(Cat8Dog) Here is the official Cats-eye-view of some of the top stories of this past week: Sad news in the music world, the other Papa died on Friday. Denny Doherty, of the Mamas and the Papas died at his home in Toronto. Not from California Dreaming, his sister told AP that "He had suffered kidney problems following surgery last month and had been put on dialysis". RIP Denny. [see story] Racism is all the rage in the UK. Celebrity Big Brother caused quite a stir earlier this week when some of D-List celebrities allegedly made racist comments to BollyWood actress Shilpa Shetty. This led to massive protests, sponsors dropping the show and denouncement by politicians in both Britain and India. Of course the British tabloids are having a field day with headlines like Celebrity Bigot Brother and no one has yet to ask Abu from The Simpsons his opinion of the whole matter. [see story]
The U.S. had its own "bigot" controversy this week as well. Isaiah Washington from Grey's Anatomy called another cast member a faggot while talking to reporters after the show had won a Golden Globe Award. Of course he apologized and is following the Richards, Gibson plan of atonement. [see my stellar full report here!]
Epitaph Records celebrating 25 years of ending once viable musical careers. (ok, they had a few successes too. Miracles do happen.) [see story]
Marilyn Manson has reportedly traded in his wife Dita Von Teese for a younger model. Namely 19-year-old actress Evan Rachel Wood. The Antichrist Superstar reportedly became romantically involved with the barely legal actress soon after separating from Dita. [see story] In other almost jail-bait celeb news, the Russian nut job that was stalking Hilary Duff was sentenced Friday to 117 days in Los Angeles County Jail and five years probation. [see story] On the good news front it seems that MTV's long running short attention span tween favorite TRL may be getting the axe. No word yet on when this will happen or what the network will replace it with. Perhaps 46 minutes of commercials and 14 minutes of emo band clips? [see story]
Speaking of lack of musical content, Britney Spears reportedly vomited all over her new boyfriend Isaac Cohen. [see story] Maybe they were previewing the new Screech sex tape? [see story] Speaking of puking, Kanye West wants to develop a sitcom. "I wouldn't do something as clichι as a reality show," West said in a statement to MTV News. "At least give me the credit for being more creative than that..." Must have strained all those creative juices to come up with the envelope pushing idea of a sitcom! He should call it "Everybody Hates Kanye". [see story] Who Let The Dog Out? Another worthless rapper has gone to the dogs. It was discovered that just like Diddy, Jay-Z's line of faux fur coats for losers contained dog fur. [see story]
K Fed has a lot of rich women to choose from if he's looking to hook up a new sugar mama, of course he has about a snowballs chance in hell of snagging any of them but Forbes can get his imagination going with their latest "The 20 Richest Women in Entertainment" list. Oprah was the Queen with a staggering $1.5 billion. Harry Potter creator JK Rowling is number 2 with a cool $1 billion and Martha Stewart must have received some really good stock tips because she is worth $638 million. Wanna-be Brit and Global Adoption Queen, Madonna is a distant fourth with $325 million. Here is the rest of the top 10 Celine Dion ($250 million), Mariah Carey ($225 million), Janet Jackson ($150 million), Julia Roberts ($140 million), Jennifer Aniston($110 million), Jennifer Lopez ($110 million). [see story]
Meanwhile in the real world this week: The Chinese have reportedly watched their pirated copies of Star Wars a few too many times and want to make it a reality. While not building a Death Star they did test fire a "satellite killer" missile this past week, bringing down one of their own satellites and royally pissing off the west. The U.S. issued a formal protest, whatever the hell that means. Is it like a diplomatic time-out? Never-the-less other nations joined in the condemnation of the test firing believing it will speed the weaponization of space and threaten vital satellites from other nations and may even launch a global war by disrupting American Idol. That very could be but I suspect that they plan to shoot down all of the old satellites so that they can then sell everyone cheaper replacements. Perhaps even at Wal-Mart? [see story]
North Korean said that they have reached an agreement with the U.S. this week during Nuclear talks in Berlin. But the strained relation between the two nations was illustrated when U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said, "I'm sorry, I'm not really sure what he's referring to. We had some very useful discussions". Perhaps both sides need smarter negotiators or at the very least better interpreters. [see story]
When a Federal Judge was asked if former Congressman Robert W. Ney should go to jail for his corrupt dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the judge said Yeh and sentenced him to 30 months in prison. She told Ney that, "as a member of Congress, you had the responsibility above all else to set an example and to uphold the law." Guess she doesn't follow Congress that closely. Ney admitted to giving out political favors in return for "luxury vacation trips, skybox seats at sporting events, campaign contributions, and expensive meals -- as well as tens of thousands of dollars in gambling chips," maybe he can wheel and deal at Club Fed not to be turned into someone's bitch. But it would be a bit of poetic justice if he got screwed after years of screwing his constituents. Maybe all politicians should be required to serve time; it would sure cut down on the riff-raff running for office. [see story]
Speaking of which, the Paris Hilton of politics, Barack Obama announced his intention to run for president in 2008. This didn't sit well with presumed frontrunner Hilary Clinton's people as they supposedly dug up the fact that Barack attended a madrassa as a child. So can we assume that if he loses the nomination he will suicide bomb the convention? Or did he not attend long enough to learn that lesson? [see story]
No real news on the Republican side yet. It does like they may back another closet Democrat for the office again with Rudy Guiliani leading in generic polls. But it's too early to tell, there are still too many losers to weed through at this point on both sides but it looks like Hilary is favored on Democrat side and whoever is furthest away from Bush on Republican side will most likely prevail. There may be a surprise entry from Fred Thompson if NBC succeeds in their campaign to kill the long running Law & Order after placing it in the Friday Night Death Zone time slot that has killed practically every other show that held it previously. But there is still no word if the former Senator for Tennessee would even be interested in the job but he may be one of the only Republicans with enough fame and enough distance from Bush's brain (Karl Rove) to have a fighting chance. Should be pretty interesting next couple of years in politics but we'll probably be once again stuck with the choice between two losers. Then again maybe John Kerry will go up against Bob Dole and a third party will win?
