Category: Defies a category!

Cleaning Kate’s House
Don’t look for Katharine Hepburn’s Oscars to pop up on eBay anytime soon.
The late acting great willed them to an undisclosed charity.
That’s just one of the tidbits to emerge from Hepburn’s last will and testament, which was obtained Monday by the Smoking Gun.
Hepburn, who died last month at the age of 96, bequeathed most of her estate to family and friends.
Per her will, written and signed in January 1992 and updated with a six-page addendum in March of ’94, Kate’s estate will mostly be divvied up between her sister Margaret, brother Robert and descendants of her late siblings Richard and Marion.
According to a July 7 application filed in the the Connecticut Court of Probate by ABC News correspondent and Hepburn’s friend and executor Cynthia McFadden, the value of Hepburn’s personal property is estimated to be $800,000. But that’s a low-ball number, since the “gross taxable estate” on her property is $10 million and a recent appraisal put the figure at closer to $20 million.
Hepburn’s siblings and their descendants will each receive a quarter of the sales of her homes in New York City and Connecticut. A nephew and a grandniece will each receive $100,000 trusts in their names.
Among her close friends and associates, Hepburn doled out $200,000 to longtime housekeeper Norah Moore; $50,000 to accountant Erik Hanson; $5,000 to her literary agent, Freya Manson; and $10,000 to her close confidante McFadden, who was also bequeathed furniture from Hepburn’s Manhattan townhouse, including an 18th century oak dresser and two works of art, one painted by Hepburn herself. Another portrait was given to the National Gallery of Art.
Hepburn also set aside a piece of her 7.17-acre waterfront residence in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, to local or state officials or a select “environmental or conservation organization” to “protect the lot from development…for the benefit of the general public.”
Hepburn honored her roots on both stage and screen with matching $10,000 donations to the Actors Fund of America and the Motion Picture and Television Fund. She also conferred another $10,000 to the Episcopal church in Maryland where her grandfather once served as a clergyman.
Her personal belongings–jewelry, furniture, clothing, cars, rugs, pictures, books, silver, china and artwork–were to be divided up among family and friends. Hepburn earmarked some items for charity and gave permission for them to be auctioned.
Then there are those Oscars–Hepburn won a record four Best Actress statuettes–which apparently won’t be on the block. She requested the Oscars, along with an extensive memorabilia collection that includes scripts, photos, letters, costumes, clippings and scrapbooks to a “charitable organization” to be determined by McFadden. She also gave said charity permission to publish her “manuscripts, letters or other personal papers or records” should they choose to do so.

She Can’t Be Serious!!!
It seems that “Canadian Idol” judge Sass Jordan feels that the Canadian edition is much better than its American counterpart. “In Canada, it is more popular because it is us. It’s relative to us and it’s way more interesting and funny and exciting than American Idol. No offence to them, but we’re 1000 times better. The American one sort of fits a brand, it’s like Kraft Dinner. We’re like motherf–king macaroni and cheese!
“It (American Idol) seems totally manufactured. Also the level of competition that they have doesn’t even come close to what we have here. It’s not the cookie-cutter ones you would expect.”
I wonder what she is on! She should share it with everyone who watches the Canadian show. Maybe that way it would be entertaining, in anyway.
Oh well, the funniest thing you will actually read today is not that, it’s this. And this is a true story:
One day Sass introduced herself to Gene Simmons, from Kiss, by simply saying “I’m Sass.” Simmons promptly replied, “What’s your last name? Katoon?
Ah ha ha ha!!! And she thinks Canadian Idol is better than the American one! Oh, man! Is that funny!

Three for DALLAS
Bruce Willis, Collin Farrell and Jessica Lange are rumored to have joined the cast of the film adaption of the tv series DALLAS. Willis will supposedly play oil magnate J.R. Ewing, while Farrell will play Bobby Ewing and Lange will play Sue Ellen. Larry Hagman is also reportedly lined up to do a cameo in the film. Dave Jacobs, who created the original show, is writing a script for the new film. Regency Enterprises and Twentieth Century Fox are financing.

