Monthly Archives: December 2015

Check out what's going on at the moment over at Stephen Colbert's Twitter feed.

So…it's New Year's Eve. What'cha doing? If you're wise enough to stay home, you can be even wiser by listening to The Stu's Show New Year's Eve Special. As I'm posting this, it just started and it runs for six hours — until 1 AM on the West Coast and 4 AM on the East Coast. (If you live somewhere else, you should be able to figure out its end time where you are from that information.)

Stu Shostak and Jeanine Kasun will be talking, interviewing interesting guests, playing unusual records and hosting trivia games with prizes. And around 12:05 AM on the West Coast (3:05 AM on the East Coast), the interesting guest who'll be on the program will be me. Stu and I will be talking about Johnny Carson, Bill Cosby and maybe Donald Trump.

What do those three people have in common? I'd like to think they all have about the same chance of being the next President of the United States.

You can listen on your computer. Go to the Stu's Show website and click where they tell you to click. You'll have a great time and you don't even have to wear a funny hat…unless of course, you want to.

As we approach a new year, it's nice to have Daniel Larison remind us that no matter how it may seem at times, most of the world is at peace.

An hour and fifteen minutes with a very smart, funny man named Michael Palin…

As they often do on New Year's Eve, Turner Classic Movies is favoring us with Marx Brothers movies tonight — five of 'em. They are, in this order: The Cocoanuts, A Day at the Races, A Night at the Opera, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup. This is not the precise sequence in which these films were made but they apparently wanted to spread the Zeppo around.

If you have enough taste to read this website, you've probably seen all of them. If you know someone — a youngster, perhaps or maybe a really stupid person — who has yet to discover the delights of the Brothers Marx, you might want to TiVo or DVR one or two of them and introduce them. I'd pick A Night at the Opera or maybe Horse Feathers as good break-in material. If one of those hooks them, then you can move 'em to the hard stuff.

A few years ago, there was an announcement that led to me posting this here, in part…

Barbra Streisand is reportedly dickering to direct and star in a motion picture remake of Gypsy. I'm not sure this is a good idea and I'll tell you why. It's not because the last film version was so good or even any good. It's because what was wrong with it will probably be wrong with a Gypsy starring Streisand. This show is about a woman — Momma Rose — who was willing to do anything (lie, cheat, steal, anything) to make at least one of her daughters a star. Why? Because Momma Rose didn't want her kids to live in near-poverty as she had, and also because Momma Rose couldn't have been a star herself so she wanted to live vicariously through her kid. That's what the whole "Rose's Turn" number is all about: I did it for you but I also did it for me.

The movie starring Rosalind Russell never worked for me because, among its other flaws, Rosalind Russell could not suppress her image as an elegant, successful woman of talent and breeding. That is not Momma Rose. It's like Cary Grant trying to play a guy with no looks and no class. I obviously never saw Ethel Merman do the original on Broadway but when I hear the cast album and imagine her up there, she seems perfect to me. Ethel Merman had the star power and talent necessary to carry a lead role like that but she looked and talked like a waitress in a greasy spoon cafe.

Nothing more has been heard about Streisand's version of Gypsy but I just saw one that'll be hard to top. Imelda Staunton is the ranking musical superstar in Great Britain, having starred in many shows to rave acclaim. She recently completed a run in a revival of Gypsy in the West End that was a stunning success.

Before it ended its deliberately-limited engagement, the show was captured on video and it was recently shown on BBC4 over there. I got a copy and it's just about perfect — easily the best rendition of the show I've ever seen. Imelda Staunton is the main reason as she plays the meanest, most self-centered Momma Rose in history…but actually, everyone in this version is terrific. She does the same thing Merman must have done: To be a star who convinces you she herself could never be a star.

And yes, the show was recorded with a live audience. I don't think it would have worked without one, especially during the "Rose's Turn" number.

Can you see it for yourself? Well, there are reportedly talks ongoing to bring it and Ms. Staunton to Broadway but you're probably interested in seeing this video. A couple different versions of it (some missing some numbers and/or with poor video) have been uploaded to YouTube and I assume the folks who own the production are working to get them taken down.

The whole show is online for the next few weeks on the BBC4 website but you have to be logging in from an IP address in Great Britain to view it. Or you could employ a program that spoofs your IP address to make that website think you're in Great Britain. Also, I'm told that a deal is underway to release the video on DVD for American players. It's well worth waiting for.

Jerry Seinfeld has launched a new season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with a pretty special guest…Barack Obama. It's an interesting conversation and I can't wait to hear how awful and harmful to America it is that Obama did this.

What are you doing tonight? Well, if you're staying off the street or away from parties where various parties try too hard to party, you might want to tune in The Stu's Show New Year's Eve Special! Stu Shostak and Jeanine Kasun will be broadcasting live! There'll be unusual music (tunes you'll hear nowhere else tonight), special guests, a phone-in trivia contest with prizes and all sorts of surprises!

It starts at 7 PM Pacific, which is 10 PM Eastern and it goes on for six hours as they welcome in 2016 in each time zone. You can listen in by clicking here and following the instructions…and don't tune out after New Year's on the West Coast because the guest shortly after Midnight (west coast time) will be me!

That is if I'm sober…but don't worry. The chances of me taking up drinking between now and then are slim. I will probably start if Donald Trump becomes our next president but that's not likely, at least in the next twenty-four hours.

I spent about two hours (i.e., approximately 115 minutes more than I should have) today watching various talking heads on TV discussing the Cosby case. My conclusion is that "legal experts," as everyone seemed to be, aren't sure what's gonna happen — and I don't mean the final verdict. I mean the process to get to it.

