A Little of the Old In and Out



(image via alternatezone)

In: Emilio Estevez. When one thinks of Emilio Estevez, one tries -- mercifully -- to forget that unfortunate Paula Adul commingling. (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment) It seemed like un bon idee at the time. Rather, we rather think back on the description of Estevez, triumphant, in Jonathan Bernstein's 80s summa "Pretty in Pink":

"Riding his bike in the pouring rain to a delightful uptown (DC) dinner party, (Emilio Estevez) presses his soaked nose to the windowpane, sucking in every inch of (Andy McDowell's) coltish beauty. Unable to restrain himself, he crashes the do, squelches in and approaches (her). She turns and drawls, 'How are yew?' His agonized reply: 'I'm obsessed, thank you very much.'

"Figuring she's the kind of gal who's turned on by a high roller, he uses the home of the Korean lobbyist he's working for to throw a loud, lurid party in her honor. When she fails to show, he tracks her all the way to a ski lodge where she's, of course, weekending with a concerned medic.

"She tries to let him down gently, saying she's flattered, whereupon he grabs her and lays a big deep sucking kiss on her. "This has the effect of transferring his infatuation. She's left shivering in the snow, her womanhood awakened. He speeds off whooping and punching the air in triumph."

The air of triumph was denied Estevez for many years. But now he seems to be on a roll. According to Indiewire:

"The Weinstein Company has acquired rights to two films, including Emilio Estevez's 'Bobby,' ... the company announced over the weekend. 'Bobby,' acquired from Michel Litvak's Bold Films (U.S. rights), is an ensemble political-culture drama starring Estevez, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Lindsay Lohan, Elijah Wood, William H. Macy, Helen Hunt, Christian Slater (and more) revisiting the night Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in 1968, and focuses on how the lives of those at the hotel that evening intersected. The project was brought to TWC by Michelle Krumm, executive vice president of acquisitions and co-productions for TWC."



Former Senator Fred Thompson. (image via nndb)

Out:Fresh Blood. Historically, the second administration of a Presidency is oxygenated with the infusion of fresh blood. This usually results in quick bump in public opinion. That, however, is not going to be the case with Bush 43, which is stubbornly resistent to change (the definition of Conservatism?). Embattled Vice President Dick Cheney came out on the talking head shows yesterday swinging.

Still, the heavyweights in the administration -- Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, Rove, Rice -- must be experiencing some sense of fatigue. Over the past 5 years they have been through the 2000 election aftermath, September 11th, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War and Hurrican Katrina. Our hair has gone grey just reciting those historic events. Is new blood needed?

Says John Dickerson, Slate's Chief political correspondent:

"White House officials dismiss all the recent chatter but won't say whether the president is contemplating any staff reconfiguration. There seem to be a lot of calls for it. Republican Sen. Norm Coleman has said he's concerned the president's aides are not serving him well. CBS News reported that Howard Baker, chief of staff to Ronald Reagan and ambassador to Japan for this administration, had placed a call to the White House on Tuesday and urged the hiring of former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee to inject some new blood. Administration insiders have been leaking to the New York Times and Washington Post about the need for a shake-up. If the White House doesn't signal that it has heard these complaints, soon someone is going to rent an ad on the side of a blimp.

"... Ronald Reagan's Chief of Staff James Baker switched jobs with Treasury Secretary Donald Regan to revitalize that presidency, but that shake-up came at the start of Reagan's second term. Bush is more than a year into his second term. White House aides have long said that they had 18 months of the second term before lame duckness set in. Whether Bush shakes up his staff or not, they've only got four more to go on that clock."

The full story here.



(image via burnisongroup)

In: MSNBC. What do Wolf Blitzer and Clay Aiken have in common? (A considerable pause) Give up? They are both expert at tossing "soft balls."

