Turn On:
So many interesting shows to watch Tuesday night, so little time. First there's "The Next Great Champ" (9 p.m. ET, Fox), the boxing reality TV show that Mark Burnett and NBC -- whose own boxing reality TV show, "The Contender," will debut in November -- didn't want you to see. Then there's a PBS quality-TV one-two punch, with the "Frontline" special "Sacred Ground," about the struggle over how to rebuild on the site of the World Trade Center, and "P.O.V.'s" airing of "Wattstax," the 1973 documentary about an L.A. concert featuring soul performers like Isaac Hayes and the Staple Singers (check local listings for both). Plus, Al Franken returns to the small screen with "The Al Franken Show," a televised version of his Air America Radio show (11:30 p.m., Sundance).
Morning Briefing:
Reaching for Moore: Here's the conventional wisdom as to why Michael Moore opted not to put his name in for best documentary Oscar: so he has a better chance of winning the Oscar for best picture. Here's why Michael Moore says he dropped out of contention in the documentary category: He wants to try to get "Fahrenheit 9/11" shown on TV before Election Day, which would preclude it from best documentary contention, and he wanted to give other documentaries a chance to get the award. "Although I have no assurance from our home video distributor that they would allow a one-time television broadcast -- and the chances are they probably won't -- I have decided it is more important to take that risk and hope against hope that I can persuade someone to put it on TV, even if it's the night before the election," Moore writes on his Web site. "Therefore, I have decided not to submit 'Fahrenheit 9/11' for consideration for the Best Documentary Oscar. If there is even the remotest of chances that I can get this film seen by a few million more Americans before election day, then that is more important to me than winning another documentary Oscar." (MichaelMoore.com, Associated Press)
Tony Soprano's big hit: "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini's SUV was broadsided by a suspected drunk driver in New Brunswick, N.J., on Saturday as the actor drove home from a Rutgers-Michigan State football game. The suspect ran a red light and rammed into Rutgers alumnus Gandolfini, who was driving back to New York City with his three buddies. Neither the actor nor the suspected drunk driver who collided with him were hurt in the crash. (AP)
A first lady who baked more than cookies? The shocking allegations in Kitty Kelley's new Bush bio, "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty"? That George W. Bush snorted coke at Camp David while his father was president -- and, according to his former sister-in-law Sharon Bush, "not just once, either." And people who knew him back in his National Guard days say he "liked to sneak out back for a joint or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine." What's more, Kelley reports that first lady Laura Bush was known to smoke a little pot in her day, too. (London Mirror)
Also: The Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly may be seriously considering a run against Sen. Hillary Clinton in New York in 2006 (Lloyd Grove's Lowdown) ... And Paris Hilton dissed the Gotti family by refusing to hang out with Victoria and her sons -- stars of "Growing Up Gotti" -- at a Miami nightclub, and even Lizzie Grubman can't manage to broker a peace (Rush and Molloy)
-- Amy Reiter
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