Turn On:
You can tune in to VH1 for the "100 Greatest Red Carpet Moments," Friday night at 6 p.m. EST. Or you can save your TV-watching energy for Sunday night, which brings the season premiere of "Arrested Development" (8:30 p.m. EST, Fox) and the return of J.R. and the rest of the Ewing gang, "Dallas Reunion: Return to Southfork" (9 p.m. EST, CBS).
Morning Briefing:
Bum rap? A Norwegian rap group who set up an anti-Bush Web site called killhim.nu, which purported to be gathering donations toward a bounty on George W. Bush, is now facing criminal charges for what the members insist was satire. ("Nu" is the Norwegian word for now, as well as the standard suffix for Norwegian Web sites.) The site, which now features only a document reported to be a police order against it (in Norwegian, so we'll have to take someone else's word for it), raised the ire of the American Embassy in Oslo -- which filed a police complaint against the group that ran it, Gatas Parlament, or "Street Parliament" -- with lines like this: "Shooting this man is not just self defense, but is the only reasonable thing to do." But Gatas Parlament member Aslak Borgersund, who along with his two band mates could face two years in the slammer if found guilty of making threats, told a Norwegian newspaper, that the group was merely making fun of another Web site, called tellhim.no, which raised money for a campaign to let Bush know that most Norwegians were against the war in Iraq. It was "pretty obvious to everyone who does not work for the American embassy or the police that this wasn't about killing anyone," Borgersund said. (AllHipHop.com)
Sharpton turns singleton: The Rev. Al Sharpton and his wife of 24 years, Kathy, are reportedly planning to announce today that they are officially heading their separate ways. "It's entirely amicable," Sharpton's rep Rachel Nordlinger told the New York Daily News. "They are on the best of terms. But at this point, their daughters are grown and they want to pursue their separate interests." Nordlinger says there was no third party involved, though Sharpton has recently appeared at events with Foxy Brown, Stephanie Raye and Mike Tyson's ex Robin Givens. In July, Sharpton commented that his wife "runs on her track and I run on mine. That's what we promised each other when our kids got older." Their two daughters, Dominique and Ashley, are 18 and 17, respectively. (N.Y. Daily News)
Him and Him: Elton John is not only busily at work on his new ABC comedy show, "Him and Us," about a misbehaving rock star he insists is not him, but is rather a composite of "male divas" like Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, and which he's describing as an "upmarket 'Spinal Tap'" -- he also may be planning his own wedding. John, who's toyed with the idea of marriage before, told the German magazine Gala that he and his longtime beau, David Furnish, are thinking of making their commitment to each other official. "We haven't set a date and it surely won't be a big public ceremony, but I would like to place my life in his hands with a wedding vow," he said. (Rush and Molloy, Reuters)
Also: Eminem and Snoop Dogg are both moving up the release dates of their upcoming albums in order to combat the effects of Internet piracy on their profits (Billboard ... Reports that Robert Redford had pledged to leave the U.S. and Marisa Tomei to leave New York in the event of a Bush reelection have been greatly exaggerated. Tomei says she was quoted out of context and is "not going anywhere," and a friend of Redford's says, "If anything, he'll be working harder to fight the Bush agenda" (Rush and Molloy) ... Natalie Portman has nixed her nude scenes in the Mike Nichols film "Closer," in which she plays a stripper. Nichols was amenable to her request that he cut the footage of her dancing nekkid because, she says, "He wants to see my bare ass much less than [even] my father would. He's as or more protective of me than my parents are." (Entertainment Weekly via Page Six)
Money Quote:
Linda Gray, who played Sue Ellen Ewing on "Dallas," on ABC's new hit soap, "Desperate Housewives": "I was the first desperate housewife."
-- Amy Reiter
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