Afternoon Briefing:
A Daschle hugalike? A Time magazine report that Sen. Tom Daschle hugged and made up with Michael Moore after a screening of "Fahrenheit 9/11," in which the South Dakota Dem is criticized, appear to have been greatly exaggerated. "I know we senators all tend to look alike. But I arrived late [to the screening], and I had to leave early for Senate votes. I didn't meet Mr. Moore," Sen. Daschle said, countering Moore's contention that the two had bonded big-time. In fact, Daschle says, he and Moore have never met. (Rapid City Journal)
Bowie's heart mending: Rock icon David Bowie has had a difficult month. While on tour he was hit in the eye with a lollipop thrown by a fan. Then he went to the hospital in Germany for what he thought was a pinched nerve, but it turned out he needed angioplasty to clear a clogged artery. The 57-year-old is back in New York now, recuperating, and he told the press he can't wait to get back to work but that "I won't be writing a song about this one." (BBC)
Yoko's gay pride: Yoko Ono recorded a song called "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" on her last album with John Lennon and now she's re-recorded it as "Every Man Has a Man Who Loves Him." She performed the remix at a gay pride rally in New York recently and the song is moving up the club charts. She covers the lesbian option as well with "Every Woman Has a Woman Who Loves Her." (Ananova)
Dynamic duo: Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood, the pair that brought us "The Bridges of Madison County," are teaming again to make "Flags of Our Father: Heroes of Iwo Jima" for Spielberg's Dreamworks. Eastwood will direct with a script based on the book by James Bradley, the son of one of the men who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi. (Reuters)
-- Karen Croft
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Turn On:
Because it's Friday, and you need a good laugh: "Wanda Sykes: Tongue Untied" (9 p.m. ET; Comedy Central). And, while it didn't generate quite the controversy that, say, "Fahrenheit 9/11" did, David O. Russell's 1999 movie "Three Kings" (8 p.m. ET; TNT) is pretty damning of our presence in Iraq, and is a great piece of entertainment to boot.
-- Scott Lamb
Morning Briefing:
Raising funds and eyebrows? The audience at the Kerry-Edwards fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall last night may have paid $250 to $25,000 for a ticket (the event raised $7.5 million for the Democratic presidential campaign coffers), but they sure got their money's worth. Kerry picked up a guitar to strum along to "This Land Is Your Land," Jon Bon Jovi and Mary J. Blige sang ("Here Comes the Sun" and "Mercy, Mercy Me," respectively), and the evening, which also featured appearances by Sarah Jessica Parker and John Mellencamp, included more than a few choice quotes. Such as?
Whoopi Goldberg, in one of her milder moments: "I Xeroxed my behind and I folded it up in an envelope and I sent it back with a big kiss mark on it because we're Democrats -- we're not afraid to laugh."
John Leguizamo on how a Hispanic Republican is "an oxymoron": "Latins for Republicans -- it's like roaches for Raid."
Chevy Chase on the bright side of Bush's aircraft carrier pep rally declaring an end to major conflict in Iraq: "Bush did get a real fighter pilot's suit!"
Paul Newman on taxes: "Tax cuts for wealthy thugs like me are criminal. I put my tax cut in my sock and buried it away. In November, let's sock it to them."
(From the N.Y. Daily News and the N.Y. Post)
Rupe did it? The New York Times is reporting that the source for the New York Post's whopping Kerry-picks-Gephardt front-page gaffe the other day was none other than Post owner Rupert Murdoch himself. Sourcing its own story to a Post employee who insisted on anonymity, for fear of losing his job, the Times reported, "Mr. Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of the News Corporation, called his tip in to the Post's news desk just after 10 on Monday night, between the first and second editions, the employee said," adding that the story was then rewritten to include the Gephardt tip by an editor on the city desk. A spokesman for the Post denies that Murdoch was the source of the tip. (N.Y. Times)
Hair today ... Following John Kerry's recent declaration that he and Edwards had better hair than Bush and Cheney, the Wahl Clipper Corp. has released the results of its 2004 Grooming Survey in which it polled 1,009 adults, ages 18 and over, by phone back in May, and asked them, among other things, which presidential candidate they felt had the better do. And? According to a press release put out by the clipper co., "Wahl's survey found that the majority of Americans overwhelmingly voted for Bush's hair over Kerry's (Bush -- 51 percent; Kerry -- 30 percent; neither -- 10 percent; don't know -- 9 percent.)" (PR Newswire via Drudge)
Another little Madonna in the works? Madonna, who turns 46 next month, is rumored to be planning to try for a third child. "She has it all planned out to a T," says a friend. "She began visiting her fertility doctor in Los Angeles in late March. Her tour was already planned for the summer, but Madonna wanted to undergo tests to find out if she would be able to get pregnant and carry a baby at her age." (Rush and Molloy)
Money Quote:
Donald Trump on how he'd make a much better president than Bush, who he says has made a "mess" in Iraq and elsewhere: "[If I were president, Osama Bin Laden] would have been caught long ago ... Tell me, how is it possible that we can't find a guy who's 6-foot-6 and supposedly needs a dialysis machine? Can you explain that one to me? We have all our energies focused on one place -- where they shouldn't be focused." (Esquire via N.Y. Daily News)
-- Amy Reiter
Bookmark the Fix here. To send a hot tip to the Fix, click here.
Shares