Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Its a Sad, Sad Day

Well, I'm totally bummed out right now. There has just been a plethora of depressing entertainment news today. I could go into huge amounts of detail, but that would take a long time and make me sad all at once, so I'll just go over the two most depressing stories (at least, the most depressing to me) and be done with it.

First off, the very sad news that Estelle Getty has passed away at the age of 84. Most people know her as Sophia on The Golden Girls. Here's the official announcement:
Getty's longtime manager, Alan Siegel, told PEOPLE on Tuesday: "As of 5:35 this morning, surrounded by her family in her Hollywood Hills home, Estelle Getty passed away peacefully in her sleep of natural causes. Her family and close friends thank everyone for being so loving and supportive of Estelle in her last few years." For many years, Getty had suffered with Lewy's Body Dementia, which has been described as a type of Alzheimer's disease. (Source People Online)
Very sad new indeed. I used to watch The Golden Girls every Saturday night when I was little and have watched the show in repeats ever since. While I probably haven't seen every episode, I've seen a good many and always loved the character of Sophia. Estelle will be missed.

The next sad news story broke earlier than the death of Estelle Getty, but I figured that she deserved to be honored first. This morning it was reported that The Dark Knight star Christian Bale was arrested in London for assault on his sister and mother. Here are the details:

Batman star Christian Bale has been arrested in London after turning himself in to a police station to undergo questioning on allegations that he assaulted his mother and sister. The incident allegedly took place in the box-office champ's Dorchester Hotel room in London on Sunday, the day before the blockbuster film's European premiere. It's unclear what exactly went down, but the Welsh-born Bale's 61-year-old mother, Jenny, and 40-year-old sister, Sharon, reportedly went to a Hampshire police station to make the allegation. The local cops subsequently turned the case over to London's Metropolitan Police. Although his family lodged the charges prior to Monday night's premiere, police waited until today to question Bale to allow the event to go on without headline-grabbing interruption. (Source EOnline)

Bale has since been released from police custody and has released the following statement via his lawyer:

"Mr. Bale, who denies the allegation, cooperated throughout, gave his account
in full of the events in question, and has left the station without any charge being made against him by the police," the actor's lawyers at the high-powered London firm Schillings said in a statement. "At this time, there will be no further comment by Mr. Bale." (source EOnline)

There's still a lot of information missing from this story and, more than likely, the public will never know what really went down between Christian and his family, who have apparently been estranged for quite some time. TMZ has had a lot of "sources" come to them with different conjectures of what went on in that hotel room and has also clarified that an assault charge in England can also mean a verbal assault, not just a physical one, however, it appears to have been a minor physical assault. Here's what they've got:

Sources directly connected to the Christian Bale case tell TMZ there was physical contact between Christian and his mom, but it amounted to next to nothing. We're told Bale pushed his mom out of the way during the altercation. She was not hurt and did not fall down. There's a division of opinion on whether the contact was a "push" or a "brush." (Source TMZ.com)

Still others are saying that the mom and the sister showed up at his hotel room all drunk and obnoxious and demanding money and the "brush" or "push" came about when Bale was trying to either leave the room or get them ejected from the hotel. Like I said, its all speculation, but I've always liked Christian Bale as an actor and would be truly disappointed if these allegations turned out to be more serious than a simple light push that cause no injury. I would be really sad if the actor, who's career I've followed since Newsies (I don't care what anyone says, I love that movie!), turned out to be a mom beater. But somehow I don't believe that is the case.

So yeah, that's pretty much how the day has gone. One sad, disturbing story after another. At least we've managed to have some fun here at the station. The boss is gone, so we're keeping a tally of how many times he calls between now and Friday to check his voice mail. Yeah, we're childish like that here at Wine Country Broadcasting, but I say its good for company morale;)

Later!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Monday, Monday Why Must It Be Monday?

