Tuesday, December 19, 2023 – Edition: #7621
Can You Believe This Sheet?
BS SUBSCRIBER NOTE:
The Bull Sheet will not be publishing during the period December 25, 2023 – January 1, 2024, to allow staff an opportunity to enjoy the holidays. All subscribers will receive account credits for non-service days. Following Fri. Dec. 22, the next Bull Sheet edition will be for Tuesday, January 2nd. Thanks for being here for The Bull in 2023, and Happy Holidays, all!
BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
★ Celeb breakup alert: It’s reportedly over for Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny, after dating for less than a year. “ET” quotes a source as saying that the 2 “have been doing their own things lately and things slowly started to fizzle out between them. It added: “They have crazy busy schedules and know they’re still young and have a lot more to experience individually before settling down.” Reps for the model and the musician did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
-PageSix
★ Matthew Perry’s ex-girlfriend is calling for his doctors to be investigated after it was confirmed that ketamine caused his death. On Friday the medical examiner’s report revealed he died with similar quantities of ketamine in his system as a hospital patient under anesthetic. Kayti Edwards, who dated him in 2006 and worked as his assistant in 2011 at the height of his drug addiction, said she had lots of unanswered questions. She feels that the ketamine treatment was probably “the stepping stone for him to go back to doing drugs”, and the doctors working with him should be investigated, because “It’s very hard to get ketamine on the street but it is very easy for a doctor or a nurse to get.”
-Bang!, DailyMail
★ James McCaffrey — the actor best known for voicing the popular video game character ‘Max Payne’ — has died after a battle with cancer. His rep says McCaffrey passed away Sunday, after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma. In addition to voicing the Payne character for at least 3 installments of the game, he also played ‘Jimmy Keefe’ in the TV series “Rescue Me” from 2004-2011, and appeared on shows including “Law & Order: SVU,” “As the World Turns,” “Suits,” and “Blue Bloods”. He was 65.
-TMZ
★ Olivia Wilde is set to direct her first film since psychological thriller “Don’t Worry Darling”. The synopsis for the Christmas comedy “Naughty” says the upcoming movie follows “a mother, Mallory, whose only hope of securing custody of her son from her gaslighting trash-bag ex is to find Santa Claus and convince him to testify in her divorce hearing”. The film will be produced by “Barbie” star Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap.
-DigitalSpy
★ “Priscilla” star Jacob Elordi is heading to “Saturday Night Live,” making his hosting debut on the first show of 2024, on Jan. 20. He’ll be joined by musical guest Reneé Rapp. Elordi most recently starred as ‘Elvis Presley’ in “Priscilla”, to critical acclaim. He is also known for his role on HBO’s “Euphoria.” Rapp just wrapped up a US tour in support of her debut album “Snow Angel.” She is also starring in “Mean Girls,” the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical.
-TheWrap
★ Arnold Schwarzenegger hands out Christmas gifts at a youth centre every year because he’ll “never forget” the kindness he received during his first holiday season in the US. The 76-year-old distributed presents on Saturday at the Hollenbeck Youth Center in LA. Later, he wrote on Instagram: “There is a reason I have been handing out presents at the @hollenbeckyouthcenter in Boyle Heights for over 30 years. When I first came to America, my friends at Gold’s Gym were so generous. They brought me in during Christmas time and made me feel so happy and included.” He added it makes him “feel good” to continue to be able to give something back after more than 3 decades. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/ycy3ecp5
-ContactMusic
TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (ABC/Global): Jon Hamm, Carrie Coon, Dogstar (R)
• “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV): Bradley Cooper, Martha Stewart, Rufus and Martha Wainwright
• “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS/Global): Adam Driver, Jon Batiste
• “Late Night with Seth Meyers” (NBC/CTV): Sarah Silverman, Greta Lee, Rick Martinez
• “Watch What Happens Live” (Bravo): The housemates take part in the first-ever “Winter House” reunion
• “The View” (ABC/CTV): Adam Kinzinger, Sofia Coppola (R)
• “The Talk” (CBS): T.J. Lavin, Anna Kloots (R)
• “Live With Kelly and Mark” (ABC/CTV): Patrick Dempsey, Nicki Minaj
• “The Kelly Clarkson Show” (Check local listings): Sydney Sweeney, Da’Vine Joy Randolph
• “The Drew Barrymore Show” (Check local listings): Gwyneth Paltrow (R)
• “Jennifer Hudson Show” (Check local listings): Adrienne Bailon-Houghton, Israel Houghton (R)
• “The Voice” (NBC): Live Finale. Carson Daly reveals the winner; plus special performances.
