pumpkin carvings, shouldn’t it?)
-AP
BS CHRONOMETER 08.13.24
BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “International Lefthanders Day”, first celebrated in 1976 to salute that forgotten visible minority … lefties. About 10% of us are left-handed. If you’re one of them, shake off the oppression and stand up for your lefts! (Things that are awkward for lefties: https://tinyurl.com/yya4lxue )
• “Filet Mignon Day” (French for ‘cute fillet’ or ‘dainty fillet’), celebrating the beef steak cut from the tenderloin. The fillet is considered to be the most tender cut, and the most expensive. Filet is the alternative French spelling of fillet.
• “Prosecco Day”. Prosecco is the most popular sparkling wine in the United States, and also the most popular wine in Italy, the country where it originated. Some people compare it to champagne, but it is made with a different type of grape and is made in a different way.
AND REMEMBER . . .
[Wed] Tattoo Removal Day
[Wed] Wiffle Ball Day
[Thurs] Failures Day
[Fri] Kool-Aid Day
This Week Is…Resurrect Romance Week
This Month Is…Dog Month
TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1949 [75] Bobby Clarke, Flin Flon MB, retired NHL player (Philadelphia Flyers captain, 2 Stanley Cups)/hockey executive (Flyers’ GM for 19 seasons, currently Senior Vice President)/Hockey Hall of Fame, 1987
1955 [69] Paul Greengrass, Surrey England, movie director (“Captain Phillips”, ‘Jason Bourne’ films)
1959 [65] (Dante) Danny Bonaduce, Broomal PA, TV actor (“The Partridge Family” 1970-74)/reality TV star (“Breaking Bonaduce” 2005)/radio host/pro wrestler(!)
1962 [62] John Slattery, Boston MA, TV actor (‘Roger Sterling’ on “Mad Men” 2007-15)/movie actor (“Iron Man 2”, “Captain America: Civil War) COMING UP…”Nuremberg”
1964 [60] Debi Mazar, New York NY, TV actress (“Entourage” 2004-11)/movie actress “Empire Records” COMING UP… “Object Permanence”
1973 [51] Andy Griggs, West Monroe LA, country singer (‘If Heaven’, ‘She’s More’)
1978 [46] Mike Melancon, Mount Laurier QC, country drummer (Emerson Drive-‘Who We Are’, ‘Fall Into Me’)
1982 [42] Sebastian Stan, Constanța Romania, movie actor (‘Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier’ in Avengers films)/TV actor (“Gossip Girl” 2007–2010, ‘Tommy Lee’ in “Pam & Tommy”) COMING UP… “Thunderbolts”, 2025
1984 [40] James Morrison (Catchpole), Rugby England, pop singer-songwriter-guitarist (‘I Won’t Let You Go’, f/Nelly Furtado-‘Broken Strings’)
THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
1997 [27] The first episode of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s controversial cartoon “South Park” airs (still running…)
2004 [20] Celebrity chef, author and TV personality Julia Child (“The French Chef”) dies at 91
TODAY’S MUSIC EVENTS . . .
2011 [13] Before a Sugarland concert, the main stage at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis collapses during a hurricane-force wind gust, killing 7 and injuring 45
2014 [10] Celine Dion announces she will not be performing for the indefinite future because be focusing on taking care of her husband as he recovers from throat cancer surgery (René Angélil would die in 2016)
TODAY’S RECORD . . .
2008 [16] At the London Olympics, USA swimmer Michael Phelps wins 3 gold medals and becomes the most decorated Olympian of all-time (retires with a total of 28 Olympic medals, 23 gold)
BULL’S BITS
BS WHACK FACTS:
✓ If you buy a lottery ticket on a Monday, you are 100 times more likely to die before the draw is held on Wednesday, than win the jackpot.
✓ A study found that looking at a photo of a loved one reduces pain by 44%.
✓ The first-ever movie with outtakes in the credits was “Smokey and the Bandit” (1977).
✓ Elephants have only 4 teeth, which they can lose and replace up to 6 times.
✓ Marshmallows can be used as alligator bait.
✓ The word “gorilla” is derived from a Greek word meaning, “A tribe of hairy women.”
-RandomFactGenerator, BathroomReadersInstitute
Best of BS . . .
BS STUPID CLIMATE CHANGE QUESTIONS:
• Can’t we just turn down the thermostat?
• Do we really need trees?
• Will the oil companies save us?
• Why aren’t windmills gas-powered?
• Will it be a dry heat?
• If we tweet about it enough, it’ll get better, right?
• But don’t they say that change is good?
• Can I throw away my sweaters, then?
• But those rich guys going to space are helping, right?
• Can’t I just paint everything green?
• Is it getting hot in here?
-Twitter, first published in BS in 2021
BS TERRIBLE INSPIRATIONAL SAYINGS:
• “If you can dream it, that’s good enough.”
• “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, no one else wanted it either.”
• “It is called a garbage can, not a garbage cannot.”
• “I believe in you, but I also can’t believe it’s not butter, so there’s that.”
• “If you can’t say something nice, become a Facebook troll.”
• “Bad decisions make good stories.”
• “If you give up now, you can go back to bed.”
• “If at first you don’t succeed, try not to bleed all over the place.”
• “Finish what you…”
• “If I can do it, anyone can.”
• “That which doesn’t kill you will make you wish it did.”
-Twitter, first published in BS in 2019
BS WEB GOODIE:
Busted: https://tinyurl.com/55v9c4a2
BS RANDOM JOKE:
Just because the deodorant says 48 hours, it doesn’t mean you should challenge it.
BS PHONE STARTER:
☎ Age yourself with a clothing brand that was popular when you were in high school.
BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
16% of kids agree: THIS is one of their favorite meals. What is it?
Answer: Fish sticks
BS DEEP THOUGHT:
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
