Afternoon Briefing:
She's back: Sandra Tsing Loh, the radio commentator fired by KCRW last week for using the F-word (which she says she asked to be edited out), was hired by another public radio station, Pasadena's KPCC. Said Loh, "Even though this flap is about obscenity, I'm not really an obscene person. I was in the middle of a commentary on knitting." (AP via San Jose Mercury News)
He's back: Prince, who has been releasing most of his music over the Internet since 1996, is back with a record label. Sony will release "Musicology" on April 20. (Ananova)
Whoa, would-be Bond girl: Pierce Brosnan is laughing off rumors that Britney Spears might star with him as the next Bond babe. Said Brosnan: "... Britney, no. Bless her cotton socks and good luck to her. Keira Knightley maybe!" (IMDB)
The Passion of the Python: Monty Python's "The Life of Brian" is being brought back to theaters near you next month to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its release and, says the distributor, to "serve as an antidote to all the hysteria about Mel's movie." Ads for the rerelase will say "Mel or Monty?" "The Passion or the Python?" (BBC)
So long, supermodels? Readers relate to movie stars more than models, according to Glamour magazine's editor in chief, Cindi Leivi, so she's going to put more of them on her covers. Says Leivi, "Models seem to them like unreal creatures -- six feet tall, 95 pounds, genetically blessed. [But readers] know that Drew (Barrymore) has had her weight struggles or that J.Lo's had her failed marriages. All of these things make these women seem more real and more realistic than models." (Reuters)
"Deadwood" a hit? The ratings for the first episode of "Deadwood" were higher than any of HBO's previous premieres, but the naughty word count was even higher and it did follow "The Sopranos." (TV Guide)
That's not peanuts: Jack Valenti, who's leaving as top man at the Motion Picture Association of America as soon as a successor can be found, told a ShoWest audience yesterday that the average spent by the top seven studios last year to make and market a movie was $102.8 million. (E!)
-- Karen Croft
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Turn On:
"A Boy's Life: America Undercover" (7:30 p.m. EST; HBO) is a Rory Kennedy documentary about one troubled and troubling youth in rural Mississippi and the forces that shape him ... You might as well admit it, you've been missing Glenn Close lately. You'll finally have your chance to spend some screen time with her tonight when she guest stars as a liberal judge up for a Supreme Court spot on "The West Wing" (9 p.m. EST; NBC).
-- Scott Lamb
Morning Briefing:
What's up with Whitney? Word is that Whitney Houston has skipped out on rehab after only five days and has rented a pad near her Atlanta home to dry out on her own. "Whitney got extremely upset and said she felt the walls were closing in on her," a Whitney insider spilled to the New York Daily News. Houston's spokeswoman insists that her client's "movements are in total keeping with the program," and adds that Houston will not travel to Boston with her husband, Bobby Brown, who is expected in court there in connection with a paternity suit involving two children birthed by a woman other than Whitney. (N.Y. Daily News) Plus: Fox News reports that Houston may never have checked into rehab in the first place, but was instead getting her "throat scraped at a special clinic in the Atlanta area." (Fox 411)
Watch your backo, Jacko: Santa Barbara district attorney Tom Sneddon says that the parade of witnesses he expects to call to testify in front of a grand jury constitute the prosecution's attempt to show a "pattern of seduction" in the Michael Jackson child abuse case. (BBC News)
Elvis picks up a pen: Elvis Costello has signed a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster. The first, due out in fall 2005, is being described as "a series of intimate narrative chapters taking their cue from the styles, themes and characters found in a number of Costello's lyrics." The second, which does not yet have a release date, is a "work of comic philosophy" called "How to Play the Guitar, Sing Loudly and Impress Girls... or Boys." (Billboard via RTÉ.ie)
Blairing more lies: In his new book, Jayson Blair writes that his old boss Gerald Boyd's "mother died following a long struggle with drugs." But Boyd writes in the Detroit Free Press that his mother never used drugs and died of sickle-cell anemia at age 29, calling Blair's "hurtful" fib "unconscionable." Blair tells the Washington Post that he heard the story secondhand and mistakenly thought that part of his book would be fact-checked -- and that, as a result of Boyd's complaint, the error has been expunged from future printings of the book. (Page Six) Plus: Blair publisher set to file suit today against two newspapers that published excerpts prior to book's pub date. (Cindy Adams)
Bye-bye, Bob: National Public Radio is yanking Bob Edwards out of his "Morning Edition" host chair. Edwards, who is the founding host of the 25-year-old show, will contribute to NPR in other, as yet undefined ways after he leaves his early-morning seat on April 30. And he's not going happily. "I'd rather stay," Edwards commented. "But it's not my decision to make." (N.Y. Daily News)
The Liberty Bell has not tolled after all: The producers of MTV's "Real World," Bunim-Murray Productions, and the city of Philadelphia have ironed out their differences, paving the way for the reality TV show to film a season in the City of Brotherly Love after all. (Yahoo Business)
Money Quotes:
R&B star Usher, who just split with TLC's Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas after three years together: "I'm a sexaholic. I'm addicted to sex. But I'm not a sex freak. I am a man with strong needs. It's impossible for me to be in a relationship. At least while I'm still young." (Ananova.com)
Donald Trump: "All of the women on 'The Apprentice' flirted with me -- consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected." (The 411)
-- Amy Reiter
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