BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 648 people were killed in a
stampede on a bridge when panic engulfed a
Shiite religious procession amid rumors that a suicide
bomber was about to attack. It was the
single biggest confirmed loss of life in Iraq since
the March 2003 invasion.

Scores jumped or were pushed to their deaths into the
Tigris River, while others were crushed in the crowd.
Most of the dead were women and children, Interior
Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said.

A Taliban celebration of cheer over God's condemning
the US with massive destruction from Hurricane Katrina
ended in tragedy when twenty eight militants singing
and laughing in a base in the mountains of Uruzgan
province, fell to their death when the upper floor of
house collapsed do to the weight of dancing and laughter.

George Clooney is putting a sizable chunk of his own
money into a proposed $3 billion development called
Las Ramblas to be built just east of the heart of the
Las Vegas Strip.

The project will include more than 4,400 condominium
and hotel units in 11 high-rise towers, along with
shops and a 48,000-square-foot casino — about half the
size of the sprawling gambling floors found in the
city's others megaresorts.

So far, Clooney said "Ocean's Eleven" co-star Brad
Pitt and his other Hollywood pals have not committed
to buying into the development. But he's hoping
they'll come around.

"You bet, I'd love them all to be there. We've talked
with Brad. We are having Brad design one of the
buildings," Clooney said.

The main reason for the box office slump is the
quality of the movies themselves, according to a
survey of moviegoers' opinions found in Internet chat
rooms and posted on message boards.

44% of Internet chatters on the subject of the box
office slump cite bad movies as their reason for
shunning theaters, and among those citing other
reasons, the quality of films is usually their second
or third reason. He also said that the data indicates
that even movie stars don't have the same cache as
they once did.

Burger King's recently launched BK Chicken Fries
marketing plan has run afoul of Slipknot, which is
evidently willing to declare its likeness to men in
chicken suits.

Now the two are talking turkey in court.

At the center of the controversy is faux metal band
Coq Roq, featured in TV spots for Chicken Fries. That
Coq Roq resembles Slipknot in the visuals department
has ruffled the latter's feathers.

Coq Suqers!

The Fresno Grizzlies baseball team is one step closer
to a new owner.

The West Nile Virus has claimed the life of a Clovis
woman. She is the second person to die of West Nile in
Fresno County this month.

South Valley prosecutors say the brothers Tou and Ger
Yang were each carrying pellet guns when Fresno Police
shot them in Goshen.

Tou Yang died at a Fresno hospital.

See? Pellet guns can kill.

Fresno County unveiled the most recent plans for a new
five-story library in downtown Fresno, which will
include a 350-seat auditorium, a large book
collection, computer labs and a career center.

Between 3,000 and 7,000 people are expected to visit
the building each day.

It's not known how much the new building will cost,
but a study done in 2002 showed it could be as much as
$97 million.

Fresno Police set up special DUI checkpoints around
the city and will continue through Labor Day.

Over the last few days Fresno Police towed more than
140 cars. The drivers were either driving without a
license or were under the influence.

Twenty people were arrested for DUI.

More than 20 Rite Aids in central and northern
California have been hit.

Police believe there are 5 different sets of suspects.
So not all the robberies are linked.

Most of the crimes happened when the store was still
open.

So I guess that means if you want to shop there
safely, you should do so when the store is closed.

Authorities are investigating how a male inmate
managed to lock himself up with eight female prisoners
at the Wilson County Jail.

Officials believe Joseph Krist, 34, sneaked into the
cell after he moved a mop and bucket from his cell
into a vestibule located between his and the women's
cell.

Krist apparently didn't return to his cell, but
instead stayed in the vestibule until the women's cell
door was remotely opened by a jail employee for them
to get the mop.

Paul Dalebout wasn't happy to come across a foot of
raw sewage in the basement of his house, but it was a
bathroom that left him horrified: "It was just gushing
up out of the toilet like a geyser."

