GOOD AS GOLD
Hello and welcome, FINALLY, to my first post of 2006! I was way too busy enjoying the Video iPod I got for Christmas, thus explaining the lateness.
However, there are lots of stuff to bring up, so on with it starting with the 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards Monday night in Beverly Hills -- yes, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. With the temperatures here in Fairbanks hovering between 10 to 30 below zero (typical January weather), the "party of the year" turned up lots of heat as usual with wins by "Brokeback Mountain", Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell, Mary-Louise Parker upsetting the "Desperate Housewives" (though Felicity Huffman did pick up the Best Movie Actress-Drama prize for "Transamerica"), "Lost" now 2-0 in major awards, and...Isaac Mizrahi trying to look down Teri Hatcher's gown and feeling up Scarlett Johansson's boob?! If this was Steven Cojocaru, he would've been kicked off of "Entertainment Tonight" immediately!
As for the golden fashions? Well, the major stand-outs were Keira Knightley, Jessica Alba, Charlize Theron (Christian Dior), Witherspoon (Chanel), and Hatcher (Versace). As for Pamela Anderson, a bra-less Drew Barrymore, and pregnant Gwyneth Paltrow? With the Winter Olympics coming up, they all get bronze ...I mean, worst-dressed medals.
About 18.7 million viewers tuned in for all that; and with the Golden Globes as the ultimate prediction show for the Oscars, things could get interesting beforehand...especially the Best Actress showdown between Witherspoon and Huffman. We'll see what happens on January 30 when the nominations are announced.
We're down to the Final Four now in the NFL playoffs, and one of the teams vying for a free trip to Detroit and Super Bowl XL...the Seattle Seahawks! Thanks to head coach Mike Holmgren and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, they've been on such a roll in the last few weeks, and there is a chance they could do the "Locker Room Rock" (a forgettable music video they did in the mid-'80s to capitalize on the Chicago Bears' "Super Bowl Shuffle" craze) all the way to Ford Field. But they got to get past the Carolina Panthers in the NFC championship game first.
On the AFC side...well, with the Indianapolis Colts out as are the defending champions New England Patriots, it's all about the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos now. I'm going for the Steelers on this one.
The two games that will decide on who'll head to the Super Bowl will be followed by something big north of the border 24 hours later: The Canadian elections. And I'll admit it...I'm one of the few Americans keeping an eye on it because if the Conservatives take this with Stephen Harper elected as their next Prime Minister, it could mean a major advantage to the Democrats hoping to dethrone the Republicans in the mid-term elections in November!
And last but not least...Last week, there was all this flak surrounding James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces", a recent selection in "Oprah's Book Club" (Elie Wiesel's "Night" is the latest one, her 57th) and whether or not Frey faked it all just to sell hundreds of thousands of copies.
"Showbiz Tonight" on CNN Headline News had a story on how past "Book Club" selections have went to the top of bestseller lists on Amazon.com and the "New York Times" and made unknown authors of those books overnight celebrities in the literary community. And it's not just books that are given Oprah Winfrey's seal of approval. If you saw -- and cringed at -- her annual "Oprah's Favorite Things" shows at close to Christmastime as well as that infamous "YOU GET A CAR!! YOU GET A CAR!! EVERYBODY GETS A CAR!!!!!!" episode, you know what I'm talking about.
From laptops to Ugg boots to Burberry coats to flat-screen TVs to diamond watches to gourmet foods to Blackberrys to that aforementioned iPod, if it's among those "Favorite Things", then they'll be selling like hotcakes the moment Oprah mentioned it...except for the iPod, because the electronic geeks rather spent hundreds of dollars for one XBox 360 set.
Now back to the books: I'm not a bookworm myself (alright, so I read "Maniac Magee", but that was a long time ago), but I'm sure many of you have out-Oprahed Oprah with some selections of your own. And just like my poll questions during the "Allen Report's" heydays of 1999-2000, I ask you in my first interactive poll question:
Hello and welcome, FINALLY, to my first post of 2006! I was way too busy enjoying the Video iPod I got for Christmas, thus explaining the lateness.
