Afternoon Briefing:
Pulitzers announced today: The Los Angeles Times won five Pulitzers today -- for breaking news, national reporting, editorial writing, criticism and feature photography. The New York Times won for public service for a series by David Barstow and Lowell Bergman about injury among American workers. (Drudge)
Exposing censorship: Singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette hosted Canada's annual music awards show last night and, after an announcer warned "we can't show nipples on national TV," she dropped her dress to reveal a skin-tone body suit adorned with fake nipples and pubic hair. Said the singer, "I'm proud to be able to stand here and do this." She also criticized U.S. radio stations who made her take out the word "asshole" from one of her songs. (Calgary Sun and Drudge)
Bringing it to the small screen: Whitney Houston, on leave from drug treatment, and hubby Bobby Brown, fresh from jail, have decided to take their dramas to television. The Houston/Brown family, which includes a daughter, a dog and Whitney's counselors, were filmed last week having dinner. Brown's company, B2 Entertainment, is producing the show. (USA Today)
BBC blasted: A media-watch group in England is criticizing the BBC for playing "Great Britain," a hip-hop song by Scor-Zay-Zee with lyrics that slam Britain for its relationship with the U.S. ("The Devil"), the public for being thoughtless consumers ("Watch the adverts and buy shit"), and the royals ("Slavery made the riches of Great Britain, the queen wears stolen diamonds, her husband's a Freemason, they killed Lady Di"). (AFP)
-- Karen Croft
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Turn On
"The first century was barely 30 years old. Rome ruled the world from Europe to the heart of the Middle East," and Peter Jennings was there, reporting on location. See what he found tonight on Peter Jennings Reporting: Jesus and Paul" (8 p.m. ET; ABC). Omarosa keeps on keeping on: She'll be appearing tonight on "Dennis Miller" (9 p.m. ET; CNBC).
-- Scott Lamb
Morning Briefing:
Student rebellion -- quashed: Two students who interrupted Lynne Cheney with questions -- about gay marriage and slave reparations -- and one who barked out a vulgarity during the vice president's wife's speech at the University of Maryland last week have been accused of "disorderly or disruptive conduct" and face disciplinary action from the university. Questions were to have been submitted in advance for the chat, which was filmed by C-SPAN and CNN, but the head of the Maryland ACLU says the students' right to interrupt is protected by the First Amendment. (Washington Post via Drudge)
A whole lotta meatballs: Swedish TV news is reporting that Bill Gates has been unseated as the world's richest man by Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, a mogul apparently known for flying economy class and driving a 10-year-old car. According to the report, Kamprad has a personal fortune of $53 billion, whereas Gates' fortune is a mere $47 billion. Forbes magazine, however, recently estimated Kamprad's holdings as only about $18.5 billion and placed him as the world's 13th wealthiest person. (Reuters)
You want your Gore TV? You may have to wait a while. The New York Observer is reporting that former Vice POTUS Al Gore and his business partner Joel Hyatt have hit a "major obstacle" in their move to snag digital-cable channel Newsworld International from Vivendi Universal Entertainment. Talks are reported to have broken down on Friday after the parties failed to agree on a price. Gore and Hyatt are said to have hoped to start a news channel targeted at the 20-something set, but now the deal is apparently in "flux." (N.Y. Observer)
J.Lo, actor: Jennifer Lopez will share the secrets of her acting craft on Bravo's "Inside the Actors Studio." Says host James Lipton, "Our students are thrilled. We've never had a Latina on the show before. It's appropriate." (Page Six)
Bizarre interview: Harper's Bazaar editor Glenda Bailey is under fire for taking a Q&A Maer Roshan did with his buddy Tina Brown, adding in a bunch of frothier questions and answers turned in by a Bazaar staffer, and running it all under the fictitious byline "Abigail Hughes." Says Roshan, "Abigail Hughes is my maiden name." Bailey says Roshan's original Q&A wasn't "style-focused" enough for her magazine's readers. (Lloyd Grove's Lowdown)
-- Amy Reiter
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