• “The Great Christmas Light Fight” (ABC): Season 11 finale
• “Christmas Wars” (A&E): Season 2 premiere. A man dressed as Santa watches 4 women duke it out in a Massachusetts mall; a woman in Canada wrestles with a large hedge in what may be an attempt to get a free Christmas tree; a pregnant waitress in Pennsylvania gets an unexpected surprise.
BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Taylor Swift – kept boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother Jason off the top of the vinyl albums chart. The surprise hit Christmas collection “A Philly Special Christmas”, featuring the Kelce brothers’ ‘Fairytale of Philadelphia’, landed at #2 (for the deluxe edition) and #3 (for the reg. edition) on the Billboard Vinyl Charts. At #1 for its 6th consecutive week is “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”.
• Kid Cudi — has announced his memoir “CUDI”, and is teasing a potential book tour in the future. On X, he told fans it will arrive around September, 2024. He wrote: “I know this book will inspire you to live your life to the fullest every chance you get.” LINK: https://tinyurl.com/54jp3hu9
• Kiss – Gene Simmons, perhaps in damage control mode, said “about 200 million” dollars is being invested into the KISS avatar show, and “they’re gonna get better, that animated stuff.” The technology has received mixed reviews, with original guitarist Ace Frehley remarking that it looks “like it was geared toward children”.
• U2 – played ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ live for the first time in 36 years at Las Vegas Sphere on Friday. The group had only performed their version of the Darlene Love yuletide classic once before, on December 20, 1987, in Tempe AZ. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/muc6dxwf
• Jon Pardi – has revealed that he quit drinking. In a podcast appearance, he said: “I’ve been 112 days sober. I was pre-diabetic, and I was like, ‘I’ve gotta stop.’” But he cautioned that although he considers himself “retired” from drinking, “That doesn’t mean I can’t come out of retirement”.
• Cole Swindell – He and his family’s favorite game to play during the holidays is something they call “Dirty Santa”. Quote: “[It’s] where you draw a number and get to pick and exchange gifts and take gifts away, so it’s always hilarious.”
• Dan + Shay — Dan Smyers has revealed that his all-time favorite Christmas song is . . . well, we’ll let him take it from here: “I might scare a couple of people away because it’s not a traditional Christmas song, but it’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ by Mariah Carey.” Why? “It gets people fired up and in the spirit every single time you hear it.”
SHOOTING THE BULL
NEW FOOD NEWS (ANOTHER HELPING):
⇒ It’s time to put a fork in your late-evening eating habits. A study from the University of Sorbonne in Paris found that people who eat dinner after 9pm have a 28% increased risk of suffering from a stroke or mini stroke. In fact, for every hour after 8pm that someone ate their dinner, their chances of having a stroke increased by 8%. The scientists say that eating your evening meal between 5-7pm is ideal, according to their research. And the later your meal is, the less food you should consume. (That tends to happen in my house, but not by choice. I have teenagers!)
⇒ Uber Eats has released its annual Uber Eats Cravings Report, detailing the most popular, unusual and surprising orders of the year. Some of the unexpected requests included combos like seaweed and pasta sauce, steak and jelly, cottage cheese and mustard, condensed milk and avocado, and butter and pickled onions. The most interesting food and drink pairings were: ribeye steak and vodka, cheeseburger and frozen margarita, chicken and frozen piña colada, lobster tail and apple whiskey and…wait for it…tamales and daiquiris. (I have no problem whatsoever with that last one…)
-NYPost
HE SEE SPECIES:
What did you accomplish during lockdown? I’m guessing these guys have you beat. Three Australian roommates, who happen to be scientists, spent their time conducting an investigation of the hidden world of biodiversity in their neighborhood – and they found more than 1,000 species in total. And now, what began as a casual challenge among friends has resulted in an academic research paper detailing the incredible variety of species thriving in urban landscapes. Their species census of their house and its surroundings revealed an astonishing 1,150 unique species of animals, plants, and fungi. One of the men, mathematician Dr. Matt Holden, said they asked ecologists and conservation scientists how many species they’d expect to find in this setting — and they predicted only 200. He feels their species survey shows “suburban houses and apartments could have far more biodiversity than ever imagined, especially when it comes to insects.” Most surprisingly, among the 436 moth and butterfly species, 56 distinct spider species, 8 reptiles, and 56 types of birds, were 3 species that had not been previously recorded in Australia’s leading biodiversity database: A type of mosquito, a sandfly, and an invasive flatworm.
(And THIS, friends, is what happens when you’re too cheap to pay for Netflix!)
(…and now, you have these guys to thank for the fact that you’ll never be able to sleep again!)
