CALIFORNICATION S2

SHOWTIME RENEWS ITS NEW HIT COMEDY SERIES CALIFORNICATION

12 New Half-Hour Episodes Of The Critically Acclaimed Comedy Starring David Duchovny
Slated To Return Summer 2008

On the heels of the unprecedented audience and critical acclaim of its new original comedy series CALIFORNICATION, starring David Duchovny, SHOWTIME has renewed the series for a second season. The first season of CALIFORNICATION premiered on August 13th and has seen its audience steadily grow, becoming one of the highest-rated series on SHOWTIME. CALIFORNICATION is currently averaging the strongest tune-in level SHOWTIME has ever seen for a freshman series and is posting nearly two million viewers per week, which is the best season one average weekly performance the network has seen since 2004. Additionally, the series has proven its broad appeal attracting equal levels of men and women and holding onto 90% of the WEEDS lead-in.

The first season will air through October on Mondays at 10:30 PM ET/PT. The premiere of season two of CALIFORNICATION is tentatively slated for Summer 2008.

"CALIFORNICATION is a home run for us. We haven't launced a first-year show this strongly out of the gate before, and it caps an extraordinary 12 months that's included the launch of 'Dexter,' 'The Tudors,' 'Brotherhood,' and 'This American Life,'” said Robert Greenblatt, President of Showtime Entertainment. “It's just another great notch in our proverbial bedpost (he says jokingly)."

CALIFORNICATION stars and is executive produced by Golden Globe®-winning actor David Duchovny (“The X-Files”). Co-starring alongside Duchovny are Natascha McElhone (The Truman Show, Laurel Canyon), Madeleine Martin (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Hope & Faith”), Madeline Zima (“The Nanny,” A Cinderella Story), and Evan Handler (“Sex and the City”).

CALIFORNICATION centers on novelist Hank Moody (Duchovny) who struggles to raise his 13-year-old daughter (Madeleine Martin), while still carrying a torch for his ex-girlfriend Karen (McElhone). His obsession with truth-telling and self-destructive behavior -- drinks, drugs and relationships -- are both destroying and enriching his career.

Duchovny is best known to millions of fans for his role as Agent Fox Mulder on the long-running cult classic television series, “The X-Files,” a role for which he earned a Golden Globe® Award and was nominated for an Emmy®. He also received Emmy® nominations for guest appearances on “The Larry Sanders Show” and “Sex and the City.” He is a three-time Golden Globe® and SAG Award nominee. On the big screen, Duchovny’s film credits include last year’s Trust the Man and Evolution, both opposite Julianne Moore; and Return to Me, co-starring Minnie Driver. Upcoming film projects include Jake Kasdan’s The TV Set, and Things We Lost in the Fire opposite Halle Berry and Benicio del Toro.

CALIFORNICATION is created and executive produced by Tom Kapinos (“Dawson’s Creek”). Duchovny and Scott Winant (Showtime’s “Huff”), serve as executive producers, with Melanie Greene serving as co-executive producer.

Airbourne Pie

Here is a "taste" of what P!E TV is going to be like.

Rap Graph

RIP SYDNEY

Sydney Pollack (July 1, 1934^[1] - May 26, 2008)^[2] was an Academy Award-winning American film director, producer and actor. He directed over 21 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, and produced over 44 films. Pollack is best known for directing films Out of Africa (Academy Awards, 1985), Tootsie (1982), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Yakuza (1975), The Way We Were and Jeremiah Johnson (1972), along with newer films The Interpreter (2005), Sabrina (1995), The Firm (1993) and Havana (1990). He has appeared in over 15 films, including The Interpreter (2005), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Husbands and Wives (1992), The Player (1992), and The Electric Horseman (1979). In 2007, he appeared opposite George Clooney in Michael Clayton, a film which he also co-produced.

His talents will be missed.

GM Ad Contest

I created this ad for the contest. You can go to the GM Website and see it by clicking the LINK HERE.

RIP Dick Martin

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The Original Office

"Its funny, cuz its racist." -Ricky Gervais

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Me Head Explodeth

glumbert - Numbers Mean A Lot...

Oh really, O'Reilly?

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P!E & ROCK Pix

98 Rock's Dave Hill brought the Australian rock band AIRBOURNE to the P!E SHOP where they hooked up with the Ramblin' pie man, Rodney Henry. Then we went to the Airbourne show outside Power Plant Live! See THE PIX here.

Airbourne ROX!

RIP Rauschenberg

World-renowned artist Robert Rauschenberg has died. The 82-year-old had recently been treated for pneumonia at Lee Memorial Hospital. He died overnight at his home.

Rauschenberg, whose works have captivated the entire world, lived on Captiva Island since 1970.

Born in Port Arthur Texas, Milton Robert Rauschenberg started out with very little.

His mother made the family's clothes from scraps and later taught Bob how to collage.

Bob went from wanting to become a minister to marine to artist.

He studied briefly in Paris and North Carolina, then headed to New York.