Its Hulk’s diary!

Miller Emerges as New Voice for Bush Re-Election
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) – A new voice has emerged in the re-election campaign of President Bush, that of Dennis Miller, who is gaining a reputation as a conservative comic by attacking Democrats with biting humor.
Miller flew on Air Force One from San Francisco to Los Angeles with the president on Friday, and later gave a stand-up routine at a Bush fund-raiser in Los Angeles.
“I spent an amazing couple of hours with Dennis Miller,” Bush said during his Los Angeles speech after Miller’s routine. “He keeps you on your toes.”
He added: “I was also honored to meet his wife, Carolyn. Like me, he married above himself. It may not be all that hard, in his case. But I’m proud to have his help.”
Miller, who was an analyst on ABC’s “Monday Night Football, had an HBO comedy show and does commentary for Fox News, adds a celebrity touch to Bush’s re-election campaign, much like actor Bruce Willis did in 1992 when Bush’s father ran for re-election.
Bush remained offstage until after Miller’s often caustic comic performance during the fund-raiser that drew in $3.5 million, most of it in $2,000 checks from 1,600 people.
For instance, he took aim at West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, a Democratic elder statesmen who has questioned the Iraq war and its chaotic aftermath.
Even some in the crowd of Republican loyalists booed when Miller said of Byrd: “I think he must be burning the cross at both ends.”
Responding to the boos, Miller said: “Well, he was in the (Ku Klux) Klan. Boo me, but he was in the Klan.”
He likened the nine Democratic presidential candidates running to unseat Bush in 2004 to the 1962 New York Mets, perennial losers, and called them an “empty-headed scrum.”
He had a special barb for one candidate, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has questioned the Iraq war, comparing him to Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister who followed a policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany in the years before World War II.
“He can roll up his sleeves all he wants at public events, but as long as we see that heart tattoo with Neville Chamberlain’s name on his right forearms, he’s never going anywhere,” Miller said.

GAINING RESPECT
MGM planning to remake the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School. The comedian will help develop the picture and will likely do a cameo.

COWABUNGA!
Homer Simpson topping an online BBC poll that asks, “Who is the greatest American?” The beer-loving dude leaves in his dust Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Junior, George Washington and others. Final results will be announced Tuesday.

Pop Star Britney to Get Blow-Up Breasts in UK
LONDON (Reuters) – Pop tart Britney Spears is to get a pair of inflatable, throbbing breasts that will pulsate in time to her dancing — at least her waxwork model will at Madame Tussauds museum in London.
“There are plans to make a new figure of Britney Spears,” a spokeswoman said on Friday. “She’ll be very sexy and she’ll have heaving bosoms. But this is only in the very early stages of planning.”
She said the model would be based on one of Britney’s videos, in which she dances breathlessly around a pole, and would be accompanied by professionals who would teach museum visitors the tricks of the trade.
The initiative is the latest by the museum to make its models not just visual but tactile.
“Brad Pitt has got a squeezable (latex) bum, but Britney would be the first with heaving bosoms,” added the spokeswoman.

Lee Wins Temporary Halt to Spike TV
NEW YORK – Spike Lee has temporarily spiked Spike TV.
A Manhattan judge on Thursday granted Lee’s petition and ordered Viacom Inc. to stop using Spike TV as the new name for its TNN network, pending a trial on the issue.
State Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub ordered Lee to post a $500,000 bond to cover Viacom’s losses in case the company wins.
Viacom announced the name change in April as part of its transformation of TNN into “the first network for men.” Spike TV shows reruns of “The A-Team,” “Baywatch” and “Miami Vice,” sports entertainment such as pro wrestling and “American Gladiators” — plus an animated series featuring Pamela Anderson as the voice of Stan Lee’s “Stripperella,” an undercover operative who is also a stripper.
Lee, whose numerous directing credits include “Malcolm X” and “Do the Right Thing,” said he sued Viacom to protect his name from a deliberate attempt to capitalize on his image and prestige.
Viacom’s lawyers said Lee cannot prove their network’s new name refers to him. And they said no New York law gives a celebrity’s first name the protection Lee is seeking without some other suggestion of the person’s persona.
But the judge disagreed.
“Contrary to defendants’ position, the court is of the opinion that in the age of mass communication, a celebrity can in fact establish a vested right in the use of only their first name or a surname,” the judge wrote. “There are many celebrities that are so recognized, including Cher, Madonna, Sting and Liza.”
He also said the name protection would probably be available if a network proposed a program called the “Cronkite News Hour.”
Lee’s lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, said, “We’re obviously elated. We had a good judge who looked at the law and at the facts.”
Dan Martinsen, spokesman for the network, said Viacom would appeal immediately and seek a stay of the judge’s order. “We respectfully disagree with the judge’s decision, which was not supported by the law or the evidence,” Martinsen said.
Viacom, which bought TNN in 2000, also owns the CBS, VH1 and UPN networks, the Showtime movie channel and book publisher Simon & Schuster.