Ugh. Mondays are never fun and today seems to be just dragging. Too much fun over the weekend I guess. Couple that with a slow gossip day and I just don't have that much to write about. But there have been some developments since Friday, so I guess I should just get to it.

First off, it looks like we may be coming to the end of an era. Both Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper have confirmed that they will be leaving At The Movies With Ebert & Roeper. Here are the deets:
The two Chicago-based film reviewers won't be returning next season, reports the Associated Press. Roeper said it was because he couldn't come to an agreement on a contract extension with Disney-ABC, and Ebert, whose announcement followed that of his colleague's, said in an e-mail that Disney-ABC Domestic Television had decided to take the program "in a new direction" and he won't be associated with it.Roeper, who joined Roger Ebert on At the Movies after original co-host Gene Siskel died in 1999, says he'll be co-hosting another, still-untitled movie review show that "honors the standards established by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert more than 30 years ago." Roeper's final appearance on At the Movies will air the weekend of Aug. 16. Ebert, who has been fighting cancer, has not been on the show for the past two years. (Source People Online)
Of course Siskel and Ebert began the whole thumbs up thumbs down thing years ago and Ebert and Roeper are quoted all of the time when it comes to their movie reviews. You know a movie has some clout behind it when the promos quote one of them giving it two thumbs up. Whether I agreed with their reviews or not (most of the time not) they are still an institution in the entertainment industry and I, for one, will miss them. I think Disney-ABC Domestic Television is making a big mistake in letting these two go. But they seem to feel that a change will do the show some good. That remains to be seen. All I know is that Ebert and Roeper will be missed.

On to more legal matters, Amy Winehouse's husband, Blake Fielder-Civil has finally been sentenced in the charges of perverting justice and assaulting a pub owner.
A London judge today sentenced the Grammy winner's husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, to 27 months behind bars as punishment for his guilty plea for assaulting a pub owner and then attempting to cover it up. Winehouse was not present in Snaresbrook Crown Court to hear her other half's fate. Fielder-Civil has already logged roughly nine months, or the better part of the first year of marriage, at Pentonville Prison. Accounting for the time served, he may only have 18 months left as an inmate. (Source EOnline)
Many news sources are speculating that Blake will be out of prison in time for Christmas. Either way, we're in for at least a few more months of listening to Amy Winehouse talk about her "Blake incarcerated" and see her wearing that little heart in her ginormous beehive that says Blake on it. Oh joy. Not that she'll be much better when he gets out of prison. Then we'll have to see the nasty pictures of them all bruised and bloody after getting into a drug fueled brawl. So exciting. Can't wait. It'll be like a Christmas present to the world.

And finally (I told you it was a slow day and I'm sleepy) it seems that the fallout from the whole Janet Jackson-Superbowl-Nipple heard round the world debacle may finally be drawing to a close. It seems that the courts have finally gotten around to throwing out the fines the FCC invoked on CBS.

The long-running legal saga involving the escape of Janet Jackson's right breast during the halftime show of the 2004 Super Bowl has apparently come to an end as a federal appeals court today tossed out the $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. In its ruling, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Federal Communications Commission "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" when it issued the pricey penalty against the network for the boob slippage. (Source EOnline)

At this point, I really don't care if the courts upheld the fine or not, I'm just tired of hearing about it. Seriously, this was over four years ago and yet, every month or so, someone has to bring it up again. I'm over it. I don't care anymore. I wasn't scarred by the whole thing, I'm sure most children weren't either. Even if they were, they are now four years older and wanting to look at a woman's breast anyway. Plus, as my husband points out, you couldn't really see anything anyway. At least until the media blew up the freeze frame of the 10 seconds you could actually see her boob and plastered it all over the place(kind of like I just did). I just hope that this is the final nail in the coffin that was nipplegate. Its time to let the healing begin.

Oy, so it was another busy weekend. We were at another Mondavi concert on Saturday night. This time it was Tiempo Libre, in conjunction with Festival del Sole. It was pretty fun. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced my camera, so we didn't take any pictures. Which is too bad because those guys were quite the performers. And most of them were not wearing underwear. Trust me, you would tell. We spent most of yesterday recovering from Saturday night, which included going out to breakfast and then buying an amazing amount of junk food to consume throughout the day while watching movies. So while yesterday was pretty chill, I could still use another day of weekend. But its not to be. Oh well, more tomorrow.

Later!


Friday, July 18, 2008

Its Friday, Waste Time By Watching Stuff!



So its a pretty slow gossip day. I suppose I could talk about the whole Spederline custody settlement thing, but what's the point when they're just going to end up back in court in a couple months to change it again? I do truly believe that the boys are better off with K-Fed for now (I never thought I'd say that, but its true). If Britney continues to improve the way she has, the I can totally see the judge awarding her with more custody. But for now, I think the agreement they reached will work just fine.

Other than that, Salma Hayek broke off her engagement to her billionaire babydaddy. Not much to say there either. Bummer for the kid, but not terribly unexpected considering the discrepancy in hotness between them. She got a cute kid who's going to have one heck of a trust fund out of the deal. I think she's set.

So that's pretty much what's going on in the gossip world. Now why don't you waste some time by watching the final installment of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? Its pretty awesome! Check it out at drhorrible.com.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Emmy Fever


The nominations for the 60th annual Prime time Emmy Awards were announced today and there were some surprises, though many of the usual suspects were there as well. Here's a partial list:

Outstanding Drama Series

  • Boston Legal
  • Damages
  • Dexter
  • House
  • Lost
  • Mad Men

Outstanding Comedy Series

  • Curb Your Enthusiasm
  • Entourage
  • The Office
  • 30 Rock
  • Two and a Half Men

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

  • Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
  • Jean Smart, Samantha Who?
  • Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live
  • Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
  • Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

    Outstanding Reality Program

  • Antiques Roadshow
  • Dirty Jobs
  • Extreme Makeover Home Edition
  • Intervention
  • Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List

Outstanding Reality-Competition Program

  • The Amazing Race
  • American Idol
  • Dancing With the Stars
  • Project Runway
  • Top Chef

Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program

  • Ryan Seacrest, American Idol
  • Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars
  • Howie Mandel, Deal Or No Deal
  • Heidi Klum, Project Runway
  • Jeff Probst, Survivor

    Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series

  • The Colbert Report
  • The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
  • Late Show With David Letterman
  • Real Time With Bill Maher
  • Saturday Night Live.
(Source EOnline)
You can find a full list of the nominees here. None of this was terribly surprising to me. I haven't really gotten in to Mad Men, but it set a record for the most nominations for a cable network. I've heard its a great show, so I may have to rent the first season and check it out. I was super excited that 30 Rock came in with a record setting 17 nominations, the most a comedy series has ever gotten. Despite having most of the cast on the Emmy shortlist, Desperate Housewives came away with zero nominations. Which is really too bad since what I've seen of this past season is the best the show has been since it started. I think the writer's strike really messed things up for some shows. Heroes, for instance, got zero nominations as well probably due to a rocky start of a season that was abruptly cut off because of the strike. One thing that did surprise, not to mention delight me, were the nominees in the Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, a category I've never paid attention to before. Check it out:

Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics

  • Disney Phineas and Ferb, Song: “I Ain’t Got No Rhythm”
  • Flight of the Conchords, Song: “The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)”
  • Flight of the Conchords, Song: “Inner City Pressure”
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live, Song: “I’m F***ing Matt Damon”
  • MADtv, Song: “Sad Fitty Cent”
(Source Eonline)
I have already expressed my love for the
Sarah Silverman viral video "I'm F***ing Matt Damon" so I won't repeat myself. However, I have yet to express my love for The Flight of the Conchords. This show is absolutely brilliant and hysterical. If you haven't seen it yet, hurry and rent season one before season two starts! And "The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)" was actually the first song I ever heard from them. My friend Megan (who used to be our news director here at the station before she moved on to bigger and better things) made me watch about twelve You Tube videos of these guys and "The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room) was the first one I saw. I think its one of their best too, but that's just my opinion. "Inner City Pressure" is pretty awesome too, especially with the accompanying video! I don't know what Disney Phineas and the Ferb is and I must have missed the episode of MADtv that the nominated song is from. But even if I had seen the other two nominees, I would still be rooting for the Conchords!
Or Sarah Silverman. Because, lets face it, she's had a rough week. Here's the story on her:
For Sarah Silverman, this has been a week of good news and bad news. First, the bad: On Monday, it was reported, she and boyfriend of five years, Jimmy Kimmel broke up. Now, the good: On Thursday Silverman, 37, was one of those lucky enough to be nominated for an Emmy. But, now for the weird news: the TV Academy nod is linked to what she did on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!, an over-the-top music video in which she and the Sexiest Man Alive flaunted their (fictitious and funny) affair to Kimmel, all set to music in a ditty titled, "I'm F------ Matt Damon". The Emmy nominating committee clearly liked what it heard. Silverman is up for the gold in the category of outstanding original music and lyrics, along with her fellow writer-composers on the ditty Tony Barbieri, Wayne McClammy, Sal Iacono, and Dan Warner. (Source People Online)
If it wasn't for my love of Flight of the Conchords, I would be cheering Sarah Silverman on more. Maybe she'll win the other award she's nominated for. The Emmy's will be handed out on September 21. May the best people win. And by best, I mean the people I want to win. (I'm rooting for you Alec Baldwin!)
Later!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Better Question: Who Didn't Get Arrested Today?

Its been a day of arrests and its only 11 am here in California! Actually, one of these arrests happened last week and is only being reported today, but it still feels like a rash of bad behavior amoungst the Hollywood types. We'll start with the most recent. Andy Dick is no stranger to a jail cell, but this latest arrest is just a little creepier than his normal fare. Here are the details:
Andy Dick was busted in Murietta, Calif., early this morning on felony charges of sexual battery, possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana and public intoxication after allegedly groping and exposing a 17-year-old restaurant patron. The arresting officer, Lt. Dennis Vrooman, told E! News he picked up the actor at 1:13 a.m. this morning outside the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant and bar after receiving a complaint about a man urinating outside and generally causing a disturbance. Per the police report, the 42-year-old actor approached two girls outside the restaurant before grabbing and pulling down the tank top and bra of the unidentified 17-year-old. Several of Dick's friends attempted to remove him from the location, but cops stopped the group's truck several minutes later at a nearby Sam's Club. "The girls were uncomfortable with what he had done," Vrooman said. "They signed private person arrest forms requesting that he be arrested. It was not mutual." As if the situation wasn't bad enough for Dick, officers found marijuana and Xanax in his pants pockets, Vrooman said. Dick was booked at the Southwest Detention Center and has since been transported to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, where he is being held on $5,000 bail. (Source EOnline)
Yeah, while I enjoy Andy Dick in scripted stuff, like News Radio, as a person I find him rather repugnant and I've never really enjoyed his comedy. This latest arrest is only one in a string of increasingly bad behavior that leads me to believe that the man thinks he can do anything and get away with it. Why would he think he can just pull down someone's tank top on the street? Seriously! Who does that? I have to admit, though, that his mugshot is pretty hilarious.

This second arrest actually happened last week and bums me out way more than the Andy Dick thing. It seems that the lead singer for the band Barenaked Ladies was busted for cocaine and marijuana possession last week. Here are the details on that arrest:

Barenaked Ladies' singer and guitarist Steven Page was arrested Friday in upstate New York and charged with possession of cocaine, a police spokesman confirmed. According to the Manilus Police Department, the 38-year-old musician and two women were holed up in an apartment in Fayetteville, just outside of Syracuse, at approximately 2 a.m. Friday, when a patrol unit arrived on scene to inspect a nearby car with its driver's side door left open. While investigating the "suspicious vehicle," officers noticed Page and 25-year-old companion Stephanie Ford seated in an apartment kitchen with "an unknown white capsule in front of them." After confronting the pair, police performed a field test and determined the substance was cocaine. The two were taken into custody and booked on felony criminal possession of a controlled substance. Ford was also charged with marijuana posession. The third woman who resided in the apartment, 27-year-old Christine Benedicto, was not present at the time of the others' arrest. She was booked a few hours later on a misdemeanor pot-posession count. (Source EOnline)

All three were released on bail and, according to the band's website, Steven has entered a Not Guilty plea and is planning on fighting the charges. I hope this was all a big misunderstanding because I've always been a big BNR fan. Ever since Rock Spectacle really. And I just started listening to Snacktime, the children's album they recently released, and I've found it to be pretty fun. Granted, I don't have any kids, but our 10 week old kitten seems to like it. Anyway, I realize its a bit naive to be disillusioned by a musician being busted on drug charges, but those guys always seemed more down to earth and unaffected by the music scene. Who knows what's really going on there.

Anyway, I'm trying out something new with this blog, which is basically posting whenever I find something worth writing about, but making them shorter posts over all. Hopefully this will motivate me to write every day instead of once or twice a week. We'll see if it works.
Later!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Feist on Sesame Street?

Those of you that listen to The Vine on a regular basis have probably heard the artist Feist on our station a lot. Of course, she's also been featured in an IPod commercial and on numerous other radio stations and music channels, so you don't have to be a Vine listener to know who she is. Anyway, I'm getting off point. Feist is the newest artist to lend their song to Sesame Street as an educational tool. Here's a video of Feist's 1234 done up all Sesame Street. I thought it was kind of cute!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Bittersweet Events

What started out as an uplifting post today has kind of turned into a downer! When I came to work this morning, I was all excited about writing about the Branglina twins and speculating about how much PEOPLE Magazine would pay Brad and Angie for the first pictures of the two, undoubtedly gorgeous, babies. But when I returned from lunch, I was greeted with some sad news. I think I'll just start with the sad and move on to the happy, in hopes that I will cheer up by the time this post is completely written.
So the saddest news so far today has to be the Sarah Silverman-Jimmy Kimmel split. The couple, who have been dating for five years, were never afraid to share too much about their relationship with the world. I fear we'll never see another viral video about fornicating with Matt Damon from this pair again. That alone is enough to break my heart. But what makes it worse is the fact that I really liked them as a couple and thought that they were perfect together. Here's the official story:

The next time Sarah Silverman makes a video about which celebrity she's f--king, Jimmy Kimmel may not find it quite so funny. The late-night talk-show host and the bawdy object of his affection have separated after five funnybone-tickling, viral video-goofing years, E! News has confirmed. "Jimmy and Sarah are no longer dating...and will have no further comment," Lewis Kay and Amy Zvi, the respective reps for Kimmel and Silverman, said in a joint statement today. (Source E Online)

I'm serious, this news totally depressed me! Both Sarah and Jimmy are really funny people and I thought they really complimented each other's personalities. Sigh. Well, lets remember the good times.


And Jimmy's rebuttal:

Ah, the good old days back in the winter of 2008. Will things ever be the same?
Moving on to less depressing news. Well, less depressing if your not Josh Brolin or anyone attached to the filming of W. It seems the cast and crew of W, the Oliver Stone movie about President George W. Bush that's currently filming in Louisiana, went out to party on Friday night and got themselves into a spot of trouble. Here's the low down:
Josh Brolin, Jeffrey Wright and five others were arrested early Saturday morning in Shreveport, La., in connection with a bar fight. Brolin and Wright – who are reportedly in town shooting Oliver Stone's President George W. Bush film, W – were arrested at the Stray Cat bar after a call was made regarding a rowdy patron, Shreveport police Sgt. Willie Lewis told the Associated Press. Brolin was booked and posted $334 cash bond, according to the Times of Shreveport. Brolin's rep could not be reached for comment. (Source PEOPLE Magazine)
While this isn't really a big deal, I found this story interesting for a couple of reasons. One, it takes place in Shreveport, where I spent quite a bit of time in my college years. Mainly in the airport and on the casino boats (which are pretty overrated in my opinion), but I still spent a bit of time there and tend to single out any story that takes place there. The other thing I found funny about this story (aside from Brolin's mugshot, which is pretty hilarious all on its own) was the fact that he only had to pay $334 to get out of jail. This makes me think that the police weren't terribly interested in arresting him in the first place and if he had just kept his mouth shut he would never have been subjected to the ridicule his mugshot has been given by the bloggerazzi. Maybe he'll think twice before doing that again.
And finally, the big news of the weekend, which we will be hearing about constantly for the next three months to a year, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are the proud parents of twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline. Here are just some of the details:
Brad Pitt was at Angelina Jolie's side as she gave birth to a son and daughter Saturday at the Fondation Lenval hospital in Nice, France, PEOPLE has confirmed. "The babies are doing well. The operation went just perfectly," Dr. Michel Sussmann told PEOPLE Sunday. "Angelina is in very good spirits. Brad Pitt was at her side. He was there and all was well." Sussmann confirmed the Nice-Matin newspaper report that Jolie gave birth to a boy, Knox Leon, and a girl, Vivienne Marcheline, by Cesarean section on Saturday night. Knox weighed 5.03 lbs, and Vivienne 5 lbs. (Source PEOPLE Magazine).


So I was a week off on my Brangelina twin prediction and the media was three days off on theirs (there were numerous reports circulating that Angelina wasn't supposed to give birth until this Tuesday so that her doctor could celebrate Bastille Day. Guess she was done cooking sooner than everyone thought.) Since the birth of the golden children on Saturday night, there have been at least three press conferences and numerous web stories about this, that and the other. I've seen at least three different stories on the meaning of the twins' names (I never realized that all of the Jolie-Pitt male children's names end in X, but its true. Maddox, Pax and now Knox, I wonder what that's all about) and what effect these names will have on naming trends in the next few years. And, of course, everyone is speculating how much the first baby pictures will go for. Many are projecting between $10 and $20 million, which Brangelina will donate to charity. How surreal it would be to grow up knowing that your baby pictures could have bought a third world country. Something tells me the Jolie Pitt children's lives will never be as "normal" as their parents insist they are. Seriously, $20 million for a baby picture! Which will probably be taken by Annie Leibovitz and will probably end up costing PEOPLE or OK or whoever forks the money over another $2 million just to get them produced and to keep them from leaking on to the Internet before the magazine hits the news stands. Craziness I tell you, just pure craziness.

Well another Monday is almost over and we're off and running again into the week. Its been a crazy week or so for me. Aside from work and our adorable kitten (who is not as angelic as her name implies), my husband also had his wisdom teeth taken out last week. So its been Nurse Tracy at your service since last Thursday. Though, I must say that he is a pretty good patient. He doesn't complain much and was already back at work by Friday. And he humored me and let me be the over protective wife for a while. He's had a pretty fast recovery and was able to make it to the Dave Koz and David Benoit concert at Robert Mondavi Winery this past Saturday where we were broadcasting live. It was a pretty good time, if only for the amusing commentary we kept going throughout the concert. If you haven't checked out the Summer Festival at Robert Mondavi Winery, I highly suggest you do. I'll be at all the rest of the concerts this season (there are three left) and the line up is only getting better! You can get all the info at robermondaviwinery.com. Here's a few pictures from the evening. The guy with the puffy cheeks is my husband (isn't he cute!).




That's pretty much it for me today. There are still at least two more celebrities that are due to pop any day now, so I should have lots to write about this week.
Later!