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She is my favourite too! (But not because of her singing!)

Oddmakers Make Underwood Early ‘Idol’ Favorite
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Carrie Underwood is no “American Idol” underdog. In fact, the 21-year-old Oklahoma native with the voice made for country is the competition’s favorite, according to odds supplied by online oddsmakers BetWWTS.com.
The set of odds, established in the immediate aftermath of the first set of “American Idol” eliminations on Wednesday (Feb. 23) night, have Underwood as an 11/4 favorite. Mario Vazquez, a 27-year-old New Yorker who wowed the judges with a Michael Jackson cover, was the second pick with 7/2 odds. Anwar Robinson and Vonzell Solomon, both gifted with much early exposure, were a joint third choice at 6/1.
The good people at BetWWTS.com are much less enthusiastic about Joseph Murena and Janay Castine, both longshots at 50/1. Things also don’t look particularly good for Celena Rae, installed at 35/1.
Lest you doubt the oddsmakers’ credibility, the odds at the start of the Final 12 last “American Idol” season had Fantasia Barrino as the top choice and Diana DeGarmo as a popular second option. BetWWTS.com also tapped Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken as early favorites.
The next round of “American Idol” performances begins on Monday (Feb. 28) with four more eliminations next Wednesday.

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WHERE TO GO WHEN YOU NEED AN ‘L&O’ FIX

Having trouble keeping up with all the “Law & Orders”?
Well, a new Web site popped up last week that keeps track of all ó and we mean all ó the versions of “L&O” that are on every day.
Original and repeats.
The site is called “When is Law & Order On?”, and the answer to that question seems to be almost all the time.
From “Criminal Intent” to “SVU” to the original “L&O,” the site shows that the series is on sometimes 10 hours a day across NBC, TNT and USA.
It is hard to tell if the site is purely practical ó or something of a joke about how creator Dick Wolf’s cops-and-courts franchise has taken over TV.
It is full of listings info ó including synopses of each episode that will air over the next week.
It even provides a bar chart showing how many episodes a day are on the air. (For the record, there is no such thing as a day without “Law & Order.”)
The creator of the bare-bones site gives little information about his identity ó or what motivated him to provide this public service.
“My name is William, and one day I thought it would be neat to know when ‘Law & Order’ is on,” he wrote on his site.

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R.I.P.

‘Gonzo’ Godfather Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hunter S. Thompson, a renegade journalist whose “gonzo” style threw out any pretense at objectivity and established the hard-living writer as a counter-culture icon, fatally shot himself at his Colorado home on Sunday night, police said. He was 67.
Thompson’s son, Juan, released a statement saying he had found his father dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at the writer’s Owl Creek farm near Aspen.
Thompson, famed for such adrenaline-packed narratives as “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” turned his drug and alcohol-fueled clashes with authority into a central theme of his work, challenging the quieter norms of established journalism in the process.
He also cultivated an aura of recklessness, starting with the blurb on his book “Hell’s Angels,” in which he called himself “an avid reader, a relentless drinker and a fine hand with a .44 Magnum.”
A longtime gun enthusiast, Thompson had a shooting range on his property.
“Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family,” said the statement released on behalf of Juan and Thompson’s wife, Anita.
By his heyday in the 1970s, Thompson had distilled his style of invective-laced, outlaw journalism into a slogan: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” adapted from a two-part article written for Rolling Stone magazine in late 1971, chronicled Thompson’s drug-fueled misadventures in Las Vegas while ostensibly covering a motorcycle race in the desert.
‘WRITER OF SIGNIFICANCE’
The book established Hunter as a cult celebrity and became the basis for a 1998 Hollywood adaptation, starring Johnny Depp as Thompson’s alter-ego, Raoul Duke.
Thompson’s refracted coverage of the Super Bowl and the 1972 presidential race also inspired the 1980 movie “Where the Buffalo Roam,” with Bill Murray as the self-proclaimed doctor of gonzo journalism.
He was also caricatured as “Uncle Duke” in the comic strip Doonesbury, right down to his signature aviator glasses and cigarette holder.
Although Thompson’s later work got mixed reviews, critics credited him with pioneering a style of invective-laced and hyperbolic political commentary that was uniquely American.
A 1994 essay in Rolling Stone written as an obituary for former President Richard Nixon was typical. At a time when many commentators offered a more generous re-assessment of Nixon’s legacy, Thompson called him “a liar, a quitter and a bastard. A cheap crook and a merciless war criminal.”
“I think Thompson has remained a writer of significance, because, essentially a satirist, he has displayed an utter contempt for power — political power, financial power, even showbiz juice,” novelist Paul Theroux wrote in 2003.
Raised in a middle-class family in Louisville, Kentucky, Thompson’s father died when he was 14, and by 18 he had been jailed for his part in a robbery.
After a stint in the Air Force working as a sports editor, he became a foreign correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune in Puerto Rico.
In 1965, Thompson broke through with an article about the Hell’s Angels that he turned into a critically hailed book.
It was his association with Rolling Stone that turned both into literary icons — even though Thompson initially considered the upstart San Francisco-based magazine “a bunch of faggots and hippies.”

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She’s a truly plactic doll (you choose if I mean the real person or the doll).

What a Doll: Lindsay Lohan Goes Barbie
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) – Lindsay Lohan, who was inducted into popular girl clique known as the Plastics in “Mean Girls,” is going plastic in real life.
The 18-year-old redhead will get the Barbie treatment with a Mattel fashion doll made to look like her, reports the AP.
The doll is red-carpet ready in a beige dress with a sheer handkerchief skirt laid over a pink leopard print material. A coordinating faux fur-trimmed coat, tasteful jewelry and mauve heels complete the Hollywood glam look. Accessories include a pink director’s chair bearing the starlet’s name and a velvet rope strung between two posts.
The Lindsay Lohan doll is part of the “My Scene” line, which features fashion dolls with heads slightly larger than the typical Barbie doll and ensembles of hip and somewhat skimpy clothes. The doll will retail for about $30.
Barbie and Lindsay fans will be able to get their first glimpse of the doll at the annual American International Toy Fair, which begins Sunday, Feb. 20 in New York and runs through Wednesday.
Besides the 2004 teen comedy “Mean Girls,” Lindsay Lohan’s other film credits include “The Parent Trap,” “Freaky Friday” and “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.” She recently released her debut album, “Speak,” and is currently filming “Just My Luck” in New Orleans. Her latest Disney remake, “Herbie: Fully Loaded,” will open nationwide in June.

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3998 – Sweet!

‘Star Wars’ Faves Back for Prequel
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – George Lucas is bringing back the classic characters Chewbacca the Wookie, C-3PO and R2-D2 for the upcoming “Star Wars Episode III.”
The director has already hired actors Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniel and Kenny Baker to reprise their respective roles as sprightlier versions of their characters for the prequel in preproduction.
All three actors have donned costumes in past “Star Wars” episodes, and in the case of Daniel and Baker, the thespians have loaned their voice talents to puppet and motion-control versions of their characters. Lucas has noted in the past that having Baker inside the R2-D2 suit brought “an element of humanity” to the character.
The film, whose full title has not yet been disclosed, is scheduled for a May 25, 2005 release.

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May they rest in peace

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Cool! Very cool!

Bond Producer Says Brosnan Here to Stay
LOS ANGELES – With the success of his fourth James Bond film, Pierce Brosnan’s lock on the 007 franchise seems secure.
The James Bond team is happy with its star, “Die Another Day” producer Barbara Broccoli told AP Radio. She has a standard comeback when asked who might fill Brosnan’s shoes in the future.
“It’s like asking a bride as she’s going up the aisle who her next husband is going to be,” Broccoli said. “I mean, he is James Bond. He’s our guy. And until he’s no longer James Bond, we ain’t looking anywhere.”
Brosnan previously played the British spy in “GoldenEye” (1995), “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997) and “The World is Not Enough” (1999).
“Die Another Day,” co-starring undeserving Oscar winner Halle Berry, has earned more than $100 million in four weeks of release.
Broccoli said she believes the popularity of the “Austin Powers” spy spoof film series has boosted the staying power of the 40-year-old James Bond franchise.
“They tend to, I think, reflect the early Bond, the first sort of three or four. I don’t think they spoof the current ones so much,” she said. “They’re so popular, Austin Powers, I think it just helps people enjoy going to the movies and this sort of genre.”

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Lest We Forget

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In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
– John McCrae

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Call your loved ones

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