-StudyFinds, GoodNewsNetwork
SO MUCH FOR THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING:
We’re often told we should “look on the bright side” of things. But it turns out that if there is one situation in life where you should NOT be optimistic, it’s when making money decisions. Researchers from the University of Bath conducted a study that found being too optimistic may lead to poor financial decisions. And while there is definitely no shortage of self-help books available which preach about the power of positive thinking and looking at the link between optimism and overall happiness, the researchers determined that unrealistically optimistic financial expectations can lead to excessive levels of consumption and debt, as well as insufficient savings. It can also lead to the founding of businesses that are doomed to fail.
(That’s EXACTLY what I was afraid of! How am I doing so far?)
(How about THIS kind of optimistic thinking: “I am positive that I’m broke.”?)
-StudyFinds
THE WORST MOVIES OF 2023:
According to industry publication “Variety” critics Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge…
✪ Ghosted: Ana de Armas is a CIA cutthroat and Chris Evans as the nice-guy farmer who stalks her to London. Dexter Fletcher doesn’t direct it so much as he keeps tossing random trash into the blender.
✪ Asteroid City: Director Wes Anderson calls it an aria of “grief,” though the only grief I felt was that of being trapped in a stylized panorama so insistent it’s become a form of OCD.
✪ Your Place or Mine: Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon play platonic best friends. But it’s like several bad movies rolled into one, with a romantic climax (set in an airport!) that’s like an episode of couples’ therapy.
✪ Magic Mike’s Last Dance: It’s a let’s-put-on-a-show movie that feels like Chippendales by way of Disney.
✪ Heart of Stone: Gal Gadot plays a rogue agent out to save the world in a joyless, sludgy-looking diversion that’s as convoluted as it strives to be, in no small part because it’s built on MacGuffins no one can pretend to care about.
✪ Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey: This gimmicky cash-grab unleashed a horrifying precedent…popular creations fall into the public domain 95 years after they were first copyrighted…(this shows) what irreverent bottom feeders eventually have in store for Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Superman (when theirs) expire in 2024.
✪ Carmen: Never sure where to put the camera, (director Benjamin) Millepied stages a clumsy dance movie without nearly enough dance … and even less in the way of chemistry.
✪ The Flash: A tiresome infinite-loop plot and terrible visual effects, trapping the immature character in a space-time bubble so that DC can get in on the already-stale multiverse craze.
✪ Paint: Like a how-to class in what paint-by-number indie comedies should studiously avoid, this thin sketch of a movie can’t even milk a laugh from its easy-target subject: a Bob Ross-like public television personality.
✪ Caligula: The Ultimate Cut: This tedious new cut somehow manages to be both bloated and neutered — an interminable who-needs-it workprint in which the transgressive novelty has been removed to make room for…insufferable scenery chewing.
(Hey! What about “The Marvels”?)
(What movie is at the top of YOUR ‘worst-list’?)
-Variety
DID YOU KNOW?
How important is a good night’s rest to you? Enough that you’d go without the internet for a year, giving up access to social media, online shopping, and all your favorite websites? In a new survey, almost half of Americans would take that offer — if it meant getting high-quality sleep every night. The poll of 2,000 adults shows that 45% would be willing to give up the internet for a full 365 days to help their sleep. 43% said they’d give up their phone, 41% would do without their car, and 37% would forego a promotion at work. (You know – that job that you can’t do…without using the internet!)
-StudyFinds
BS CHRONOMETER 12.19.23
TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Holly Day”. While the prickly leaves and berries make lovely additions to any holiday décor, eating holly can be bad for your health. The leaves and berries can cause nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and other issues. While toxic to dogs, cats and horses, consuming 20 or more berries can actually be fatal to children. (Happy Holly-days, here’s a deadly plant for you!)
• “Look for an Evergreen Day”, saluting those for whom only a fresh-cut real tree will do for Christmas. For them, the scent of fresh pine helps to capture the feeling of the holidays. (But remember…just because you find one, it doesn’t mean it’s yours!)
• “Oatmeal Muffin Day”, a day to enjoy the cholesterol-lowering benefit of oatmeal in your muffins … then slather on a ton of butter and enjoy!
• “Hard Candy Day”, a celebration of all types of hard candies—everything from lollipops to candy canes to caramels. (If you don’t have one, just ask any older lady carrying a purse. She has at least 30 in there…usually unwrapped.)
• “Emo Day”, a day for emos to congregate together for a mass non-celebration, and generally whine about life. Also, a day for non-emos to pretend to be emo. (Gee, sounds like fun…)
AND REMEMBER . . .