Study: Smoking in Movies Encourages Teens
LONDON – Youngsters who watch movies in which actors smoke a lot are three times more likely to take up the habit than those exposed to less smoking on-screen, a new study of American adolescents suggests.
The study, published Tuesday on the Web site of The Lancet medical journal, provides the strongest evidence to date that smoking depicted in movies encourages adolescents to start smoking, according to some experts. Others said they remain unconvinced.
Many studies have linked smoking in films with increased adolescent smoking, but this is the first to assess children before they start smoking and track them over time.
The investigators concluded that 52 percent of the youngsters in the study who smoked started entirely because of seeing movie stars smoke on screen.
“This effect is stronger than the effect of traditional cigarette advertising and promotion, which accounts for only 34 percent of new experimentation,” said Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not connected with the research.
However, Paul Levinson, a media theorist at Fordham University in New York noted there are many reasons people start smoking and the study could not accurately determine how important each factor is.
“It’s the kind of thing we should be looking at but … the fact that two things seem to be intertwined doesn’t mean that the first causes the second,” said Levinson, who was not involved in the study. “What we really need is some kind of experimental study where there’s a controlled group.”
The Motion Picture Association of America, which rates movies and represents the movie industry, had no immediate comment.
The research, conducted by scientists at Dartmouth Medical School, involved 2,603 children from Vermont and New Hampshire schools who were aged between 10 and 14 at the start of the study in 1999 and had never smoked a cigarette at the time they were recruited.
The adolescents were asked at the beginning of the study which movies they had seen from a list of 50 movies released between 1988 and 1999.
Investigators counted the number of times smoking was depicted in each movie and determined how many smoking incidents each of the adolescents had seen. Exposure was categorized into four groups, with the lowest level involving between zero and 531 occurrences of smoking and the highest involving between 1,665 and 5,308 incidents of smoking. There were about 650 adolescents in each exposure group.
Within two years, 259, or 10 percent, of the youths reported they had started to smoke or had at least taken a few puffs.
Twenty-two of those exposed to the least on-screen smoking took up the habit, compared with 107 in the highest exposure group ó a fivefold difference.
However, after taking into account factors known to be linked with starting smoking, such as sensation-seeking, rebelliousness or having a friend or relative who smokes, the real effect was reduced to a threefold difference.
The researchers also concluded 52 percent of the startup in smoking could be attributed to the movies.
Children of nonsmokers were particularly influenced by smoking in films. Those in the highest movie exposure category were four times more likely to start than adolescents in the lowest group.
In a separate critique of the study, also published by the Lancet, Glantz, who is also a prominent anti-smoking advocate and founder of the U.S.-based Smoke Free Movies campaign, called for an adult, or “R,” rating for movies depicting smoking, noting that 60 percent of the total exposure to smoking in movies in the study were in youth-rated films.
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Brendan McCormick, spokesman for tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris USA, said depictions of smoking in movies is driven by directors and producers. Tobacco companies do not provide products to moviemakers or pay for product placements, he said.
“We think that producers of films should think very carefully about including depictions of smoking, especially in movies that are likely to be seen by kids,” McCormick said.
The study was funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute.