IN THE NEWS...

[MASON]

I could not agree with you more Chick-O-Stick! On to the next topic as soon as we find it!

[Chick-O-Stick]

I think the next topic should be the election. I started writing a blog about it but I didn't end up finishing it. Basically I am very disappointed that Edwards dropped out of the race. Most of his points were things I am right on target with. I am not finding that with the other candidates, but I know I don't want McCain voted in as I feel he will be a Bush clone robot boy. After the straight out lies America was force fed with Hussein and his WMDs, I think our best option is to stear clear from the Republican party for this election. I am also finding Clinton a bit too conservative. That is all my opinion of course. Anyone else have any insight on this?

[MASON]

Here are my thoughts...

If you DON'T want any real change, keep the Republicans in the White House...McCain

If you DO want a change...Obama

If you are nostalgic...Hillary

It all depends on what America wants. If they want a breath of fresh air (which I think they may) then Obama will be our next president. If the public is not yet ready for an African American president, then McCain. I hate to say this, but I don't think the "issues" are going to sway voters this time around.

[Chick-O-Stick]

mason said:

Here are my thoughts...

If you DON'T want any real change, keep the Republicans in the White House...McCain

If you DO want a change...Obama

If you are nostalgic...Hillary

It all depends on what America wants. If they want a breath of fresh air (which I think they may) then Obama will be our next president. If the public is not yet ready for an African American president, then McCain. I hate to say this, but I don't think the "issues" are going to sway voters this time around.

What do you mean by "issues"?

[muthagoose]

My main issue is when Mason will be escorted to "Coo-Coo-ville"!

I may run on that platform.

[The Duke]

You'll have my vote.

[muthagoose]

Charlton Heston Dies at 83

Charlton Heston, 83, an Academy Award-winning actor who starred in epics such as "Ben-Hur" and "The Ten Commandments" and then became a conservative political activist and influential president of the National Rifle Association, died last night at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif.

A family spokesman did not release the cause of death, but Heston said in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease. In a message at the time, he told fans, "I've lived my whole life on the stage and screen before you. I've found purpose and meaning in your response. For an actor there's no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you."

With his deep voice and noble physique, Heston was for five decades the symbol of confident authority on film. He parted the Red Sea as Moses in "The Ten Commandments" and won an unforgettable chariot race in "Ben-Hur." In 1994, he was the boss of spy Arnold Schwarzenegger in "True Lies" and joked that the film's director, James Cameron, "said that I was the only actor who could plausibly intimidate Arnold."

Of more than 85 movie parts, "Ben-Hur" (1959) was a career-defining performance. It won 11 Oscars, including best actor for Heston, who played a Jewish prince seeking revenge on those who harmed his family and sent him into slavery.

Heston's physical stature was crucial to grand-scale and adventure films in the 1960s. He was Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel in "The Agony and the Ecstasy"; an 11th-century Spanish warrior in "El Cid"; British Gen. Charles "Chinese" Gordon fighting an Islamic warrior priest in "Khartoum"; and an astronaut held captive by a society of intelligent gorilla rulers in "Planet of the Apes."

Critic Pauline Kael wrote in her "Planet of the Apes" review: "With his perfect, lean-hipped, powerful body, Heston is a godlike hero; built for strength, he's an archetype of what makes Americans win. He doesn't play nice guy; he's harsh and hostile, self-centered and hot-tempered. Yet we don't hate him because he's so magnetically strong; he represents American power -- and he has the profile of an eagle."

Compared with acting peers such as Marlon Brando, Paul Newman or Burt Lancaster -- all of whom would downplay their brawn to convey a character's anguish or vulnerability -- Heston portrayed men of action who seldom displayed flaws.

Important exceptions were "Will Penny" (1968), in which he played an aging, illiterate cowboy, and "Number One" (1969), as an older gridiron star. Of the second, New York Times film reviewer Howard Thompson wrote that Heston "tackled a starkly unadorned role in one of the most interesting and admirable performances of his career" and called the film a "brooding, scorching and beautifully disciplined tour de force for the actor."

Poorly marketed -- the advertising focused on his body -- "Will Penny" and "Number One" did not do well in theaters. The commercial failure of those movies bothered Heston, who said the loner character in "Will Penny" came closest to how he saw himself.

Heston wrote he was deeply saddened by the critical and popular failure of his starring roles in "Julius Caesar" (1970) and "Antony and Cleopatra" (1972), movie adaptations of Shakespeare. He directed the second and called Shakespeare "the measuring stick against which you measure an actor's work."

He said doing those smaller pictures with limited audiences made it important for him also to star in high-salaried 1970s projects, including "Earthquake" and "Airport 1975."

He lost at least one important part because of his screen image. Director Steven Spielberg reportedly chose Roy Scheider over Heston in the thriller "Jaws" (1976) because Spielberg felt it would ruin the suspense to have "Moses" battle a great white shark.

Robert Osborne, a film historian and host of the Turner Classic Movies cable channel, said Heston "was a great type for a leading man. . . . If he hadn't been so big and stalwart looking and well-built, he probably would not have had a fraction of the career he did. He was a good enough actor that he fit into those" action roles.

Off-screen, Heston was known in Hollywood for his activism. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild (1965 to 1971), helped create the American Film Institute and voiced support for the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1978, he received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his service to the industry.

