It’s a crying shame that when someone is fighting what is arguably the biggest battle of their life, they have to worry that some unscrupulous, money-grubbing twit is going to sell their secrets to the tabloids.  That’s what happened to Farrah Fawcett, as she continues her fight against cancer:

UCLA Medical Center has disciplined an employee for snooping in Farrah Fawcett’s medical records, the hospital said Wednesday, a few weeks after announcing that several employees were fired for taking peeks at Britney Spears’ files.

Fawcett expressed concern to a doctor in May that details of her condition were being leaked to tabloids, and he reported it to hospital executives, UCLA spokeswoman Roxanne Moster said.

Fawcett’s attorney, Kim Swartz, said an employee at the hospital accessed Fawcett’s medical records without authorization, and details about her cancer treatment later showed up in the National Enquirer. The tabloid published details about a recurrence in Fawcett’s cancer before she had a chance to tell family and friends, Swartz said.

“She’s a very private person and she’s reluctant to go public about this, let alone take legal action,” Swartz said. “She’s fighting for her life.”

Farrah was declared cancer-free in February 2007, but the cancer returned a few months later.  She has been seeking treatment in Germany:

“It’s disturbing to her when there are false reports that she’s given up and wants to die, when the opposite is true,” said Swartz. “She’s a strong person and a fighter.” […]

“She is cautiously optimistic,” Craig J. Nevius told the Times. Nevius is producing a documentary about the former star of “Charlie’s Angels” and her battle with cancer.

“Farrah has learned the hard way that with cancer, the test is time. At the moment she has no detectable cancer,” he said.

In related snoopiness, several workers were disciplined and thirteen were fired after peeking around in Britney’s files when she had her 5150 hold a few months ago.

For the Enquirer’s part, they are taking the high road:

Enquirer senior reporter Alan Smith told the Times that Fawcett’s cancer is newsworthy.

“We publish what we believe is accurate,” he said.

Isn’t that nice.  I could come on here and say that Britney is the spawn of two aliens and that she drinks goat’s blood for breakfast, claim that I believe it is accurate, and I guess that makes it journalism.  Hey, I just found a way to make my job a whole lot easier!  Forget all the fact-checking, cross-referencing, and making sure I get my story straight, I’ll just pull things out of my butt and say, “I believe it is accurate.”  Because if I believe it, it’s so!

Look, whether you are Farrah Fawcett, Britney Spears, or Joe Schmoe The Ragpicker, when you enter a hospital you have certain expectations of privacy.  Anyone who would sell things like this to the tabloid press should not only be fired but prevented from working in any sort of health-care industry again, no matter if they were a nurse or a janitor.  You need to concentrate on getting well, not worrying about whether somebody is rifling through your personal files.

Our prayers and best wishes go out to Farrah in her continued recovery.

And sorry, Johnny…I have to agree.

Gene Wilder says that he likes Johnny Depp, and that is why he has not seen the new version of the famous candy man:

“I haven’t seen it. I like Depp, but when I heard they were doing a remake, I heard: mistake. When I saw clips on TV and I saw what Depp was doing, I thought, ‘Don’t see the movie — you like Depp too much.’ I always get comments: ‘Yours is better.’ I know they’re talking about Willy Wonka.” In fact Leonard Maltin’s “Movie Guide” says: “Depp, though amusing, is no Gene Wilder.”

Sorry, Johnny…while you’e undoubtedly hotter than Gene, I’m siding with the comic legend on this one.

While I fully admit that I haven’t seen the entire 2005 version of the movie, I’ve seen enough of it to know that this new and updated Willy Wonka leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.  For one thing, Johnny’s version of the character (and the ubiquitous chocolate factory-slash-private playground) reminds me entirely too much of Michael Jackson for my own personal comfort level.  A while back, I even did a side-by-side comparison of Michael’s latest photo shoot and Depp’s incarnation of the Willy Wonka character, and the similarities are eerie.  That, and the latest film strives to take the chocolatier to a place he was never meant to go.  I read the book as a child, and from what I remember the 2005 version is more faithful to it, but at the same time it adds elements that were never meant to be there, especially since the latest version is more geared to adults.

My daughter has seen both versions and she completely and wholeheartedly prefers the 1971 version.  When I ask her why, she just says that Gene Wilder’s version, over three decades old, is “more fun”.  And isn’t that the point of candy, anyway?  It isn’t supposed to be good for you or to try and make you a healthier individual…it’s just supposed to be fun.

Or something like that.

Apparently, sleeping in tents and bunks is good enough for our brave men and women serving in the Armed Forces, but for Jessica Simpson, not so much:

Jessica Simpson is headlining the Operation MySpace concert in Kuwait Monday, but industry insiders are wondering how Simpson is going to pull off making her performance look like a gift to the troops given how little time she’s spending with them and the exorbitant expense required to shuttle Simpson overseas and back to the U.S.

According to a source close to the Simpson camp, a private plane carrying Simpson and her entourage — which includes dad Joe, hairstylist Ken Paves, her personal assistant and a stylist — left L.A. and was due in Kuwait the evening of March 9. Total cost for the plane was approximately $150,000.

Someone will be picking up the tab for accommodations as well, even though it’s been touted that Simpson will be forgoing her standard hotel suite to spend the night living like the troops in a bunk. The source close to Simpson predicts that any time spent in a bunk will last no longer than the time it takes for a photo.

“Jessica doesn’t sleep in tents or bunks the night before a concert. She needs to give a good performance — there’s no way Joe will want The Pussycat Dolls (who are also performing as part of the same show) to upstage his daughter. He’ll have her sleeping in a proper bed in the right environment.”

Other expenses include her stylist and makeup artist (who both charge approximately $6,000 per day), and Paves, whose day rate is a whopping $10,000, according to the Simpson source.

“This isn’t a charity show. The people around Jessica aren’t donating their time or cutting their rates as if this was Jess’s charity Operation Smile. Someone is picking up the tab, and it’s not going to be Jessica.”

When the concert is over, Simpson has about three hours for quality time with the troops before her plane takes off again. “Literally, she’s going to sing ‘These Boots Are Made for Walking,’ and she’s going to be walking herself right back onto that plane,” said the source.

“The decision for her to do this doesn’t make sense,” said the source. “Her album is not ready for promoting, she risks being upstaged by the Pussycat Dolls and there’s no way to come out of this without looking like a financial drain on the project.” (MySpace and Simpson’s reps decline to comment on who is covering costs.)

What, girlfriend can’t put on her own hair and makeup?  This isn’t a movie or a red carpet appearance, it’s a concert for the troops.  And is Jessica Simpson really the best we can do?  Haven’t the troops suffered enough already?

I realize that celebs do have certain special needs that Joe Schmoe The Ragpicker doesn’t have, especially as far as security.  But come on…a brush, a hair dryer, and some mousse don’t cost that much, and every first-grader can comb their own hair and apply a product to their lips.

I am all for entertaining the troops, but I am not at all for people using that to promote themselves and engage in diva behavior.  And Jessica hasn’t done anything in years that hasn’t been all about her.  Instead of wasting all that money, at least some of it could be donated to charities who help the soldiers and their families.  Better yet, donate it all, and let Jessica stay at home.  But wait…would she get any press out of that?

Face it, sistah…you’re no Marilyn, who went to Korea while on her honeymoon to Joe DiMaggio and performed ten shows in four days, swooping in while hanging out of a helicopter, singing to the troops in the freezing cold, and getting sick in the process:

February 16, 1954: Marilyn arrives in Korea. Her entrance is magnificent. Anticipating the Playboy-bunny scene in Apocalypse Now, she asks the helicopter pilot to swoop down over the troops in the field so she can wave to them. Lying on the helicopter floor, Marilyn extends her upper torso fully outside the bay (a pair of hefty enlisted men holding her legs) as the chopper repeatedly strafes the front.

The star, who has never before played to a live audience, has pulled together an act out of numbers from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire. In her posthumous memoir, My Story, Monroe describes waiting in the wings before her first performance and hearing the roar of the crowd drown out the music. An agitated officer rushes her out on stage, afraid that the audience will riot. At the last of Monroe’s ten performances (during which she entertains some 100,000 troops) the troops do riot. Forced to wait for hours in subzero cold, some 6,000 members of the 45th (”Thunderbird”) Division stomp down the barriers and throw rocks to clear the stage for Marilyn. The next morning she returns to wish them goodbye, but instead of sayonara uses eleewah, Korean for “Come here,” and precipitates another mad stampede. Marilyn left Korea with a mild case of pneumonia, but told Jennings that her work there had been her “greatest experience with any kind of audience,” “the best thing” that had ever happened to her.

(I do know that there were many, many other entertainers who went overseas and endured harsh conditions to bring our brave troops some joy, but Marilyn was the first one to come to mind when thinking of someone for a compare/contrast.  Face it, it wouldn’t have been as effective had I chosen Bob Hope.  And he didn’t look nearly as good in a dress.)

