My Oscar diary

Pre-Show: (Sorry the spacing is wacky on this blog lately. Sometimes it is fine. Move the page all the way to the right to get the whole thing.)

Billy Bush is a tool.

Halle Berry is asked what advice she can give us, the viewing public, about choosing the right Oscar gown. She tells us it is important to "know your body." Yes, this is useful, since I attend SO many black-tie award ceremonies.

Scarlett Johannsen looks lovely in an off-the-shoulder black dress, which makes her waist look tiny. Yet she informs us, "I can hardly breathe." Eek.

Commercials. This Oscar ceremony is brought to us by Pepsi and American Express.

8:30 p.m. The show starts! I am wondering if Chris Rock will be funny and hoping he does well.

He gets a nice round of applause. "Sit yo asses down!" he yells at them. Heh, this will be good. Oh my, he is naming actual actors and actresses and filsm. He is merciless. Hee.

"There are four stars here, and the rest are popular people," he says.

Clint Eastwood is a star, according to Chris Rock. Tobey Maguire is not.

"Who is Jude Law and why is he in every movie I've seen in the past four years?"

Now Halle Berry is presenting an award. I like her straightened hair.

Renee Zellwegger has dark hair and a pretty red dress, but I don't like the way it gets tight at the bottom. You know what? Both Halle and Renee are beautiful, thin and Academy Award winners. Yet they are both unlucky in love. I feel better about myself.

Oooh, Morgan Freeman wins for Best Supporting Actor. Hurray! He was most excellent in "Million Dollar Baby." He is so cool. His acceptance speech is short and sweet, since he thanks "anybody and everybody" who had anything to do with the making of this movie.

The Incredibles wins for Best Animated Movie. Robin Williams introduces the award. He was supposed to sing a funny song about SpongeBob SquarePants but they made him cut it.

Cate Blanchett is now in the audience, handing out the award for Best Makeup. The winner gets to walk, all the way....to a microphone in the middle of the audience. Ooh.

Drew Barrymore has dark hair. Don't like it.

Beyonce is singing one of the nominated songs, backed up by a Frenchchildren's choir. She is good, but I would prefer just to hear the children's choir.

9:12 p.m. Oops. Some man just got caught talking to Chris Rock at the commercial break and ran off-stage.

Chris Rock does a funny bit in which he interviews real movie-goers and asks them if they have seen any of the nominated high-falutin' films. They have not. However, most have seen "White Chicks."

Best Supporting Actress Cate Blanchett wins for "The Aviator." I like the color yellow of her dress but my friend Catherine thinks it makes her look washed out. Cate thanks director Martin Scorcese. "I hope my son will marry your daughter," she says. I hope his daughter is not 55.

Best Adapted Screenplay. Yea! The writers from "Sideways" win!

Al Pacino is introducing an award for Sidney Lumet. He needs a comb. Al, not Sidney. I would still have sex with him. Al, not Sidney.

Beyonce is singing AGAIN. Is she going to sing ALL the Oscar-nominated songs? She looks pretty though, in a long black gown.

Chris Rock introductes that "comedy superstar" Jeremy Irons. He is a good sport. "It is so good to be recognized at last."

10:12 p.m. Laura Linney is wandering in the audience, handing out an award. Her eye-makeup is very dramatic. But I do not like her slicked-back hair. Too severe.

10:23 p.m. Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz, both of whom have heavy Spanish accents, are presenting the award for Best Sound. Is this a joke?

Surprise! Beyonce is NOT going to sing the next song. Antonio Banderas is. Yes. He is slapping his thigh. He is looking hot in a white shirt. More of this! (Although he could use a hair wash. A small detail.)

10:51 p.m. It is the calvalcade of dead stars, accompanied by music from Yo Yo Ma.

10:58 p.m. Sean "Puffy/PDiddy" Combs is introducing the next award for Best Song., "Believe." What a surprise! Beyonce is singing this song, along with Josh Groban.

Best Actress goes to Hillary Swank. She is wearing a high-necked blue gown. THIS time, she remembers to thank her husband, Chad Lowe. (I interviewed Chad Lowe in 1988 when I was Entertainment Editor of my college newspaper. Just an aside. I thought he was cute.)