At first a liberal, he increasingly found himself agreeing with conservatives on matters ranging from national defense to popular culture. He said he always enjoyed adopting causes before they were popular, whether defending civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s or the gun lobby in the 1980s and 1990s. He was politically independent for decades, and even after joining the Republican Party he remained close to many Democratic friends.

Heston became a hero to conservatives when he stood up at a Time Warner shareholders meeting in 1992 to protest an Ice-T hard rock song written from the view of a cop killer. There, Heston read the song's lyrics in slow, deliberate tones, and helped bring pressure on the company to act against Ice-T, who removed the song from the album.

Heston's effectiveness on the pop music issue and his public stature made him, to some in the National Rifle Association, the ideal man to revive morale and membership inside the gun lobby. A longtime NRA member, Heston had made television ads for the organization for many years before he was elected president in 1998.

"We have been demonized by the media, and this is a way to say, 'Hey, Moses is on our side,' " NRA executive Wayne LaPierre Jr. said at the time.

The NRA was still a strong lobby, but it had suffered public relations problems. Some in the lobby wanted to court people affiliated with militia groups, and LaPierre, although he later apologized, called federal law-enforcement agents "jackbooted" Nazis. LaPierre's comment caused many politicians, including former president George H.W. Bush, to distance themselves publicly from the NRA.

Heston used his celebrity to open doors on Capitol Hill and attract crowds to gun rallies nationwide. He defended the NRA during a period of high-profile gun attacks in schools -- he said such deadly events were "a child issue, not a gun issue." He became increasingly pointed against Democratic politicians who tried to blame the NRA's legislative influence for the killings.

At a 2000 NRA rally in Charlotte, Heston declared the presidential race a referendum on gun-control legislation and criticized Democratic candidate Al Gore. Holding aloft a Revolutionary War rifle, Heston said, "When the loss of liberty looms as it does now, this is for those who would take it -- and especially for you, Mr. Gore -- from my -- cold -- dead -- hands!"

That year, Jeb Bush, the Florida governor, and other Republican Party leaders credited Heston with energizing the GOP base for electoral victories.

Heston aroused great anger from the political left. Filmmaker Michael Moore's Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine" (2002) tried to show Heston as callous toward shooting victims. Moore's treatment of the visibly frail actor and what some reviewers contended were flawed facts may have backfired.

Al Gore told the New Yorker magazine, "I really appreciate what [Moore was] trying to do, but I wouldn't have thought before seeing the movie that anyone could have aroused any sympathy in me for Charlton Heston. And yet he did."

Heston stepped down from the NRA presidency in 2003. The same year, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, for his accomplishments in movies and politics.

Heston repeatedly declined to run for elective office. "I've been President of the United States three times," he told the Chicago Tribune, citing his film parts. "And Chancellor of England, and I ran the French government. And I led the Jews out of Egypt. What more could I want?

"That's the joke answer. The real answer is I've been approached a couple of times, . . . but to do it, I would have to quit acting. I haven't got it right yet, and I'm not going to quit until I do, so much for that."

John Charlton Carter was born in Evanston, Ill., on Oct. 4, 1924. He spent his early childhood in St. Helen, Mich., where his father was a deputy sheriff.In a memoir, he wrote that his parents' divorce when he was 9 was a wrenching surprise. He soon took his stepfather's surname, Heston, to hide what he considered the shame of the divorce.

The family moved to a poorer neighborhood in the largely affluent Chicago suburb of Wilmette, Ill. Heston spoke of himself as a shy loner -- gangly, pimply and ill-dressed -- and stuck with the nickname "Moose" because of his already-deep voice. He was in the rifle and chess clubs in high school and tried out for a play.

Onstage, Heston found a place to distinguish himself. He outgrew his physical awkwardness and became a leading man in school and community theater productions.

Heston spent two years at Northwestern University on a drama scholarship before leaving in 1943 for military duty during World War II. The Army Air Forces sent him to the Aleutian Islands; because of his noncombat role, he later wrote that he "attended World War II."

In 1944, he married a Northwestern classmate, actress Lydia Clarke, and they settled in New York after the war to pursue acting jobs, sometimes working as artist models. Heston had small Broadway roles and appeared on early television broadcasts, including adaptations of great literary works on the CBS anthology series "Studio One."

Heston began his Hollywood career as a replacement for Burt Lancaster in the gambling drama "Dark City" (1950). As in "Dark City," Heston also had virile, slightly menacing roles in "Ruby Gentry," "The Naked Jungle" and "The Greatest Show in Earth," director Cecil B. DeMille's circus drama. DeMille then cast Heston in "The Ten Commandments" (1956), a hugely popular film.

Heston used his growing clout to work with the best directors.

He was already cast as a Mexican narcotics officer in the thriller "Touch of Evil" (1958) when he said he "bullied" Universal Studios into hiring co-star Orson Welles to direct the movie. The studio agreed to Welles, a notoriously indulgent and over-budget filmmaker, by paying him only for playing the film's corrupt border-town cop.

Heston thought Welles an artistic genius but called him "stupid and suicidal" for raging at the studio over editing control, which he lost. The film was released on the second half of a double bill, and only years later did its reputation soar for Welles's fresh take on the low-budget "B" film thriller.