In the 1950's and 60's Bob and close friend Jasper Johns revolutionized the art world, by making art affordable to everyone.

Until then, art had been too expensive for many. Bob often said he wanted to work in the gap between art and life.

In 1970 he settled on Captiva Island.

He became a huge donor in both art and dollars to the arts for act charity event. Money raised goes to victims of domestic violence and victims of sexual abuse.

Over the years, he raised millions of dollars for the charity and sold art to Hollywood stars like Sharon Stone, Lilly Tomlin and Lauren Hutton.

Partied with This Dude

Marylander, Michael Phelps came in to Meli with some friends Saturday night. He was very cordial and a gentleman. We wished him luck in Beijing.

From the local press:

Phelps returns to attend NBAC fundraiser

By Kevin Van Valkenburg |Sun reporter

May 11, 2008

Michael Phelps showed up at the Meadowbrook Aquatic Center last night and climbed into the pool.

But instead of a Speedo, he wore a tuxedo.

The club's outdoor pool, which had been drained and covered by a tent, was the site of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club's Countdown to Beijing, a catered black-tie fundraising event that might represent Phelps' last stop in Baltimore before the 2008 Olympics.

Katie Hoff sat next to him, wearing a purple dress, and two swimmers - perhaps the best male and female swimmers in the world - began the evening with a brief news conference attended by a small horde of media, some of whom had traveled from as far away as China. Both Phelps and Hoff said that the Olympics, which begin Aug. 8, could not get here soon enough.

The evening also represented something of a homecoming for Phelps, a Rodgers Forge native who has been living and training in Ann Arbor, Mich., the past four years. In late April, NBAC announced that Bob Bowman, Phelps' coach, would be resigning from his job as head coach at the University of Michigan and taking over as the club's CEO after the Olympics. Phelps confirmed what was widely believed to be the case: He'll follow Bowman wherever his coach goes.

"I'm not going to swim for anybody else," Phelps said. "I think we can both help [NBAC] go further. I'm definitely going to be [in Baltimore] next year."

The fundraiser featured a live band, a raw bar, and a silent auction that allowed attendees to bid on virtually everything: a week in Hilton Head, S.C.; a signed Phelps swim cap; teeth whitening sessions; even lunch with Hoff. It also took the time to honor the club's past Olympians: gold medalists Teresa Andrews, Anita Nall, Beth Botsford and Phelps, as well as Olympians, Pat Kennedy, Jill Johnson, Whitney Metzler and Hoff.

"I can remember when I first came here, just looking at all the Olympians who had their pictures on the wall and thinking, maybe someday," Hoff, from Towson, said. "At that point, I wasn't even in contention for anything like that. But this place truly transformed me. I owe it all to this place."

SPACE Marines

Using Their Head

3 accused of using corpse head to smoke pot

By PEGGY O'HARE
Houston Chronicle

The Kingwood teenager's story of decapitating a corpse and using the head to smoke marijuana was so outlandish that at first Houston Police Department senior police officer Jim Adkins did not believe it.

Yet, Kevin Wade Jones Jr., 17, appeared almost indifferent as he relayed the bizarre description of his and two friends' activities at an Humble area graveyard, Adkins said.

"I just doubted it because it's very morbid, and I couldn't see anybody doing something like this," Adkins said Thursday.

Not until police went to the home of another Kingwood 17-year-old, Matthew Richard Gonzalez, did the officer believe the tale.

"He regurgitated in his plate of food when I asked him about it," Adkins said. "So I knew there was some truth to the story."

Now, Jones, Gonzalez and a juvenile whose name has not been released are each charged with abuse of a corpse, a misdemeanor. All three were arrested Wednesday night.

Police said a fourth suspect is wanted for questioning.

Houston police believe the teens disturbed the grave of an 11-year-old boy who died in 1921.

The child was buried at an unmarked cemetery believed to be reserved for black veterans and their families, Adkins said.

Under the law, a person can be charged with abuse of a corpse simply by vandalizing, damaging or treating a gravesite offensively — even if the human remains buried there are not touched, Adkins said.

The child's skull has not been found. If recovered later, however, such a discovery will not change the charges filed against the three suspects, Adkins said.

The teens first came to police's attention during a vehicle burglary investigation. While being questioned, Jones told of desecrating the gravesite a month or two ago. Adkins said he believes the tale was intended to distract police from the vehicle break-in.

Jones claimed he and his friends used shovels to dig up the body and removed the corpse's head with a garden tool, Adkins said. Jones also revealed he and the other two boys took the severed head to the juvenile's home, where they used the skull as a "bong" to smoke marijuana, the officer said.

Police made three trips to the heavily wooded, snake-infested graveyard near the Eastex Freeway feeder road and FM 1960 before finding the disturbed grave several days ago.

"The grave was uncovered, and the headstone had been thrown off the grave and broken," Adkins said.

Because the grave is flooded with murky water from recent heavy rains, police have been unable to determine if the child's casket is still in the ground.