But Seriously, folks. We labor to understand why anyone would want to watch Blitzer giving robust reach-arounds to the pagent of silver haired elder statesmen along with the unindicted war criminals that grace his set. (Averted Gaze) Penetrating questions are anathema to Wolf; he seems such the perfect political naif in which to dissemble and spin one's brew of propaganda. (Exaggerated cough suggesting feignedd etachment) Says Washington Whispers (link via TVNewser):

"OK, so we know that Fox is king of cable news, largely at CNN's expense, but now it looks like Ted Turner's brainchild is under attack from the other side. Little MSNBC is making an advance during the key 6 p.m.-to-9 p.m. period, hounding Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room, Paula Zahn, and Lou Dobbs. 'This is really big news,' says MSNBC's Jeremy Gaines. First, let's be clear: CNN has more viewers. But, as they say in TV, only the 'demo' matters, and in the key 25-to-54 demographic that ad rates are based on, MSNBC is nipping at CNN. Here, The Abrams Report has seen a 35 percent jump in just a year, though it still lags behind Dobbs. But Hardball With Chris Matthews, up 52 percent, edges Blitzer by 1,000 viewers in the demo, and Countdown With Keith Olbermann, up 39 percent, ties Zahn. MSNBC's Gaines credits 'consistency' and good hosts for the trend. At CNN, they note that total viewers are still higher and say that any February pop was due to MSNBC's Olympic coverage. 'People were tuning in to watch Bode Miller slip and slide down a ski slope,' says spokeswoman Edie Emery, 'and they got Chris Matthews instead.'"



(image via realnews247)

Out: Meta Bill O'Rielly Critique. How much "meta" is too "meta." This, from Nicholas Lehman of The New Yorker, gave us cognitive vertigo:

"Another baroque aspect of this moment in O�Reilly�s career is that 'The Colbert Report,' on Comedy Central, broadcasts what is essentially a full-dress parody of 'The O�Reilly Factor.' Stephen Colbert has obviously made a close study of O�Reilly�s mannerisms and opinions, just as Colbert�s producers have made a close study of the overblown red-white-and-blue swirled graphics that open 'The O�Reilly Factor.' (Colbert adds eagles and flags.) But Colbert is too young and too thin to mimic the physical presence of the six-foot-four O�Reilly, and he appears to realize this. So he delivers O�Reilly�s brusque, jabbing hand gestures, and his primary-colored opinions, with a goofy half-smile, as if he were a kid playing dress-up in his dad�s clothes.
Like O�Reilly, Colbert has guests, but he often uses his fake right-wing persona to score points for the left, as he did last week when he pretended to grill Keith Olbermann for his attacks on O�Reilly.

"O�Reilly has been playing O�Reilly so successfully for so long, and has developed such a substantial library of hooks, tics, and subplots, that he sometimes seems to be parodying himself, or parodying Colbert�s parody of him; 'The O�Reilly Factor' and 'The Colbert Report' are a matched pair. Both shows air twice most weeknights�the rebroadcast of the previous night�s �Colbert Report� is on during the broadcast of 'The O�Reilly Factor,' and the broadcast of 'The Colbert Report' is on during the rebroadcast of 'The O�Reilly Factor.'"

Now we're really dizzy. More here.



Belle of the masked ball. (image via hello!magazine)

In: JK Rowling. Has anyone else noticed that the notoriously shy JK Rowling, perhaps anticipating a second act after Harry Potter, has been more social of late? First there was news that she's going to be comfortably ensconsced in the Hampton's this summer (O, for an invite to her dinner parties!) finishing up the last episode of her wildly popular children's book. Now, according to Hello!Magazine:

"JK Rowling wowed the crowd in a daring LBD, huge sparkly earrings and an intriguing mask when she made a rare public appearance over the weekend.

"Accompanied by her husband Neil Murray, equally strikingly clad in his clan kilt, the creator of Harry Potter was hosting a masked ball at Stirling Castle in Scotland to raise funds to fight multiple sclerosis, the disease that killed her mother at the age of 45. The high-profile event, which was compered by Men Behaving Badly actor Neil Morrissey, was thought to have raised around �300,000. With the immensely popular Harry Potter series now wrapping up, the multi-millionairess mother-of-three has said that she intends to focus her efforts on tackling poverty and abuse among the world's children."

Bravo.