To work with director William Wyler, Heston agreed to play the secondary lead opposite Gregory Peck in the western "The Big Country" (1958). Wyler was impressed with Heston's performance as the bullying ranch foreman and cast him in "Ben-Hur" after a long search for the right leading man.

"Ben-Hur" was filmed in Rome and, at $15 million, was the most expensive film then made by MGM, which was dangerously close to bankruptcy. The finished movie had a running time of 3 1/2 hours and culminated in a stunning chariot race coordinated by veteran stuntman Yakima Canutt. The movie saved MGM from bankruptcy.

After "Ben-Hur," Heston was the reigning figure of big-budget adventure films. They included playing a U.S. Marine during the Boxer Rebellion in "55 Days at Peking" and an obsessed Union Army cavalry officer in Sam Peckinpah's "Major Dundee." He was also John the Baptist in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" and a futuristic policeman in "Soylent Green," the last becoming an enduring favorite for the closing line Heston yells, "Soylent Green is people!"

As Heston prepared for parts, he did not follow the then-popular Method acting school, where the actor pulls from his own experiences to explain a character's motivations.

"I find the character from the specifics about him -- the way he looks, the clothes he wears, the watch he carries," he told the Saturday Evening Post. "I resonate enormously on these external things."

He added: "If you get tied up with your own psyche, digging into your own belly button, you may learn something about yourself, but I'm not convinced you're going to find significant creative truth about some other character."

Heston liked playing what he called "extraordinary men" -- President Andrew Jackson, Cardinal Richelieu, Michelangelo. He said he became disenchanted with Hollywood culture in the late 1960s that portrayed authority figures in a negative light. He began to speak out against the changing political and social climate, taking a largely conservative view.

One of Heston's closest friends, producer Walter Seltzer, told Los Angeles Magazine that the actor's change of politics likely stemmed from a reunion with his dying father, whom Seltzer called a "hard-core Republican."

Heston, who helped organize the artists' contingent to the 1963 civil rights March on Washington, later said the civil rights bills spurred by the march led to a "tangle of entitlements and reverse discrimination."

While at the NRA, he offended many when he spoke of a larger culture he said he long ceased to understand, highlighting in one 1998 speech the "fringe propaganda of the homosexual coalition, the feminists who preach that it is the divine duty for women to hate men, blacks who raise a militant fist with one hand while they seek preference with the other."

The NAACP protested the remarks, but Heston declined to apologize. He said his larger concern was "political correctness" that caused the further splintering of America. He elaborated on his views of society in his books, including "In the Arena: An Autobiography" and "To Be a Man: Letters to My Grandson."

Off-screen, Heston said he was "dull, square and protestant -- in the philosophical, not the religious sense." He enjoyed satirizing his screen image on sitcoms, talk shows and "Saturday Night Live." He said he considered his chief vice peanut butter, calling it "a holy substance and I will brook no argument on the subject."

Survivors include his wife and two children, director Fraser Clarke Heston and daughter Holly Ann.

[muthagoose]

Yanks remove Red Sox jersey from stadium concrete

A construction worker's bid to curse the New York Yankees by planting a Boston Red Sox jersey in their new stadium was foiled when the home team removed the offending shirt from its burial spot. After locating the shirt in a service corridor behind what will be a restaurant in the new Yankee Stadium, construction workers jackhammered through the concrete Sunday and pulled it out.

The team said it learned that a Red Sox-rooting construction worker had buried a shirt in the new Bronx stadium, which will open next year across the street from the current ballpark, from a report in the New York Post on Friday.

Yankees president Randy Levine said team officials at first considered leaving the shirt where it was.

"The first thought was, you know, it's never a good thing to be buried in cement when you're in New York," Levine said. "But then we decided, why reward somebody who had really bad motives and was trying to do a really bad thing?"

[muthagoose]

Keith Richards Changes His Tune on Snorting His Father's Ashes

Rolling Stone Keith Richards has changed his tune about inhaling his father, according to a report.

Richards told Blender magazine for its May issue that he did indeed snort a bit of his late father.

"I opened my dad's ashes and some of them blew out over the table, just because of the suction of the lid, you know what I mean?" Richards told the magazine.

"I looked at my dad's ashes down there and — what am I gonna do? Do I desecrate them with a dustbin and broom? So I wet me [sic] finger and I shoved a little bit of Dad up me [sic] hooter," he said. "The rest of them I put round an oak tree, which is coming up a treat. And I'm sure he's still blessing me."

Richards told Blender that no cocaine was involved in the incident.

"I no longer do cocaine — I'm not allowed to since I broke my head open, otherwise I'd be right in, baby!" he told the magazine. "Nothing stops the old snorter! But I can't do it; I don't do it."

Last year, reports surfaced in NME magazine that the rocker had snorted his father's ashes along with a hit of cocaine. In April 2007, a Rolling Stones spokesman denied the NME's report.
Related

*
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o Rolling Stone Keith Richards Denies Snorting Father's Ashes

"It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fool's joke," Bernard Doherty said then.

But NME said on its Web site that the remark was "no quip, but came about after much thinking" by the guitarist.

"He didn't offer the information, I had to ask him a couple of questions to get the information out of him," interviewer Mark Beaumont said. "He didn't come straight out with that."

In the 2007 interview, Richards was quoted as saying: "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father."

"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared ... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84.

In a statement posted on the Rolling Stones Web site last year, Richards said:

"The complete story is lost in the usual slanting! The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English Oak. I took the lid off the box of ashes and he is now growing oak trees and would love me for it!!! I was trying to say how tight Bert and I were. That tight!!! I wouldn't take cocaine at this point in my life unless I wished to commit suicide."

Richards also answered Blender reader questions in the May 2008 issue about Bill Wyman's sex life, playing with the Rolling Stones and using drugs.

[muthagoose]

FCC head backs Sirius-XM deal
Chairman Kevin Martin is recommending the $5 billion deal in exchange for concessions.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is recommending approval of the $5 billion merger between the nation's two satellite radio broadcasters in exchange for concessions that include turning over 24 channels to noncommercial and minority programming, The Associated Press has learned.

That condition - along with others, including a three-year price freeze for consumers - convinced FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on Sunday to recommend approval for Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s (SIRI) buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc (XMSR). The deal affects millions of subscribers who pay to hear music, news, sports and talk programming, largely free from advertising, in homes and vehicles.

Martin's recommendation sets the stage for a final vote on the closely watched merger, which could occur any time after his recommendation is circulated among his fellow commissioners.

The other four commissioners have, for the most part, kept their views on the deal to themselves. Unlike most FCC decisions, there is no clear indication on how the vote will go.

The proposed merger has been in a holding pattern during an FCC approval process that has gone on for more than a year.

Martin said the conditions will make the combination of the two companies good for consumers.

"As I've indicated before, this is an unusual situation," Martin said in a statement. "I am recommending that with the voluntary commitments they (the companies) have offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest."

The companies also agreed to an "open radio" standard, meant to create competition among manufacturers of satellite radios, according to FCC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement has not yet been made public.

Other conditions are similar to promises made by Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin last year.

They include a three-year freeze on prices and packages that include programs from both services, including a so-called "a la carte" offering that would be available within three months of the close of the deal.

The FCC's analysis has gone on twice as long as the agency prefers in merger reviews, largely because the XM-Sirius deal faces a special hurdle.

To ensure competition, the FCC prohibited the merger of the only two license holders when it created the industry in 1997.

Martin is recommending approval despite intense opposition from the land-based radio industry and most consumer groups, who say the deal will create a monopoly.

The buyout was approved by the Justice Department in March.

The satellite radio deal has drawn an unusual amount of scrutiny from Capitol Hill, where the National Association of Broadcasters has fought an expensive advertising and lobbying campaign to block approval.

The buyout received shareholder approval in November. The companies said the merger will save hundreds of millions of dollars in operating costs, savings that will ultimately benefit their customers.

Karmazin has pledged that the combined company will offer pricing plans ranging from $6.99 per month for 50 channels offered by one service, up to $16.99 a month, where subscribers would keep their existing service plus choose channels offered by the other service.

Karmazin also said he will allow customers to choose and pay for only the channels they want. The "a la carte" option will require new radios, the companies have said.

In addition, the companies have pledged to offer radios that are capable of receiving both services within one year.

An "interoperable radio" requirement was part of the two providers' license agreement 11 years ago, but the companies have never brought one to market, a point regularly brought up by merger opponents.

The thorniest part of the negotiations was over how much radio spectrum the companies would turn over to noncommercial and minority broadcasters.

The companies agreed to turn over 8% of their satellite capacity, which works out to 12 channels apiece for noncommercial programmers and for those who have "not been traditionally represented" in radio, according to Martin.

The details on how this system would work have yet to be worked out, according to FCC officials.

Both companies have lost money each year since they launched their satellites, but have not said the merger was necessary to keep them afloat.

Washington-based XM has about 9 million subscribers while New York City-based Sirius has about 8.3 million subscribers.

[muthagoose]

George Carlin... Dead at 71

George Carlin, the edgy comedian and counterculture icon, died Sunday at the age of 71.

The stand-up comic and author – best known for his groundbreaking routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" – reportedly died of heart failure at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica. (Carlin, who was open about his long struggle with drugs and alcohol, had a history of heart problems, including a previous heart attack.)

In 1978, the bearded comedian famous for his clever wordplay and often-explicit commentary on sex, drugs and the absurdities of modern life found himself in the middle of a court battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

But even after the high court ruled that his "Seven Words" routine was indecent, Carlin refused to abandon the material. (He was arrested several times after performing the bit live, although the cases were always dismissed.)

The author of 1997's bestselling Brain Droppings, Carlin remained active on the stand-up circuit. Just last weekend, he performed The Orleans in Las Vegas, the New York Times reports.

In November, the Grammy-winner was scheduled to receive the John F. Kennedy Center's coveted Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

He is survived by his wife, Sally Wade, and daughter, Kelly Carlin McCall. Carlin's first wife, Brenda Hosbrook, died in 1997.



A fierce critic of modern civilization, Carlin told Playboy in 2005 that his vision of the afterlife included a "heavenly CNN."

"The world is a big theater-in-the round as far as I'm concerned, and I'd love to watch it spin itself into oblivion," he told the magazine. "Tune in and watch the human adventure .... That's what I want heaven to be."

