Thursday, November 24, 2011                 Edition: #4637
Can You Believe This Sheet?

BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
Vanessa Minnillo has announced on Twitter she’s now ‘Vanessa Lachey’ as she’s officially taken the surname of husband Nick (“The Sing-Off”) and says she ‘loves her new name’ (she’ll never have to answer “Is that with 2 Ns and 2 Ls?” again) . . .  47-year-old actress Courteney Cox tells “Hello” magazine she doesn’t consider herself a ‘cougar’, but she’s always been attracted to younger men and can’t rule out the possibility (it’d sound a lot more casual without the tone of desperation, hon’) . . . Online gossips have revealed that the new Fiat 500 TV ad that features Jennifer Lopez  reminiscing while driving through the gritty streets of her old neighborhood (“They may be just streets to you, but to me they’re a playground”) is not her at all, but a body-double hired to play her (even ‘Jenny From the Block’ isn’t so stupid as to joyride in the Bronx) . . . Brit actor Daniel Radcliffe has revealed his parents initially turned down his role as ‘Harry Potter’ because the original plan was to shoot all the films in Hollywood, but they eventually relented when it was decided filming would be confined to England (a parental boo-boo that could have cost him an estimated $45 million) . . . Movie star Gerard Butler says he’s ruled out relationships with cast-mates ever again, as it’s easy to develop an obsession on a film set that you think might be love – but it isn’t (think Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, etc) . . . Actress Eva Longoria’s LA restaurant Beso is being sued for unspecified damages by a diner who allegedly sustained ‘major physical injuries’ when she slipped and fell on the floor while celebrating her birthday, due to ‘the floor being extremely slippery’ (likely from the 7th double martini she spilled on it) . . . “MailOnline” reports that “Twilight Saga” couple Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart are renting an apartment together in the Notting Hill area of London to use ‘as a base when they’re in Europe’ (this is the kind of language movie stars use when they get really rich) . . . And if you happen to be house-hunting, Oprah Winfrey has just put her $5.6-million, 4,600-sq ft Chicago, Illinois apartment up for rent, which includes a library, butler’s pantry, solarium, wine room, gourmet kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and a 2-car garage for – yikes! – $15,000 a month (only $180,000 per year).

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated/CTV2) – Bruno Mars (“Doo-Wops & Hooligans”). Rerun.
• “George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight” (CBC) – Nickelback (“Here & Now”).
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/CHCH) – Feist (“Metals”). Rerun.
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – Foster the People (“Torches”). Rerun.
• “Late Show With David Letterman” (CBS/NTV/Omni1) – St Vincent (“Actor”). Rerun.
• NFL Thanksgiving Day Football – The tradition now includes an annual triple-header …
1. Green Bay @ Detroit (FOX): Lauren Alaina (“Wildflower”) sings the anthem prior to kick-off . Nickleback (“Here & Now”) tries to win over the haters at half-time.
2. Miami @ Dallas (CBS): Big Time Rush sings the anthem; Enrique Iglesias is halftime performer.
3. San Francisco @ Baltimore (NFL Network): First time in NFL history that brothers oppose each other as head coaches (Jim & John Harbaugh).
• “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” (NBC/CTV2) – Daughtry (“Break the Spell”). Rerun.
• “A Very Gaga Thanksgiving” (ABC) – ‘Mother Monster’ sits down with host Katie Couric for a 90-minute special to talk about the inspiration behind her songs and intimate details about her past. She also performs 8 songs in front of a small audience of family & friends.