Despite the beard, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers totally rocked the Super Bowl performance.  In general, since the horrible fiasco that passed as a Halftime Show a few years past (who can ever forget Janet Jackson’s nipple, who can ever forgive Kid Rock’s using the American Flag as a poncho), the performances have gotten away from flash (as much as a rock-n-roll band on a neon-lit guitar-pierced-heart-shaped stage at the Super Bowl can) and back to genuine musicality.  And I loved the guitar and heart at the beginning!

Let’s face it, only Tom Petty can get away with “Free Fallin’” at the Super Bowl…after all, as cool as the song is, it’s basically a mid-tempo ballad with a basic 4/4 drum beat, despite the soaring chorus and cool riffs.  He pulls it off not only on the superior strength of the song, but simply on plain supercoolness.  Let’s see Bob Rock do that!

Other Petty standards–opener “American Girl” and second song “Won’t Back Down”–held up fabulously, and closer “Runnin’ Down A Dream” is rockin’ at its best.  My foot was pounding an imaginary bass drum throughout the whole performance.  You could watch this one with your meemaw and not be embarrassed…nary a nipple slip in sight.  Yet, for all the safe clothing, it’s plain that Petty and his band still have what it takes to rock the house down.

Hey, hey, Paula…are you paying attention?  This is how it’s done.  He totally brought it, and Tom is almost twelve years older than you are.  Take notes…substance over superficiality.

DISCLAIMER:  My choice of words reflects my own views and opinions of Mr. Petty’s beard upon Mr. Petty’s face, and do not necessarily reflect the views of this site.  I mention this because there are some who have taken umbrage with my choice of words to open this article:  “Despite the beard…”

I would like to make it clear that I have no problem with beards of any size, shape, color, or nationality.  Some of the closest friends I have are beards.  My own father owns a beard and enjoys it very much. 

I apologize to any beards whom I might have offended with my choice of words, and rest assured that I do in no way discriminate against anyone who has grown any sort of beard (including, but not limited to, goatees, Van Dykes, soul patches, and full ZZTop-length facial hair).

However, I cannot change the wording now, as it has already been picked up by Google News in its original form.  In the future, I will attempt to be more beard-friendly in my postings, and have scheduled a class on Facial Hair Sensitivity to help me further my personal education on all things follicular.

I know this is just a short little blurb of a post, and most of it isn’t even my writing, but I liked it so much I had to share it with my loyal GlossLip readers.  Being as I watched many a catfight between Alexis and Krystle back in the day, this little bit caught my eye:

JOAN Collins — whose husband, Percy Gibson, is 32 years her junior — still has an eye for a well-turned male derriere. The 74-year-old cougar, after dining with female pals at Spago in Beverly Hills last week, donned a pair of huge black sunglasses and sashayed out of the restaurant to customers’ delight, said a source. While waiting for her car outside, Collins tipped her glasses down, peeked at the valet’s “rather large” behind, and commented, “Now, ladies, that’s the proper way to end a lunch.”

Now why can’t they have waiters like that at my local Choke-n-Puke?

After making tons of posts about the Britneys and Lindsays and Parises of the world, who go through men, movies, and music like so much used toilet paper, it’s refreshing to hear about true legends of the business who have not only managed to juggle a long-lasting career, but who have also managed to make a success of their personal life.

Despite a failed first marriage lasting nine years, Paul Newman, a WWII vet, has managed to make a success of his second marriage to actress Joanne Woodward, and today they celebrate fifty years together as man and wife.  They have three daughters together.  Newman had two daughters and a son with his first wife; however his son, Scott, died of an accidental drug overdose in 1978, inspiring Newman to create the Scott Newman Center for Drug Abuse to help others.  Their lists of awards won are too long to mention here, but her first Academy Award was for The Three Faces Of Eve in 1957, and he won one in 1986 for The Color Of Money.

Their contributions to acting, theatre, movies, and philanthropy (they donate the profits of their food sales, after taxes, to charity) are legend.  Today’s so-called “stars” would do well to take a few pages out of their book.  And I personally love his pineapple salsa.

Recently, Newman had cancer surgery:

He is fit enough to go out and has been seen outside his home in Westport, Connecticut, where his neighbours say he looks well.

An insider close to the star said that he recently checked into a New York hospital for serious surgery “related to cancer” which left him convalescing for three weeks.

“He initially was having trouble breathing and a hard time walking.

“After Thanksgiving, his family became concerned and took him to see a New York specialist.