"I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all this," Hillary says. "I'm just a girl from a trailer park, with a dream."

Sean Penn presents an award and gets all snippy about Jude Law. He LIKES Jude Law, darn it.

Best Actor goes to Jamie Foxx, as expected. He does that "Hey, Oh" thing with the audience and gets all teary again about his grandmother. This time, though, he mentions that his grandmother used to beat him. Oh my.

Julia Roberts is the presenter for Best Director. First, she wishes Marva a Happy Birthday. Whoever that is. Clint Eastwood wins. He thanks his 96-year-old mother. Wow.

Best Movie goes to........"Million Dollar Baby." Good movie. Except for that whole euthanasia subplot.

Chris Rock says goodnight and that he loved hosting the show. Amen.

 

Why are so many serial killers creepy white guys?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/26/btk.investigation/index.html  BTK suspect was dogcatcher, church leader; 59-year-old Kansan accused of killing 10

Posted: 9:24 PM EST (0224 GMT)

Dennis Rader of Park City, Kansas, is a suspect in the killings of 10 people since 1974.

 WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- The man whom Wichita authorities arrested in the area's notorious BTK serial killings lived an unremarkable life as dogcatcher for suburban Park City, one-time president of a Lutheran church and father of two, according to media reports.

Even the capture of Dennis Rader on Friday was undramatic. He was arrested without incident shortly after noon Friday during a traffic stop in Park City, just north of Wichita, police said.

Police plan to file 10 counts against Rader, 59, in connection with the killings between 1974 and 1991 -- eight counts of first-degree murder and two other homicide charges -- Lt. Ken Landwehr, commander of the task force investigating the case, and Sedgwick County Sheriff Gary Steed said Saturday. (BTK-related killings)

None of the charges have yet been filed with Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston.

Initially only eight killings were linked to BTK, but Steed said police will file homicide charges for the previously unsolved killings of two Park City women: Marine Hedge in April 1985 and Dolores Davis in January 1991.

In letters to the police and media, the killer called himself BTK, for "bind, torture and kill," a pattern he has followed with most of his victims.

An admission

I do not care that Jennifer Lopez' new album is coming out. And I think Marc Anthony looks kinda creepy.

Mysterious device turns out to be a shotput

http://www2.townonline.com/somerville/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=191324

Bomb scare tosses cops
By Brock Parker

 Journal Staff
Thursday, February 24, 2005

Police called the bomb squad last week when a woman carried a mysterious device resembling a cannonball into the Police Station.

     They should have called a track coach.

     The State Police Bomb Squad has determined the mysterious device was a shot put, an iron ball usually about 12 pounds used in high school track and field competitions.

   "This is embarrassing to say, but yes, it was," said Jim Polito, the public information officer for Somerville Police, when asked Tuesday if the mysterious object was a shot put. 

     But when a woman walked into the Police Station in Union Square last Friday at 11:30 a.m. and plopped the shot put on the front desk, police didn't know what the item was. 

    The woman, who was with a friend, spoke very little English, but was able to tell police that she found the gray, cannonball-like object under her car at 80 Highland Ave., according to Police Lt. Jim Polito. The Somerville High School Brune Fieldhouse at 81 Highland Ave. is across the street from 80 Highland Ave. The day after the bomb threat, Somerville High School senior Chris Bo captured the shot put event at the annual Class A State Meet at Boston's Reggie Lewis Center with a throw of 53 feet, 5 inches.

     When Police Officer Scott Gamble inspected the spherical object at the police station, he decided it could be dangerous, so he called the State Police Bomb Squad.

     Police cleared out the lobby at the police station while State Trooper Eric Gahagan X-rayed the device and then removed it from the building wearing a bomb protective suit.

     Three fire engines and an ambulance responded to the scene as a precaution, and firefighters stopped traffic on Washington Street several times as the device was being inspected and removed from the police station. Several police officers remained in the building during the bomb scare.

     A few police officers and city officials joked that if the object was a bomb, it should be allowed to explode inside the police station. City officials have been debating tearing down the rundown police station. 

     But by Friday afternoon, Polito said, State Police were still trying to determine whether the mysterious object was a bomb or not. 

     Over the weekend, Polito said police determined the object was a shot put.

