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Real Life Dynasty Drama

October 13, 2006

We loved "Dynasty," and we love, present tense, "Dynasty." Has there even been a better night-time soap?

Thus it’s particularly disheartening to read that John Forsythe is being treated for colon cancer. But, he is recovering at a hospital, his spokesman said.

The ''Dynasty'' star, 88, was found Sept. 28 to have colon cancer and was taken to a hospital, where he underwent treatment during the past week, Harlan Boll said Thursday.

''He seems to be in good spirits,'' Boll said. ''They hope to have him home this weekend.''
Boll would not provide further details about Forsythe's condition.

Forsythe is best known for playing Blake Carrington on the hit TV soap and for being the voice of Charlie in both the TV and film versions of ''Charlie's Angels.''

Paris and Nicole, B-bye

So the tragically-famous-before-their-brains-fully-developed-stars of "The Simple Life" have reunited. For ratings? Because they like each other? Is it because they realize they are nothing without a TV show?

Actually, we don't care what the answer is. We just want them to go away.

Diane Sawyer Digs, Finds Coal

Ms. Sawyer scooped her nemesis Barbara Walters for the first interview with anti-Semitic freak show- “star” Mel Gibson.

Takeaway: his anti-Semitic tirade last summer may have been set off by criticism of his 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ that began before the film’s release and by Israel's war in Lebanon.

Money quote: ''Now even before anyone saw a frame of film, for an entire year, I was subjected to a pretty brutal sort of public beating,'' he said. ''And during the course of that, I think I probably had my rights violated in many different ways as an American, as an artist, as a Christian, just as a human being.''

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Oprah + Bono 4 AIDS

Two people we love: Oprah and Bono. A) Writing about them saves us all that unnecessary typing of last names and B) The stuff they do is so darn nice.

Sure they both can be annoying at times with their obsessive beneficence … but it’s better than being repetitive maid-bashers or drug addicts like many of the other stars clogging the blogosphere.

“O” and “B” have teamed to promote a new line of “clothing, accessories and gadgets” to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa.

Pretty cool, actually.

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Alias Star Still on The Prowl

Argentine actress Mia Maestro, who played a lethal spy on ''Alias” is lending her fame to fight a real killer.

She is trying to bring awareness about Chagas disease, which infects about 12 million people in Central and South America.

Chagas disease can cause high fever, swelling, enlargement of the spleen, liver and lymph nodes, and inflammation of the heart. Most people infected do not get sick, but the disease can be fatal.

It is little known in the United States, where about 100,000 residents have been infected.

''Chagas is a disease that I grew up hearing about because my mom is from the north of Argentina,'' Maestro told The Associated Press on Saturday. ''I'm very familiar with it, but I had no idea few people know about it. So whatever I can do to raise awareness, I'll do it.''

Maestro, 28, has appeared in movies good, great and horrible: The Motorcycle Diaries, Frida and The Poseidon Adventure, respectively.

She attended Saturday's screening of the documentary Chagas: A Hidden Affliction, which opened the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival.

''I call Chagas the AIDS of the poor,'' said Ricardo Preve, the film's director. ''It's a silent killer and we're not doing anything about it because of a lack of education.''

http://www.chagasthemovie.com/

Keith Olbermann: Bulldog

October 12, 2006

Maybe, just maybe, it pays off to bash President Bush. Since MSNBC “Countdown” star Keith Olbermann starting hounding the Prez like a rabid dog in five extraordinarily harsh commentaries, his ratings have skyrocketed.

Since that first commentary, Olbermann's nightly audience has increased 69 percent, according to Nielsen Media Research. This past Monday 834,000 people tuned in, virtually double his season average and more than CNN competitors Paula Zahn and Nancy Grace. Only cable kingpin and Olbermann nemesis Bill O'Reilly (on Fox with two million viewers a night) stands in his way.

Keith Olbermann's tipping point came on a tarmac in Los Angeles six weeks ago. While waiting for his plane to take off he read an account of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's speech before the American Legion equating Iraq War opponents to pre-World War II appeasers.

Boo, hiss!!!

The next night, August 30, Olbermann ended his MSNBC ''Countdown'' show with a blistering retort, questioning both Rumsfeld’s interpretation of history and the Defense Secretary’s very understanding of what it means to be an American.

It was the first of now five extraordinarily harsh anti-Bush commentaries that have made Olbermann the latest media point-person in the nation's political divide.

''As a critic of the administration, I will be damned if you can get away with calling me the equivalent of a Nazi appeaser,'' Olbermann told The Associated Press. ''No one has the right to say that about any free-speaking American in this country.''

Olbermann stood before Ground Zero on Sept. 11 and said Bush's conduct before the Iraq war was an impeachable offense. ''Not once, in now five years, has this president ever offered to assume responsibility for the failures that led to this empty space and to this, the current and curdled version of our beloved country,'' he said.

His latest verbal attack, this past Thursday, criticized the president's campaign attacks on Democrats.
''Why have you chosen to go down in history as the president who made things up?'' he asked.

To read even more about this, click Next. Or visit these sites online:

http://www.bloggermann.com/
http://www.olbermannwatch.com/
http://www.keitholbermann.org/

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Google + YouTube = ??

October 10, 2006

The news is out there. Google bought YouTube.com for a zillion dollars in stock. The deal is an echo of the dot-com boom. And this after only hours earlier, YouTube announcing a deal with television giant CBS.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What we really want to know is what will be different, not tomorrow, we know it will take time, but in a few months. What big company, such as Google, as become "better" by becoming bigger. YouTube used to be filled with so much of everything that it was too big to get a handle on.

But you always knew you could find that episode of "South Park" right after it was censored. Or you could find the Bill Clinton yelling at Fox interview ... right after it happened.

So this is a request, from all of us here at BBCancelled.com.

Please Google, follow your motto with YouTube.

Do no evil.

Scrubs Creator Has TV Baby

Creator of the hit show, Bill Lawrence, and his wife, "Scrubs" star Christa Miller, welcomed their third child Sunday.

Henry Van Duzer Lawrence weighed in at 6 pounds, 9 ounces, said the couple's publicist, Karynne Tencer.

The couple, married since 1999, have two other children: Charlotte, 6, and William, 3.

Miller, 42, plays the acerbic Jordan Sullivan on the NBC comedy, which Lawrence executive produces. She previously played Kate O'Brien on ABC's “The Drew Carey Show.”

Tim Allen Ties Knot

The comic actor got married this weekend to his girlfriend of five years, actress Jane Hadjuk, in an intimate Colorado ceremony.

The couple's family were the only guests at the private affair, held Saturday in Grand Lake, Colo., Allen's publicist, Marleah Leslie, said Monday. Allen's 17-year-old daughter, Katherine Dick, was among the attendees.

Well, that’s nice of him. It’s cool to not invite the nasty press, but thank heaven he invited his daughter.

It is the first marriage for Hadjuk, 39, and the second for Allen, 53. He was previously married to Laura Deibel.

Hadjuk and Allen appeared together earlier this year in the children's action film Zoom

Allen, whose early comedy routines often centered on men and power tools, hit stardom with his long-running TV series ''Home Improvement.'' He'll be seen in the upcoming The Santa Clause 3 with Martin Short and recently finished filming Disney's Wild Hogs with John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy.

Stewart + Colbert in '08

October 09, 2006

Everybody wants a TV star for president. A few weeks ago Oprah Winfrey’s lawyers went after a man pushing the chatfest star to run. (She had them back off.)

Now, fans of “The Daily Show” are wearing ''Stewart/Colbert '08'' T-shirts.

But the Comedy Central's fake news stars have no intention of making a run for the White House.

Jon Stewart said the T-shirts promoting him and Stephen Colbert ''are a real sign of how sad people are'' with the state of affairs in the country.

''Nothing says 'I am ashamed of you, 'my government' more than 'Stewart/Colbert '08,' Stewart told an audience Sunday at the New Yorker Festival. The magazine’s editor, David Remnick, interviewed him.

Stewart, who recently hosted Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on ''The Daily Show,'' said he's been trying to get top Bush administration officials to appear. ''We have requests in there to everyone including Barney,'' Stewart said. ''Only Barney replies.'' Barney is the president's Scottish terrier.

Stewart scoffed at suggestions that some people actually get their news from ''The Daily Show.''

''There's no way you could get the news from us,'' he said. ''I've seen the show. It couldn't happen.''

Michael J. Fox for Senate

If only. The beloved actor would win in a landslide (see Oprah/Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert story above).

Instead, Fox headlined a campaign fundraiser for Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill, but his message was broader than one Senate race.

Not that he's a newbie to campaigning, his foundation is thriving: http://www.michaeljfox.org/

''Contrary to what (former House Speaker) Tip O'Neil said, politics is not local,'' Fox told McCaskill supporters Thursday at a restaurant in this St. Louis suburb. ''What happens here does affect my three girls, my son, my wife and me, and the 100 million Americans living with a disease that could be helped by stem cell research.''

Ooh, the guy is getting personal. But that shouldn’t be a surprise.

The actor, who has Parkinson's disease, is a strong advocate of embryonic stem cell research. McCaskill has made support for the research a key part of her campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Jim Talent.

Talent opposes the research as unethical, saying it destroys human embryos.

Missouri voters will consider a ballot initiative in November that would ensure all federally allowed embryonic stem cell research could occur in Missouri. The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, now the largest funder of Parkinson's research outside the federal government, supports the initiative.

Fox, who trembled as he spoke, said the disease has diminished some choices in his life. But ''if I take time to live with that loss, there's no vacuum. It's filled with opportunity.''

''I'd love to have a cure, but there's a lot of life in the fight,'' he said.