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Brad Paisley – His autobiography “Diary Of a Player”, released earlier this month, has been on the “New York Times” best-seller list for 2 consecutive weeks. (And likely a 3rd this Sunday.)
• Chris Brown – The 22-year-old has forked out $1.5 million on a chic new 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom mansion in Hollywood. Listed at close to $3 million just 2 years ago, it includes an elevator, hi-tech touchscreen systems, and a huge swimming pool. (And it’s just 8 miles from Rihanna’s Beverly Crest mansion.)
• Depeche Mode – Two original members, Vince Clarke and Martin L Gore, have reunited for the first time since 1981. They plan to release a series of EPs and a new album under the name VCMG.
• James Blunt – Tonight the Brit singer/songwriter kicks off a North American tour in support of his latest album, “Some Kind Of Trouble”, in Sherbrooke, Québec.
• Muse – They’re in the studio working on their 6th album. Their manager tells Billboard.biz they hope to record the entire project in London and release it by October 2012.
• Nickelback – Chad Kroeger tells MTV News ‘the vision’ behind new album “Here & Now” was to record 11 songs and try to make sure they don’t sound like one another. The title represents ‘a snapshot in time’ and was better than other names on the list … like “Wizard Beating”.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – Fans can now download full live concerts. In fact, all concerts on their current “I’m With You” tour will be available within a few days after each gig ends.
NET: http://redhotchilipeppers.com/
• Sugarland – Along with producers, stage riggers and other associates, they’ve been named in a lawsuit filed by 44 survivors of August’s Indiana State Fair disaster in which 7 people died. They were set to perform when a severe storm brought the stage crashing down. (And this was their fault how?)

SMALLER SEPARATION:
Psychologist Stanley Milgram popularized the idea that everyone on Earth is theoretically separated from one another (socially speaking) by no more than 6 connections way back in 1967. But it turns out that in this, as in everything else these days, Facebook has changed the game. New research conducted by Italy’s University of Milan shows that Facebook users are way more connected than your average, regular human of yesteryear. Instead of 6 degrees of separation, it’s now 4.74, meaning any 2 Facebook users are separated from one another by only that number of other Facebook users. (As in a friend of a friend of a friend …)
– CBC.ca

THE TALKING PLATE:
The new Swedish-made ‘Mandometer’ monitors the amount of food leaving a dinner plate. It works by using a scale that sits beneath the plate and a screen showing graphics of the food on the plate. The diner can see the food disappearing onscreen as he or she eats. If it’s consumed too rapidly, the plate instructs the diner, ‘Please eat more slowly’. Obesity experts believe teaching the chronically overweight to reduce the speed at which they eat helps them to better recognize feelings of fullness, leading to weight-loss. But even if you’re desperate to lose weight you might have second thoughts about this method … the plate monitor costs circa $2,400.
– “Times of London”

OBSOLETE ENGLISH WORDS THAT SHOULD MAKE A COMEBACK:
We think these bon mots are so cool we should still be using them …
• ‘Bibesy’ – A too earnest desire to drink. (“He was all bibesy when the Packers were down by 10 at halftime.”)
• ‘Brannigan’ – A drinking bout; a spree or binge. (The result of feeling bibesy.)
• ‘Hoddypeak’ – A fool, simpleton, noodle, blockhead. (A nifty insult to lay on someone without them even knowing.)
• ‘Perissology’ – Use of more words than are actually necessary; redundancy or superfluity. (As in this description.)
• ‘Quagswagging’ – The action of shaking to-and-fro. Can also be a verb … to quagswag. (“Hey, tell your stupid dog to quit quagswagging my favorite teddy bear!”)
• ‘Twitter-light’ – Nothing to do with social networking, this is the early 17th-century version of ‘twilight’. (Nothing to do with vampires.)
• ‘Widdendream’ – A state of mental disturbance or confusion. (“Ever since I met her I’ve had widdendreams.”)
– Inspired by MatadornNetwork.com

WHO TAKES LONGER?
According to a new Travelodge study, men actually take more time getting ready to go out than women. A few highlights …
• Men spend an average of 81 minutes per day grooming, styling, and dressing; women need only 75.
• Men take longer in the shower, requiring 23 minutes compared to the female average of 22.
• Men take longer to shave (18 minutes) compared to women (14 minutes), which is somewhat surprising considering how much more ground women have to cover.
• Men also take longer with cleansing and moisturizing, needing 10 minutes on average, while women can rinse and apply in just 9 minutes.
• Men need an average of 13 minutes to decide on an outfit, while women only take 10 minutes.
(So how come it always seems men are doing more of the waiting right before date night?)
– AskMen.com

DID YOU KNOW?
• The earliest clear signs of deception by children appear at about 6 months of age. ‘Fake crying’ and ‘pretend laughing’ are among the earliest.
– TheGlobeandMail.com
• Thanks to climate change, some waterfowl are now delaying their annual migration by as much as a month compared with 30 years ago.
– UPI.com

BS CHRONOMETER 11.24.11