“He was admitted right away into the hospital where he underwent surgery.

“He’s bounced back now but he’s not a well man and people in his company are trying to keep this very quiet.” He added.

Another friend of the star also confirmed to a US magazine that Newman had recently undergone a “major medical procedure”.

But he seems to have convalesced well, and this minor setback hasn’t stopped him from being his old self:

An observer at Newman’s restaurant added: “Paul does look frail and his thinning hair has gone nearly white.

“But he does seem feisty for a man of his advanced years.

“After exchanging small talk with some employees he and Joanne got into matching steel-grey SUV’s to follow one another home.

“Before Paul left he played speed racer and gunned it for a couple of laps around the parking lot.”

Yep, that sounds like Paul Newman, always the auto racer.  He owns a stake in Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, a Champ car team, and recently narrated Dale, a film about the late Dale Earnhardt.  He was also the voice of Doc Hudson in the animated movie Cars, both projects continuing his life-long love of auto racing.

So I raise my glass to a couple of true living legends, and recipients of a Breath Of Fresh Air award.  I certainly hope that they have a wonderful day today and many more happy years together!

I’m not right all that often, so when it does happen I like to gloat a bit.  Okay, a lot.  But who’s counting?

Way back, I predicted that late-night show hosts would be forced to return to the air without their striking writers, following in the footsteps of the late great Johnny Carson, who also had to return without his striking writers in the last big strike.  I said they would have to do so to save the jobs of non-writers on their programs.  And while it may have been overlooked in all the Britney brouhaha (and my own nagging illness -shameless plea for sympathy-), sure enough…it happened.

Admitting he resembled “a cattle-drive cook,” a bewhiskered Letterman returned to the Ed Sullivan stage, surrounded by placard-bearing pickets who looked – and kicked – remarkably like Rockettes, and said, “Two long months but, by god, I’m finally out of rehab.

On the Tonight Show, Leno, clean-shaven, welcomed former Arkansas Governor Huckabee, who addressed why he should be in the White House. […]

The reason for the shows’ long absences, of course, was the strike by the Writers Guild of America, which put the show’s scribes into cold storage – or, at least, on the picket lines. Letterman struck a deal with the Guild so his show could return and proceed in a scripted fashion, while Leno, as well as his NBC colleague Conan O’Brien – also sporting a beard – and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, returned without theirs and were forced to ad lib their programs.

“A Jew, a Christian and a Muslim walk into a bar,” said Leno, dredging up one of the oldest jokes on earth. “The Jew says to the Muslim – see, I have no idea what they say, because there’s a writers’ strike.”

Okay, I didn’t say they were hilarious, but at least you could see them (courtesy of the non-striking cameraman) and hear them (courtesy of the non-striking sound person) and note their coiffed hair (courtesy of the non-striking hairdresser) and marvel at their clear complexions (courtesy of the makeup artist) and gaze upon their designer suits (courtesy of the non-striking wardrobe person) and listen to the bands (courtesy of the non-striking musicians) when they cut to commercial (courtesy of the non-striking director).

The late-night titans were basically forced to return to the air because anyone not related to the writer’s strike (cameramen, sound people, hairdressers, makeup artists, wardrobe people, musicians, directors, etc) were in danger of losing their jobs due to shows not being in production.  And, as I have said, this is exactly what the bigwigs at the major studios want to happen…they want people fighting with one another, feuding with long-time friends, to pit colleague against colleague, hoping that the pressure will force the writers to give up their strike and return to work for the same (or even less) benefits and pay.

The Writer’s Guild is looking into whether Leno broke any of its laws by returning to the air (NBC says no, that Leno is allowed to write for himself, just not other people), while Letterman was able to strike a deal since he owns his show through his company Worldwide Pants.  Therefore, Letterman did have some of his writers, while Leno was forced to go it alone.  Now, will the tack set by Letterman be followed by other television shows?  If Worldwide Pants can forge a deal with the WGA, will other shows now try to seek their own deals?  Is Letterman’s deal the key to breaking this strike?

There was some good-natured saber-rattling going on between the beleaguered network late-night offerings…when a bearded Letterman said he was going to shave off his beard on the show, bandleader Paul Shaffer asked if he would do it on his own show.  Letterman deadpanned, “No, Conan’s.”  And he offered a bit of tongue-in-cheek analysis:

“Ladies and gentlemen the only show on the air now that has jokes written by union writers,” Letterman declared. “I know you’re thinking to yourselves at home — ‘This crap is written?”‘

Wow.  I can remember staying up late, waiting to catch the video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller on Friday Night Videos (some of us were too poor for MTV).