[muthagoose]

Verne Troyer Sex Tape Expected Shortly

Back in the Day-Glo parachute pants innocence of the 1980’s, something as profligate and titillatingly licentious as a publicly released homemade sex tape could be horribly damming to a celebrity. Even after appearing in a nude, pelvic thrust sex scene with Demi Moore in the 1986 film “About Last Night”, it was still a scandalous revelation and a significant hurtle to actor Rob Lowe’s career two years later, when a videotaped ménage-a-trois with two female fans was put into circulation.

Following the ‘big bang’ of celebrity sex tapes, however, in which Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee unwittingly planted the seeds of social acceptance in the fertile internet soil of a dawning information age, a new universe was created in which sex tapes would not only be touted by celebrities (i.e. Justin “Screech” Diamond) but the very means by which the phenomenon of celebrity could be created (i.e. Kim Kardashian).

Reaching critical mass and jumping the shark as of yesterday, it was announced the latest big-name celebrity appearing in a priced-to-sell DVD will be none other than 2-foot 8-inch “Austin Powers” co-star Verne Troyer.

The Jim Carrey of little people actors, Troyer can be seen in a teaser for the upcoming DVD posted on website TMZ, kissing his former live-in girlfriend, 22 year-old Ranae Shrider, in the buff, before creepily slipping his tongue into the aspiring model’s mouth. According to the official story, the tape was stolen from the couple’s apartment, perhaps by the same burglar responsible for thieving the Pam and Tommy video.

Celebrity sex-tape broker Kevin Blatt, the man behind Paris Hilton’s hugely successful “One Night in Paris”, is reportedly brokering the deal for SugarDVD, and offering $100,000 for exclusive distribution rights.

No word yet, as of Thursday evening, on the status of Rana Shrider’s reality series, no-doubt already in the works.

[muthagoose]

Will Dr. Dre Drop Booze And Detox Within Next Two Months?

Beverage company announces Aftermath Cognac and vodka will be tied to album's release.

In a marketing scheme that represents one of the strangest juxtapositions in recent memory, Bloomberg.com reports that the upcoming debut of Dr. Dre's new line of cognac and vodka will be tied to the release of his long-anticipated album, Detox.

A press release from Drinks Americas Holdings Ltd. — the folks behind other celebrity-backed liquors such as Trump Super Premium Vodka and Willie Nelson's Old Whiskey River Bourbon — announced that the new drinks, Aftermath Cognac and a line of 80-proof flavored and unflavored sparkling vodkas, will hit shelves within the next 60 days.

"These products are to be introduced in coordination with the launch of Dr. Dre's long-awaited Detox album, and will be supported by a fully integrated marketing program with the performer and his record company," according to the release. The Dre booze brands are part of a joint venture between Drinks Americas and Dre's label, Interscope Geffen A&M Records.

Last month, Dre told USA Today that he expected the album, his first full-length effort since 1999's 2001, to be released in "November or December."

"I'm just now — over the last couple of months — starting to feel that it's going to be right and it's something I can be proud of, and everybody is going to love it," Dre told the paper.

A spokesperson for Dre could not be reached for comment at press time to confirm a release date for Detox, but 50 Cent recently told MTV News that he had recorded songs with Dre for the album and joked that they're so great, he wants them back.

[muthagoose]

Bernie Mac dies at 50

Comedian and Chicago native Bernie Mac died early Saturday morning from complications due to pneumonia, his publicist confirmed.

Mac, 50, had been hospitalized for about a week at Northwestern Hospital, according to his spokeswoman. A few years ago, Mac disclosed that he suffered from sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in tissue, most often in the lungs.

The comic born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough could cut an imposing figure. He stood 6-foot-3, was built like a fullback and carried himself with a bouncer's reticence. But perhaps the strongest weapon in the Chicago comedian's arsenal was that voice, that amalgam of thought and a delivery that could rise like a tidal wave, outpace a Gatling gun and remained, to his last days, loud and unapologetic.

He wasn't scared, he told us time and again, to tell anyone what he thought, to say what others were afraid to say. That fearlessness wasn't always welcome, considering Mac didn't get his big break until his 30s. But when he did, the comic skyrocketed to success in stand-up, television and the big screen.

[Stomper]

WOW! I woke up this morning and was shocked by this news. He definitely will be missed.

[MASON]

Horrible news indeed.

[Chick-O-Stick]

'40-Year-Old Virgin' actor arrested near San Diego



OCEANSIDE, Calif. (AP) — An actor who appeared in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" has been arrested in connection with an attack on his former girlfriend, authorities said Tuesday.

Shelley Malil (aka the guy that says "Do you know how I know you're gay? Because you are holding each other ever so gently."), 43, was arrested Monday night as he got off a train in Oceanside, Lt. Phil Brust of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.

Malil had taken the train from Los Angeles to meet with his attorney, who along with family and friends had persuaded him to turn himself in, police said.

On Sunday night about 15 miles east in San Marcos, deputies answering reports of screams for help and breaking glass found a woman with multiple stab wounds and cuts on her face, with no suspect at the scene.

She was taken to the hospital and was in critical condition Monday morning. Authorities did not know her condition early Tuesday.

"Malil and the victim had apparently been in a dating relationship which recently ended," the statement said.

Malil was arrested for investigation of attempted murder, mayhem and burglary and booked into the county's detention center, the statement said.

A deputy on duty early Tuesday did not know the name of Malil's lawyer and attempts to identify and reach him for comment were unsuccessful.

Malil played one of star Steve Carell's co-workers in "The 40-Year-Old-Virgin," and has appeared in dozens of TV shows including "NYPD Blue" and "Scrubs."

[muthagoose]

8-year-old guitar wiz has reason to play the blues

ELKHORN, Wis. - When Tallan "T-Man" Latz was 5, he saw Joe Satriani playing guitar on TV. "I turned around to my dad and said, 'That's exactly what I want to do.'"

Three years and countless hours of practicing later, 8-year-old Tallan is a blues guitar prodigy. He's played in bars and clubs, including the House of Blues in Chicago, and even jammed with Les Paul and Jackson Browne. He has a summer of festivals scheduled and has drawn interest from venues worldwide.

And what, you might ask, would a kid not even in the third grade have the blues about? The state of Wisconsin for one, and some possibly jealous older musicians for another.

An anonymous e-mail sent to state officials complained that Tallan was too young to perform in taverns and nightclubs because of state child labor laws. His booking agent even got an anonymous letter threatening her with death if she keeps booking him.

When Tallan's father read him the state's letter saying he couldn't play clubs anymore (he can still play festivals), the boy's response — like his music — seemed beyond his years.

"He goes, 'It's not how many times you get knocked down but it's how many times you get back up and go forward,' Carl Latz said his son told him. "And I told him that's exactly what this is all about and if nothing else this letter just taught you a life lesson."

The lesson can be stiff: Each day he performs, the employer can be fined $25 to $1,000 and the parent from $10 to $250.

Jennifer Ortiz of the state Equal Rights Division said her agency has a responsibility to enforce the law once it becomes aware of a violation.

"Well, the law prohibits it, and the Legislature enacted the laws to protect the health, safety and welfare of all children."

Latz, who also is Tallan's manager, has asked a legislator for help changing the law but it's unclear whether any action will be taken.

Latz received the letter a few days before Tallan was to perform at Lil Downtown Lounge in suburban Milwaukee, where club co-owner Michelle Boche said the boy always packed the place when he sat in with other musicians.

Latz claims that two weeks before getting the letter he overheard local blues guitarist Jammin' Jimmy, whose real name is James Kemeny, say Tallan shouldn't be in a bar and he was going to turn him in.

Kemeny, who's been playing for 44 years, denied badmouthing Tallan.

"It seems totally unbelievable that somebody would even go to that extreme to send a letter to somebody, let alone looking to find something about child labor laws," Kemeny said.

Boche said she has received backlash from musicians and area bar owners because she supports Tallan. Some have tried to take patrons away, she said. Some even called in fake incidents to police, causing them to look for guns or underage drinkers, she said.

"If my doors close and I never open again and this boy becomes successful, then I will be the happiest person in the world," she said.

Tallan's agent, Sharon Pomaville, said she received a threatening letter June 2 warning her to stop booking the boy. She thinks he's a local musician and believes he's harmless. Deputies came to her house, but she didn't want to pursue the case.

Greg Koch, 42, an internationally known guitarist and clinician for Fender Musical Instruments, called the backlash despicable.

He said most 8-year-olds don't have the strength or attention span to pursue guitar or can't endure the calluses.

"It's strange that a kid at this age would glean onto this particular kind of music and show the intensity and kind of the ability to function as kind of 8-year-old blues guy," he said.

Brad Tolinski, editor-in-chief of Guitar World magazine, said kid guitar prodigies are rare, with one emerging perhaps every four or five years.

"It would be unusual to find an 8-year-old who can play Joe Satriani licks," he said.

Carl Latz said there's no explanation for Tallan's blues connection other than he seems to have an old soul.

"I've had more people tell me, they say 'It's a kid's body but it has a 70-year-old dude inside,'" Carl Latz said.

Tallan, whose heroes are Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, has 13 guitars and endorsements from at least nine companies to use their equipment. He can read music but plays mostly from memory.

He has two bands — one with veterans called T-Man's Blues Project and another with 16-and-younger bandmates called Tallan "The T-Man" Latz and the Young Guns. He also sings and plays drums, harmonica, bass and piano.

Tallan said he likes to play guitar to "put smiles on people's faces" when they are having a bad day.

"It sounds awesome," he said. "I think it's so much you can do on the guitar."

He knows 30 to 40 songs and someday hopes to write his own. It was his idea to start playing in public.

"He drags me around," his dad said. "I don't drag him around."

Tallan said the problems he's faced have doing nothing to dampen his ambition to be a blues rock star when he grows up. Just the opposite, in fact.

"Because I got more inspiration, I got more sadness in me," Tallan said. "I'm just feelin' it."

[muthagoose]

World Awaits Possible Bigfoot Discovery

The buzz created around Bigfoot’s recent discovery reached unprecedented heights, especially due to the promises about the upcoming "DNA evidence and photo evidence" releases, expected later today. The announcement was made by the Web site SearchingForBigfoot.com, which actually claims to have a real specimen.

According to the researchers involved, Mathew Whitton, Tom Biscardi and Rick Dyer, the creature is 7 feet and 7 inches tall, weights close to 500 pounds and presents features from both human and ape. Also, other details are offered on the Web site: the Bigfoot has reddish hair, black-gray eyes and its footprint measures almost 27 inches long and almost 6 inches across.

The evidence should be released later today during a news conference in California.