[Wed] Games Day
[Wed] Sangria Day
[Thurs] Crossword Puzzle Day
[Fri] Cookie Exchange Day
This Week is…Gluten-Free Baking Week
This Month is…Take a New Year’s Resolution to Stop Smoking Month
TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1963 [60] Jennifer Beals, Chicago IL, movie actress (“Flashdance”, “The Book of Eli”)/TV actress (“Law & Order: Organized Crime” since 2022)
1965 [58] Jessica Steen, Toronto ON, movie actress (“Armageddon”)/TV actress (“Homefront” 1991-93, “Heartland” since 2007)
1967 [56] Criss Angel (Christopher Sarantakos), NYC, Las Vegas magician-illusionist (“Criss Angel: Believe”, “Criss Angel: Mindfreak”)
1969 [54] (Kristen) Kristy Swanson, Mission Viejo CA, TV actress (“Knots Landing” 1987-88)/movie actress (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Flowers in the Attic”)
1970 [53] Tyson Beckford, Rochester NY, model (Ralph Lauren Polo)/TV host (“Make Me a Supermodel” 2008-2009)/named “greatest male model of all time” by Vogue in 2014
1972 [51] Alyssa Milano, Brooklyn NY, TV actress (“My Name is Earl” 2007-08, “Charmed” 1998-2006, “Who’s the Boss” 1984-92)/movie actress (“Hall Pass”)/TV host (“Project Runway All Stars” 2013-19)
1980 [43] Jake Gyllenhaal, LA CA, movie actor (“Spider-Man: Far From Home”, “Brokeback Mountain”, “Donnie Darko”)/brother of Maggie Gyllenhaal. COMING UP…“Road House” remake
1988 [35] Paulina Gretzky, Los Angeles CA, celebutante/model/singer/movie actress (“Grown Ups 2”, “Fame” [2009])/married to golfer Dustin Johnson, daughter of Wayne Gretzky and Janet Jones
THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
1997 [26] “Titanic” opens in theaters. It becomes the top-grossing movie of all time ($2.2 billion, currently #4), with a soundtrack that sells 18 million copies, thanks mostly to Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’
2014 [09] A study on advice given by talk show host Dr Mehmet Oz shows that only about 46% of his suggestions are supported by legitimate medical evidence
TODAY’S MUSIC EVENTS . . .
2005 [18] Elton John turns down an offer of almost $6 million for TV rights to his civil union to David Furnish
2014 [09] Darlene Love sings ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ on “The Late Show with David Letterman” for the final time (When she first performed it in 1986, it went so well that Dave made it an annual Christmas tradition)
2015 [08] 33 years after its release, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” becomes the first album to sell more than 30 million in the US (current estimated US sales: 34 million)
TODAY’S FIRSTS . . .
1917 [106] The first NHL games are played (5,500 fans watch Montréal Canadiens beat Ottawa Senators 7-4, while 700 soldiers get in free to see Montréal Wanderers defeat Toronto Arenas 10-9)
1922 [101] 24-year-old Theresa Vaughn confesses in court in England, to being married 61 times over 5 years, in 50 cities, in 3 countries
BULL’S BITS
BS WHACK FACTS:
✓ It takes 70 different pieces of wood to make a violin.
✓ Per calorie, broccoli has more protein than beef.
✓ Pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than new cars.
✓ Finland has more saunas than cars.
✓ No one knows who named Earth.
✓ Stats show that people with high, medium and low-income groups spend about the same amount on Christmas gifts.
-RandomFactGenerator, WomansDay
Best of BS . . .
BS HOLIDAY SPECIALS YOU WON’T SEE:
• Silent Night of the Lambs
• Grandma Got Made Over by a Reindeer
• Home But Not Alone
• Rudolph the Brown-Nosed Reindeer
• Jersey Shore on Ice
• Bill Cosby presents ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’
• There’s Something About Mary’s Boy Child
• Ho Ho Homicide
• Anything on the Hallmark Channel with a sad ending.
• Anything featuring the on-screen pairing of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard
-Twitter, first published in BS in 2019
BS WHAT I GOT AT THE OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY:
• Super gassy from Margaret’s 3-bean salad
• Served…a restraining order
• The party started
• The ‘come hither’ look from Norman in accounting
• Annoyed. Because I already spend all day with these people
• Some great pictures for the company newsletter
• Snacks for later — and got the hell out of there!
• Fired for making it more like XXXmas
• My Stapler back
• Drunk
-Twitter, first published in BS in 2017
BS WEB GOODIE:
Yup: https://tinyurl.com/5d2vtz9n
BS RANDOM JOKE:
I love Christmas. It’s the only time of year you can sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of socks.
BS PHONE STARTER:
What is your worst-ever Christmas shopping fail?
BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question: 25% of people admit they’re still obsessed with THIS Christmas tradition. What is it?
Answer: Ugly Christmas sweaters
BS DEEP THOUGHT:
Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind.