And now there’s news that MJ is going to re-release Thriller, with some added bonuses:

A 25th anniversary edition of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” will be released on Feb. 12 by Epic/Legacy Recordings.

Recognized as the world’s biggest-selling album of all time, the deluxe edition will include the original album plus eight bonus tracks and a DVD featuring the short films/videos of “Thriller,” “Beat It,” and “Billie Jean” and his breakout performance of “Billie Jean” at the “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever” TV special.

Five of the new tracks have never been released: a Kanye West remix of “Billie Jean”; a new 2008 version of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” with Akon and will.i.am; will.i.am remixes of “The Girl Is Mine” and “P.Y.T.”; and “For All Time,” newly mixed and mastered by Jackson. The other bonus tracks are “Someone In The Dark,” “Carousel,” and the demo recording of “Billie Jean.”

Are you going to buy it?  I’m loath to give Michael any money, but the nostalgia factor alone makes it tempting.

Here’s a blast from the past for you…well, for those of you old enough to remember.  For those of you too young, sit back and watch MJ as he was cruising down the straghtaway just before he went round the bend.  Some sources cite November 30, 1982 as the release date, others cite December 1, 1982 (michaeljackson.com says December), but regardless of release date it remains Michael’s most popular album.

Name:  Samuel Atkinson Waterston
Birthday:  November 15, 1940
Role Most Known For:  Jack McCoy, Law & Order
Trivia:  His father was an immigrant from Scotland and was a semanticist (which explains his excellent diction); his mother was an American Mayflower descendant and landscape painter; he graduated with a BA from Yale in 1962; in 2002, he and castmate Jerry Orbach were designated “Living Landmarks” by the New York Landmarks Conservatory.

It seems to be Law & Order week here on GlossLip…

While Sam has portrayed, either in person or in voice-over, presidents including Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, his best-known role is that of Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy, bender of rules, contempter of court, and aggressor of arguments.  He’s settled down a bit, but in the beginning of the series was a bit of a womanizer, having relationships with a few of his female assistants.

Hmm…wonder if he needs any help with his quid pro quo.

Don’t look at me like that.  Just because there’s snow on the roof and all that, you know.

It just goes to show that, for once, pretty pretty shiny shiny loses out to style and substance.  Yessssssssss!

Britney Spears, who’s latest CD “Blackout” is on sale at major retailers and music stores everywhere, has been beaten to #1 in the Billboard Top 100 by the Eagles, who’s current double CD “Long Road Out Of Eden” is available only at Wal-Mart.  Yes, that’s right…by confining their CD sales exclusively to one retailer and their website, the Eagles, who’s CD features their first original work in twenty-eight years, have whupped up on Brit, who’s album has to settle for #2 on both the Billboard charts and Nielson Soundscan.

The change comes about because Billboard has decided to allow sales numbers from music sold only at one retailer instead of mass market.  Wal-Mart shared their data with Billboard, and a star is born:

Early SoundScan numbers have the Eagles taking the top perch on The Billboard 200 with 711,000 copies sold, with most sales moved by Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores. For now, the only other U.S. outlets carrying “Eden” are walmart.com, where both physical copies and downloads are sold, and the Eagles’ own Web site.

“Eden” became available at the mass-market chain Oct. 30. Aside from two compilations, this is the Eagles’ first album since the mostly live “Hell Freezes Over,” which led The Billboard 200 for two weeks in 1994.

Britney Spears’ new Jive album, “Blackout,” which would have been No. 1 had the Eagles’ data not been reported, will open at No. 2 with first-week sales of 290,000 copies.

All that work Britney’s music team put into producing, mixing, tweaking, and dragging her Frapp behind into the studio, all the time and money thrown at it, all the electronic twiddling and computerized machinations, were not enough to secure the top spot for Brit.  Turns out a bunch of old guys, who’s band has been around since before Brit was born, who have arguably put out some of the best music ever heard, and who (gasp) actually play their own instruments and sing without the aid of computers, beat her…and beat her by a considerable margin.  By my calculations, they sold 421,000 more copies in the first week…and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

I can tell you why…the Eagles may not dance and writhe around (and let’s face it…who wants to see Don Henley or Glenn Frey flailing about in a spangly bra and hot pants?), but they sing live in concert, they play their own instruments, they have mad songwriting skills, and about a gazillion multi-platinum albums (Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 went platinum twenty-nine times!).  Genuine musicality and unparallelled singing wins over a circus freak show…whodathunkit?

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