However, there are lots of stuff to bring up, so on with it starting with the 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards Monday night in Beverly Hills -- yes, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. With the temperatures here in Fairbanks hovering between 10 to 30 below zero (typical January weather), the "party of the year" turned up lots of heat as usual with wins by "Brokeback Mountain", Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell, Mary-Louise Parker upsetting the "Desperate Housewives" (though Felicity Huffman did pick up the Best Movie Actress-Drama prize for "Transamerica"), "Lost" now 2-0 in major awards, and...Isaac Mizrahi trying to look down Teri Hatcher's gown and feeling up Scarlett Johansson's boob?! If this was Steven Cojocaru, he would've been kicked off of "Entertainment Tonight" immediately!
As for the golden fashions? Well, the major stand-outs were Keira Knightley, Jessica Alba, Charlize Theron (Christian Dior), Witherspoon (Chanel), and Hatcher (Versace). As for Pamela Anderson, a bra-less Drew Barrymore, and pregnant Gwyneth Paltrow? With the Winter Olympics coming up, they all get bronze ...I mean, worst-dressed medals.
About 18.7 million viewers tuned in for all that; and with the Golden Globes as the ultimate prediction show for the Oscars, things could get interesting beforehand...especially the Best Actress showdown between Witherspoon and Huffman. We'll see what happens on January 30 when the nominations are announced.
We're down to the Final Four now in the NFL playoffs, and one of the teams vying for a free trip to Detroit and Super Bowl XL...the Seattle Seahawks! Thanks to head coach Mike Holmgren and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, they've been on such a roll in the last few weeks, and there is a chance they could do the "Locker Room Rock" (a forgettable music video they did in the mid-'80s to capitalize on the Chicago Bears' "Super Bowl Shuffle" craze) all the way to Ford Field. But they got to get past the Carolina Panthers in the NFC championship game first.
On the AFC side...well, with the Indianapolis Colts out as are the defending champions New England Patriots, it's all about the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos now. I'm going for the Steelers on this one.
The two games that will decide on who'll head to the Super Bowl will be followed by something big north of the border 24 hours later: The Canadian elections. And I'll admit it...I'm one of the few Americans keeping an eye on it because if the Conservatives take this with Stephen Harper elected as their next Prime Minister, it could mean a major advantage to the Democrats hoping to dethrone the Republicans in the mid-term elections in November!
And last but not least...Last week, there was all this flak surrounding James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces", a recent selection in "Oprah's Book Club" (Elie Wiesel's "Night" is the latest one, her 57th) and whether or not Frey faked it all just to sell hundreds of thousands of copies.
"Showbiz Tonight" on CNN Headline News had a story on how past "Book Club" selections have went to the top of bestseller lists on Amazon.com and the "New York Times" and made unknown authors of those books overnight celebrities in the literary community. And it's not just books that are given Oprah Winfrey's seal of approval. If you saw -- and cringed at -- her annual "Oprah's Favorite Things" shows at close to Christmastime as well as that infamous "YOU GET A CAR!! YOU GET A CAR!! EVERYBODY GETS A CAR!!!!!!" episode, you know what I'm talking about.
From laptops to Ugg boots to Burberry coats to flat-screen TVs to diamond watches to gourmet foods to Blackberrys to that aforementioned iPod, if it's among those "Favorite Things", then they'll be selling like hotcakes the moment Oprah mentioned it...except for the iPod, because the electronic geeks rather spent hundreds of dollars for one XBox 360 set.
Now back to the books: I'm not a bookworm myself (alright, so I read "Maniac Magee", but that was a long time ago), but I'm sure many of you have out-Oprahed Oprah with some selections of your own. And just like my poll questions during the "Allen Report's" heydays of 1999-2000, I ask you in my first interactive poll question:
IF YOU HAD YOUR OWN BOOK CLUB LIKE OPRAH, WHAT WOULD YOUR SELECTIONS BE (FICTION AND/OR NON-FICTION)?
E-mail me with your opinion, and I'll post them next time. Until then...so long!
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