All three teens gave written and verbal confessions admitting they tried to dig up a body over a two-day period, Adkins said.

But the boys told conflicting stories about whether they actually severed the head — so police aren't sure if that gruesome detail really happened.

Even so, HPD is working closely with Humble police to try and find any surviving relatives of the child whose grave was disturbed. According to court papers, the grave belonged to Willie Simms.

"The ultimate goal will be to put this body back to rest," Adkins said.

Little is known about the graveyard. The Humble Bicentennial Museum could not confirm that it was reserved for black veterans, but Adkins said he observed "many, many headstones" for black soldiers killed during World War I and World War II.

The three boys, all home-schooled, have also been charged in connection with the vehicle break-in. Jones and the juvenile are charged with credit card abuse, while Gonzalez pleaded guilty to a charge of misdemeanor theft between $50 and $500.

Baby Dropping

Zeke's Party

Sunday was Zeke's bachelor party. We began at Little Havana and continued around Baltimore via limo! Check out the PIX HERE!

From the NEW YORKER magazine:

Baltimore—famous for its harbor, its crab cakes, and its drug trade. Many know it as Charm City, although it’s gone by other names: Monument City, Mobtown, Salty Balty, the City of Firsts (first American umbrella factory, first dental college), Balti-Sore (after the syphilis outbreak of 1996-97). Its official motto used to be “The City That Reads,” until graffiti artists, perhaps aware that Baltimore led the country in out-of-wedlock teen pregnancies, redubbed it “The City That Breeds.” So the mayor offered an alternative: “The Greatest City in America.”

Baltimore is now the setting of two Broadway musicals—“Cry-Baby,” which opens this week, at the Marquis, and “Hairspray.” (There is also “Thurgood,” now in previews, about the Baltimore-born Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.) Both shows are inspired by films by one of Baltimore’s most celebrated sons, John Waters, who based “Cry-Baby” on his boyhood fascination with a local gang called the Drapes.

Don’t think that Baltimore hasn’t noticed the trend. The city has leaped at the chance for cross-promotion. “The thought was, O.K., here’s an opportunity where Baltimore will be on Broadway,” Sam Rogers said last Tuesday, over dinner. He was one of several executives from the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association (their slogan is “Baltimore: Get in on it”) who were in town to attend a preview of “Cry-Baby,” in preparation for a new marketing campaign aimed at theatregoers. Rogers held up an ad that will soon appear in Playbill: “You’ve seen the musical, now visit the set.”

“We’re helping people make that connection and say, ‘Oh, I can go to a place like that?’ ” Jennifer Maguire, who does P.R. for the city, said. “A lot of people think Baltimore is what they see on ‘ The Wire.’ But that’s not the true Baltimore—it’s too gritty.” (Baltimore currently ranks as the country’s twelfth most dangerous city.)

Tom Noonan, the president of the association, added, “People have a dated perception of Baltimore as more of an industrial city than the tourism mecca it is.” Noonan detailed the city’s attractions—the Inner Harbor, the Washington Monument (Baltimore’s came first), an “emerging culinary scene.” He named famous Baltimoreans: Babe Ruth, Edgar Allan Poe, Tom Clancy. He made a map with his silverware to show how easy it is to get around. (Another catchphrase the city is pushing: “In Baltimore, you’re two feet away from everything.”)

The “Cry-Baby” campaign will include a microsite on Baltimore.org, directing visitors to John Waters hot spots—“stores he likes, bars he frequents,” Rogers said. While it may seem odd that Waters, whose most indelible screen image of Baltimore may be of a drag queen eating dog feces, has become the city’s poster boy, he “encapsulates what Baltimore is all about,” Noonan insisted. “Baltimore has a quirkiness to it,” he explained. “You can go down to Lithuanian Hall for the Night of 100 Elvises, then to Hampden for the HonFest, where you’re gonna want to wear your spandex and your beehive hairdo. We’re a city that likes to poke fun at itself.”

“A term you hear quite often is ‘authentic,’ ” Rogers said.

The executives headed over to the theatre. At a reception afterward, they talked about locations in the show that they had recognized: Roland Avenue, the Maryland Penitentiary. (“They escaped right through my neighborhood!”) No one was sure whether Turkey Point, the Drapes’ hangout, was a real place, but Noonan looked it up on his BlackBerry and found out that it is. Nancy Hinds, the association’s vice-president of public affairs, who has lived in Baltimore her entire life, brought up Hutzler’s department store, where one of the musical numbers takes place. She and her sister, she said, used to go there as children and eat at the lunch counter. It doesn’t exist anymore—the area has been redeveloped, and is now the site of a sports complex, chain stores, and a 2,280-seat theatre, where “Hairspray” played not long ago.

“It was fun to go see ‘Hairspray’ in Baltimore,” Noonan said. “Everybody was cheering and yelling. On the line ‘ You’ve won a two-year scholarship to Essex Community College,’ the whole audience laughed.”

Hinds grinned. “If you’re not a local, you wouldn’t get it.” ♦

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