Will Cosby's deposition in the civil suit, in which he admitted giving drugs to women before sex and having prescriptions for Quaaludes (but not using them himself) be admitted into the trial? Some said yes and some said no. Will other Cosby accusers be permitted to testify to try and establish a pattern of abuse and the repeated use of a modus operandi? Some said yes and some said no. Will this case end in a plea bargain out of court? Some said yes and some said no.

Once again, I am reminded of reporter Jack Germond's great line about the trouble with the news: "We're not paid to say 'I don't know' even when we don't know." It applies to pundits and "legal experts" as well.

On CNN, lawyer Thomas Mesereau, who represented Michael Jackson and Robert Blake seemed to stop just short of saying that since they were innocent, Cosby must be, as well. I wonder how many people actually think Jackson and Blake were innocent.

Listening to him, I thought: It's possible that if this case comes down to he says/she says, Cosby could get acquitted. I don't want to underestimate the power of being able to spend zillions of dollars on clever lawyers. Still, I can't imagine a scenario in which his lawyers get him off and (big AND) convince a whole lot of people that he isn't guilty of all or even any of the accusations against him.

O.J. Simpson's lawyers were able to keep him outta prison but that was about all they were able to do for him. Before the verdict, Simpson had a confidence that he'd be found Not Guilty and a fantasy that after he was, he could build back his celebrity and fortune. He was going to produce a movie about the murders from his point of view. He was going to do a big pay-per-view interview with Larry King hosting. He was going to write a book, et cetera, et cetera. All of these exploitations were going to net him millions and further convince the world that he was innocent…

…and none of them materialized. Not one. He settled for a few small money deals for projects that persuaded no one.

At the time of the verdict, polls said that something like 25% of the country still thought he didn't do it. He thought that there were millions to be made off that 25% even if their number didn't grow…but that it surely would. The verdict itself would convince many that he was framed and then his own story as he told it would convince even more. As it turned out, the 25% didn't grow. If anything, it shrank…and whatever number of people still thought he was an innocent man weren't about to spend a dime on the guy.

As I watched Bill Cosby shambling into and out of the courtroom today, I wondered what he thinks will happen. If he thinks his lawyers will keep him out of prison…well, he may be right. If he thinks suing his accusers will get them to shut up or win him damages, he's probably wrong. And if he thinks he's ever getting back even a sliver of his reputation and career…well, I'd say the odds of that are about the same as the 2017 inauguration of President Rand Paul. Maybe a bit worse.

I thought I linked to this long ago but apparently I didn't. This is a 2004 interview with one of the wittiest, smartest men to ever toil in show business, Larry Gelbart. He was there in connection with the then-current revival of his play, Sly Fox, but they speak of many facets of his amazing career…

The new issue of the Writers Guild's magazine has a nice interview with Woody Allen about how he approaches the writing process. It pretty much comes down to "Just write the thing and make it as good as you can and don't worry about all that other stuff that people worry about." But it's nice to hear how he says it.

Back here, we quoted the noted legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin as predicting that Bill Cosby "will end 2016 in prison — and that he will end his life destitute." We wondered why Toobin thought that and assumed he was talking about the allegations against Cosby by Chloe Goins. Turns out Toobin was probably talking about the case involving Andrea Constand. As I'm sure you've heard, an arrest warrant has been issued for Cosby in that matter. The Statute of Limitations was about to kick in so the prosecutors kicked first.

Do we think the comedian would have been charged if not for all the attention in the press and all his other alleged victims going public? No, we do not think that. So good for all those women for having the courage to say what they said.

I dunno where this ends…perhaps with a plea bargain and with Cosby's lawyers trading an admission of guilt for reduced prison time or, if they can, no prison time. But maybe there are legal tricks and loopholes they can explore. The Cosby bank account can pay for a lot of exploration.

I'm thinking though that out there, there must be other rich, powerful men who've done the kind of thing for which Cosby's reputation and career have been destroyed. Once upon a time, they thought their wealth and stature would shield them from answering for their crimes. If what's already happened to Cos before today didn't worry them, today's announcement sure will. Maybe somewhere out there, there's a future rapist who'll decide to take up a much safer hobby. It would be nice to think that prosecuting Dr. William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. will not just result in justice for a whole lot of ladies but will also make rich, powerful people a bit less likely to think they're untouchable.

Speaking of Jerry Lewis: A lot of folks think his film The Day the Clown Cried has been added to the National Film Registry of significant films. Nope. He just donated his library, including that movie, to the Library of Congress film collection.

Twenty-five films including Ghostbusters, Top Gun and an 1894 Thomas Edison movie of someone sneezing are on this year's list. You can see the whole roster here.

You may not believe it but this video was produced by a conservative non-profit group — Arizona's Public Integrity Alliance, which is largely made up of Republican activists. Read this if you don't believe me. One of the things that I'd like to think will doom Donald Trump's candidacy is that people won't want to associate themselves with the kind of person who supports Donald Trump — you know, like the guy in this video or Jerry Lewis…

Matt Taibbi writes a year-ender about Donald Trump and makes a good point: Trump's career is largely about building buildings that protect richer folks from having to associate with the kind of people who now form Trump's base.

I have friends, both Republican and Democratic, who lately need to be talked off the window ledge, so fearful are they that Trump will be our next president. It does raise the question we sometimes ponder in these elections: Do you hope the opposition party will nominate the worst possible candidate (as far as you're concerned) because he'd be the easiest to beat? Or the best possible candidate (as far as you're concerned) because if he does win, he'd be better for the country than the worst guy?

In any case, my nervous colleagues point out that Trump is currently at 39% (or whatever) among Republican voters. To which I point out that that number might mean something if we had a national G.O.P. primary but we don't. The nominee is chosen by a series of individual elections starting with Iowa. And how the candidates do in the first election may significantly alter how they do in the second and the second may impact the third and each primary can change the whole dynamic of that race. We've still got a long way to go.