My friend Kent is quoted in the same article as Paris Hilton

My friend Kent is quoted in the NY Daily News about Paris Hilton. And I know Maki who wrote the article! It is all three degrees of separation in the journalism world.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/283546p-242980c.html

Paris is burning in cell hell

BY MAKI BECKER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Poor Paris Hilton.

The super-rich hotel heiress is distraught that her pals' phone numbers and tawdry text messages were swiped and spilled all over the Internet by computer hackers.

"I don't know why this stuff always happens to me, but I wish it wouldn't anymore," the vampy 24-year-old told Us Weekly in her first interview since her cell phone was breached.

"It's too upsetting for me - I can't believe it," she said from a beachfront hotel in Aruba where she is vacationing with her new boyfriend, Paris Latsis. (Yes, his first name also is Paris!)

Not only was her entire address book from her T-Mobile Sidekick II posted on several Web sites, the hackers also accessed naughty photos of Hilton, including a topless shot of her making out with MTV Latin America veejay Eglantina Zingg, Us reports.

"We were joking around," Hilton told an Us reporter of the racy shot.

"It wasn't sexual!" she insisted. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Hilton got the bad news about the Sidekick break-in from younger sister Nicky on Sunday and says she's sorry troublemakers have been using her phone book to prank call her celeb pals since then.

"I want to apologize to all my friends and family," Hilton told Us. Most of all, Paris said she feels "horrible that, once again, someone has invaded my privacy."

Her most famous invasion is well known by now - the very embarrassing release in 2003 of a video of her XXX-rated sex romp with former boyfriend, Rick Salomon.

Plus last summer, someone broke into Paris and Nicky's home in the Hollywood Hills and apparently made off with tapes of Paris with another beau, Nick Carter. That tape has not surfaced - yet.

Carter was among those whose phones have rung off the hook. And hip-hopper Lil Jon told Us he's been getting calls from people yelling his trademark, "Yeah!"

"I got 100 calls in two hours," Victoria Gotti told the Daily News on Sunday. "This went on all night!"

At least one celeb said he was upset he hasn't gotten any calls - because his number wasn't in Paris' digital phone book.

"I've given her my number thousands of times," talk show host and MTV veteran Carson Daly told Us. "She never puts it in her damn Sidekick!"

The makers of the device, which Paris has pitched for T-Mobile in several television ads, say their "computer forensics and security team" are still investigating but haven't ruled out that someone had access to her device and her password.

Court records show that T-Mobile's system was hacked last year by a Santa Ana, Calif., man who downloaded information about hundreds of people, including Hilton and even a Secret Service agent.

It's unclear if that incident was connected to this one.

While there's not much a consumer can do about hackers invading a company, wireless technology experts offered some tips:

Password protect every level of cell phones and hand-held devices, from the keyboard to address book, suggests Kent German, associate editor of technology-themed CNET.com.

Don't put credit card numbers on the devices - ever.

Delete any sensitive text messages.

It's a bad idea to use a cell phone cam to take nudie pictures.

Originally published on February 23, 2005

Petey at the Pet Psychic

This was written by my friend, Kristen, who interviewed a pet psychic and brought her adorable beagle with her. This is what Petey told the Pet Psychic.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/local/10959273.htm

Posted on Tue, Feb. 22, 2005
So, what's on this dog's mind?

By Kristen A. Graham

Inquirer Staff Writer

People who have never met me demand the latest stories about Petey, my mischievous, adorable beagle/basset hound.

In the two years he has lived with my husband and me, he has made quite a name for himself, slipping out a cat door so he could lounge on lawn chairs in the middle of the night or stealing an entire tray of appetizers at a party.

So I was very interested in what animal communicator Elizabeth Severino might tell me was on this complex canine's mind.

First off, he seemed glad to see her.

"He said, 'I know your heart. You love beagles,' " Severino told me. She said Petey had told her that his hips hurt from the 25 extra pounds he carried when we first took him in. "As far as he's concerned, he was semi-poisoned inside. He got out of breath a lot."

She recommended we start giving Petey a joint supplement to help his hindquarters.

Pete started gabbing, unprompted, through Severino.