Many believe this to be just another publicity stunt, as there have been several such Bigfoot hoaxes linked to Mr. Tom Biscardi in the past. As the LiveScience.com Web site points out: "Biscardi promoted a pay-per-view cable TV show in which he offered viewers the chance to see a Bigfoot captured on live television for only $59.95. That never happened."

Another similar story is presented by LiveScience, saying that back in 1995 Mr. Biscardi announced the capture of a 400 pounds Bigfoot, but the proof never surfaced.

The problem with this news is that its source is far from being considered reliable. Apparently, Biscardi finished the work on a new documentary called Bigfoot Lives and all this hype around the new announced discovery might only be a simple and efficient way of setting up the debut of his new production.

In a matter of hours all these scenarios will be confirmed or infirmed, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

[muthagoose]

Google phone to debut Oct. 22, cost $179
Device has trackball, slide-out keyboard, easy access to Google's e-mail, mapping

The first cell phone running Google Inc.'s mobile software looks something like Apple Inc.'s iPhone and has a large touch screen, but it also packs a trackball, a slide-out keyboard and easy access to Google's e-mail and mapping programs.

Google made its debut as a cell phone software provider today at an event where wireless carrier T-Mobile said it will begin selling the G1 phone for $179 with a two-year contract. The device hits U.S. stores Oct. 22 and heads to Britain in November and other European countries early next year.

The phone will be sold in T-Mobile stores only in the U.S. cities where the company has rolled out its faster, third-generation wireless data network. By launch, that will be 21 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Miami.

In other areas, people will be able to buy the phone from T-Mobile's Web site. The phone does work on T-Mobile's slower data network, but it's optimized for the faster networks. It can also connect at Wi-Fi hotspots.

The data plan for the phone will cost $25 per month on top of the calling service, at the low end of the range for data plans at U.S. wireless carriers. And at $179, the G1 is $20 less than the least expensive iPhone in the U.S.

Like the iPhone, the G1 has a high-resolution screen, making it easier to browse Web sites that haven't been specifically adapted for a cell phone. Unlike the iPhone, Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerrys and most other high-end smart phones sold in the U.S., the G1 has a very limited ability to connect to corporate e-mail servers. That means the device's initial market is likely to be consumers.

Google is giving away Android, the software that underlies the G1, for free, and opening the operating system to third-party developers who can create their own programs. The software has been seen as Google's way of getting a foothold on the mobile Internet, which industry watchers see as a big growth area, and in particular as a way to make advertising on cell phone screens a viable business.

In an interview, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said Google's aims are broader than mobile advertising.

"Generally, we think if there are great (operating systems) out there that let people have great devices and great applications, people use the Internet on their phones much more," Brin said at the launch event in New York. "And whenever people use the Internet more, they end up using our services, and ultimately, that's good for our business. There's no secret plan to have ads pop up or anything."

On the face of it, the G1 doesn't do much that other high-end phones don't already do. But Google is counting the device unleashing the creativity of software developers, who are free to write applications for it.

"There aren't a lot of 'wow' features on it. I think what we can expect from it is that it's going to be a good Internet phone," said Lance Ulanoff, editor-in-chief of PC Magazine.

Developers will be able to submit applications to an online store run by Google, which will apply minimal vetting. Apple launched a similar store for the iPhone earlier this year, but keeps much tighter control over what applications are available. It has blocked programs that compete with its own.

Brin also revealed that he had personally written an application for the phone.

"It's just very exciting for me as a computer geek to be able to have a phone that I can play with and modify and innovate upon just like I have with computers in the past," he said.

Brin's program uses the phone's built-in motion sensor to measure how long it takes for the phone to land when tossed into the air. He acknowledged that the wisdom of including such a program with an expensive phone is dubious.

"We did not include that one by default," he said.

[muthagoose]

Bruce Springsteen Will Headline Super Bowl Halftime Show

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are set to perform during Super Bowl XLIII’s halftime show on February 1st, 2009, in Tampa, Florida. Springsteen will be the fifth veteran act in a row at the Super Bowl. Since Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s disastrous 2004 performance, the NFL has booked Paul McCartney,the Rolling Stones, Prince and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The show has become the highest-profile gig in music — Petty and Prince both saw big sales bumps for their back catalogs after their hit-filled performances.

No plans have been announced, but the Super Bowl gig suggests an active 2009 for Springsteen and the E Street Band, who completed a world tour behind his Magic album in August. Producer Brendan O’Brien has said that unreleased songs remain from the Magic sessions, which could provide material for another album.

[muthagoose]

Apple threatens to shut down iTunes over royalty hike

Apple could shut down iTunes, the world's biggest online music store, if a ruling expected tomorrow forces the company to pay more to music makers for each downloaded track.

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in Washington DC will decide whether to grant the request of American music publishers to increase royalty rates on songs bought from online music stores such as iTunes.

The National Music Publishers’ Association, which represents the interests of music makers and songwriters in the US, want rates to be increased 9 cents to 15 cents, which represents a 66 per cent rise.

Apple have vehemently opposed the move. In a statement to the ruling body last year, the company threatened to shut down iTunes rather than raise the price of songs in order to afford the higher royalty rates.

"If [iTunes] was forced to absorb any increase in the ... royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss - which is no alternative at all," iTunes vice president Eddy Cue wrote.

"Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [iTunes] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably."

It remains unclear whether Apple will follow through on its threat to shut down iTunes, as bosses have consistently refused to discuss the upcoming decision.

Analysts said it was hard to imagine Apple closing iTunes and abandoning millions of customers worldwide who own iPods and rely on the online store to download music. But Apple’s statement still leaves this “nuclear” option open.

Instead of a shutdown, Apple may be forced to swallow any royalty rise, as the CRB’s decision – the first regarding the sales of digital music – would set royalty rates for the next five years. It is believed that the decision could mean the higher cost of music is more likely to be passed on to the customer.

In Britain, it currently costs music fans 79p to download one track from iTunes. Analysts have estimated that iTunes will sell close to 2.5 billion songs this year worth around £1.1 billion.

[muthagoose]

Howard Stern Marries Girlfriend Beth Ostrosky

As if further proof was needed that the man behind the tinted glasses and forest of curly hair is not the same off the air as he is on, Howard Stern's wedding on Friday to longtime girlfriend model Beth Ostrosky was shocking mostly for how tame it was. No strippers, no topless fire-eating midgets, no professional farters.

Among the 180 guests were such old-school media stars as Joan Rivers, Billy Joel, Chevy Chase, Barbara Walters and Donald Trump. The couple were serenaded by 1970s songbird Phoebe Snow, who sang the wedding classic "You Send Me," according to The Associated Press.

The wedding took place at the ritzy Le Cirque restaurant in Manhattan, and the bride wore a traditional white chiffon gown for the ceremony, which was officiated by Kelly Ripa's husband, ordained minister/actor Mark Consuelos. Billy Joel sang "The Stranger" during the reception.

Stern had long said he would not wed Ostrosky for fear that making it official would ruin the couple's romance. The talk jock was married to his long-suffering first wife, Alison Berns, for 23 years — a romance he paid tribute to in his "Private Parts" movie.

"It's a nice feeling that we get along great," Stern, 54, explained in 2006 of his hesitation to get married again. "We're very happy, and I don't want to f--- it up."

Stern — who has had a decidedly lower profile since leaving traditional radio for satellite station Sirius in 2006 for $500 million — revealed to his listeners in February 2007 that he'd surprised Ostrosky, 36, with an engagement ring.

Among the other guests at the wedding, according to E! Online, were Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Adam Carolla, John Stamos and Stern's longtime co-hosts, Robin Quivers and Artie Lang. The reception also reportedly featured an X-rated toast from Chase.

[muthagoose]

“Dolomite” Actor, Hip-Hop Muse Rudy Ray Moore Dies At 81

Dolomite actor Rudy Ray Moore died last week due to complications from diabetes. He was 81. In addition to being a blaxploitation film icon thanks to Dolomite, his character’s fast-talking, street-walking persona served as a blueprint for many hip-hop stars whom he would inspire. Moore was one of the early champions of the hip-hop culture and collaborated with artists like Snoop Dogg, Big Daddy Kane and 2 Live Crew (on the song “Throw the Dick.”)

After starting out as a singer, Moore made the segue into comedy, releasing over 30 comedy albums and appearing in 18 films over the course of his career, but he’ll always remembered for his role as Dolomite, the silver-tongued pimp. Moore helped paved the way for comics like Richard Pryor, as Moore’s records were often so controversial for their language that stores would either refuse to stock his albums or place them behind the counter in brown bags. In 2000, Moore resurrected the Dolomite character for the first time in 20 years for the Insane Clown Posse film Big Money Hustlas. Moore is survived by his daughter and 98 year-old mother.



Shown left to right: Muthagoose Escobar (Suburban Legend, Douche), Rudy Ray Moore (Comedian and Legendary Pimp), Stephen "Stomper" Johnson (Jackass, Girlfriend Stealer)

[muthagoose]

William Shatner Calls Former 'Star Trek' Co-Star George Takei 'Psychotic' and 'Sick'

“Star Trek” star William Shatner is slamming former co-star George Takei for being “psychotic” and “sick” in a new Internet video clip.

“There is such a sickness there,” Shatner said. “It’s so patently obvious that there is a psychosis there. I don’t know what his original thing about me was. I have no idea.”

According to a report in the Daily Mail, Shatner’s rant was a response to Takei deliberately not inviting him to his civil wedding ceremony to his boyfriend last month.

In the video, Shatner claims that no one cared when Takei finally came out of the closet.

Click here to watch the video on YouTube:



“He has continued to speak badly about me for all these years. Obviously, hiding his homosexuality — talk about festering and not living the truth of your life and feeling badly about yourself — and being fearful somebody would find out about this terrible, terrible secret, so he thought," Shatner said.

“Finally at the age of, I think, 70, he decides to come out of the closet and say, ‘I'm gay.’ … Like, who cares? Be gay. Don't be gay. That's up to you George.”

Takei has expressed his negative feelings toward Shatner, claiming that his ego was unbearable on "Star Trek."

For his part, Shatner downplayed Takei’s role in the cult science-fiction series, saying he barely knew him because he was so rarely on the set, the Mail reported.

“I didn't know him very well on the series. He would come in for a day or two, as evidenced by the part he played," Shatner said. "Then on the movies, there occasionally. I didn't know the man.

“It's sad. I feel nothing but pity for him.”