"He's much more connected to you than to the man in the house," she translated while Petey roamed around. "He feels very bonded to you."

(Ha-ha! Petey likes me best!)

Still, my husband does OK, too. Pete told her that they cuddle big-time while I'm away.

"He says you have given him a new understanding of what humans can be," Severino said of the two of us. "You laugh with him, not at him."

So why the antics? Pete was nonchalant.

"Left alone," Severino said, "he will eat anything in sight. The first time he ate something he wasn't supposed to,you thought it was funny. He does it for entertainment."

Then Petey started talking names. As in, his isn't exactly Petey.

Ours is Petey's third home. In his first, he was called Snickers, Severino said. But the moment she let that secret out of the bag, Severino apologized to Snickers/Petey.

"Oh, she's not calling you that," Severino said. "You didn't want me to tell her; I'm sorry."

Severino gave Pete a pat and asked: "Do you call him Peter Boo? Peter Boof? He likes that best of all."

Now, skeptic is part of my job description. But in moments of levity, we do call him Peter Boofus. How did she know that nickname?

Severino smiled.

"He's relaxed," she said. "He's open. Good boy, Petey!"

Contact staff writer Kristen Graham at 856-779-3927 or kgraham@phillynews.com.

Birthday in Vegas

I am off to celebrate my birthday in Las Vegas. Yippee!

Stevie Wonder, Kobe Bryant and Liz Taylor

They are all on the witness list for the Michael Jackson trial. I hope they all testify on the same day!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/02/14/jackson.trial/index.html

U2 won three Grammy awards! Yippee!

http://www.eonline.com/Features/Awards/Grammys2005/index.html?fdmain1

Mary Kay Letourneau to Wed Former Pupil

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/14/teacher.sex.ap/index.html

What in the HECK do you get these two as a wedding gift?

What do you think he would have rented?

Four-Year-Old Drives Car to Video Store 

The Associated Press 

SAND LAKE, Mich. (Feb. 8) - A boy drove his mother's car to a video store in the middle of the night, police said - and he's all of 4 years old.

Even though he was unable to reach the accelerator, the boy managed to put the car in gear and the idling engine provided enough power to take him slowly to the store, a quarter-mile from his home, about 1:30 a.m. Friday, Police Chief Doug Heugel said. Finding the store closed, the youngster began a slow trip home.

Weaving and with its headlights off, the car got the attention of police Sgt. Jay Osga, who initially thought he was following a driverless car that had taken off after being left running at a gas pump.

The car turned into the boy's apartment complex and struck two parked cars, then backed up and struck Osga's police car.

That's when Osga discovered the boy inside.

''He knew how to go from forward to reverse,'' Osga said Monday. ''The mother said she taught him how to drive by letting him sit on her lap and steer.''

No charges will be filed against the boy or his mother, Heugel said.

''He's 4 years old. His mom didn't even know he was up,'' Heugel told The Grand Rapids Press. ''I don't think he even realizes what he did.''

ARGH!

The sadness, the angst, the ickiness of it all. The Eagles lost the Super Bowl. But at least it was a CLOSE game, not like the Eagles got clobbered.

Still, very painful to watch. Good game though. They tried. Hopefully it won't be another 24 years before they get to the Super Bowl again.

E-A-G-L-E-S!

Go Eagles at the Super Bowl on Sunday!

However, if I have to hear drunken fans singing the Eagles fight song one more time, I am going to poke my eye out.

Funny police log website

http://www.arcataeye.com

Check this out. It is the police log in the Arcata Eye newspaper. This week's log includes references to burritos and duckies. (The duckies were not PART of the burritos, thankfully.)

Holy crap!

Holy crap! I am going to be 38! I have been busy planning my party, which will be fun. And then I remember WHY I am having the party.

Because I will be 38!!!! Holy crap! How did THAT happen? When did I get THIS old? It is 20 years since I graduated high school. Aiiiieeee! And why aren't my boobs where they used to be on my chest??

Okay, breathe. Despite outward appearances that I am a barren spinster with bad credit, in reality, I have a nice life. I love my job. I am glad to be living in the Philadelphia area once again. I like my apartment. I love my little VW. I am going to Vegas in 2 1/2 weeks. I may adopt. Okay, breathe, breathe.