Authorities blamed a dead dog stuffed down a sewer
manhole and opened a criminal investigation. They
found the dog's owner from an identifying chip
implanted in it. The owner said the dog had been
missing.

Provo offered to reimburse homeowners for the cost of
hiring professional crews to clean up their houses —
for a second time since asphalt chunks clogged their
sewer line five years ago. Other Provo sewer lines
have yielded bowling balls and carpet scraps.

This time crews snaked a high-pressure hose with a
spiked end into a manhole to clear the sewer main,
dislodging the corpse of the large dog.

German police have arrested a 31-year-old man they
caught vandalizing two cars by scratching large
penis-shaped gouges into them and said they believe he
may be responsible for similar markings found on
hundreds of others.

The man was under investigation for vandalizing around
330 vehicles in the region over the last few months,
most of which had also been marked with the same penis
insignia.

The five women tried to enlist, saying they
wanted to go to Iraq so their children and
grandchildren could come home. Recruiters called
police.

Their group, dubbed the "Tucson Raging Grannies,"
includes members ranging in age from 65 to 81 -
decades older than the maximum age for recruits. They
have protested at the center every week for three
years.

A Grammy-nominated record producer reported missing
last weekend has been found safe not far from his home
in Southern California.

Forty-eight-year old Christian Julian Irwin was
spotted sitting in a creek, naked, washing his jeans.

Irwin had made a panicked phone call to a friend,
saying he was running through water, being pursued by
people with dogs and had lost his glasses and shoes.

A week-long manhunt turned up no trace of him until he
was spotted in the backyard creek by a resident less
than a mile from where he disappeared.

Police say he was distraught and seemed to think he
was being pursued by Nigerians in an Internet scam.
They don't think that was true and took him into
custody as a possible danger to himself.

A deputy warden at the Ross Correctional Institution
was suspended for five days last month after he
mistakenly showed inmates a sexually explicit
television show.

He meant to only record an HBO boxing match but
unintentionally taped over part of some porn movies
that was shown to all the rapists and child molesters.

After the screening, soap was not dropped in the
shower for over three weeks.

The MTV Video Music Awards escaped the drama and
damage of Hurricane Katrina. Now they face being
overshadowed by another dangerous name... Suge Knight.

The Death Row Records founder, who has been at the
center of some of hip-hop's most violent moments, was
shot in the leg at a party thrown by Kanye West and
attended by stars including Jessica Alba, Eddie
Murphy, Paris Hilton, the Game and The Black Eyed
Peas.

Though Knight's injuries were not life-threatening,
the violence dampened the celebratory vibe of the
event.

Robert Redford may soon be reunited on screen with
Paul Newman but don't expect a sequel to "Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" or "The Sting," the
68-year-old Redford and Newman who turned 80 this
year, would pair up in an adaptation of Bill Bryson's
travel book "A Walk in the Woods," the story of the
author's hike through the American wilderness with a
friend.

China's edition of Donald Trump's reality TV show "The
Apprentice" will drop the mogul's "you're fired"
catchphrase to avoid upsetting Chinese sensitivities,
Chinese traditionally frown on behaviour causing
embarrassment to others and the shaming outbursts
typical of Trump's TV test of contestants' business
acumen have been toned down for mainland audiences.

Instead, failed contestants will be politely told "you
will have a better opportunity somewhere else."

To tell somebody he's fired in such a tone, especially
when this person has literally not been hired, is not
the Chinese way.

Besides, "You're Fired" litterally translates in
Chinese to "Mine is bigger than yours."

Advanced spud guns! Like a machine gun but with spuds.
The site includes plans for spud guns from an
experienced builder. The highlight of the site, which
the link points to, is a huge spud gun based on the
revolver design (i.e. old west 6 shooter, magnum,
etc), and plans are included.

Advanced Spuds

This would blow away any paintball thing!

Why is it so hot now?

It was 108 Degrees Today and they say Tomorrow it will be 120.

Is it because of Katrina?

It was going so well with the temps in the upper 90's.

I just watched, "The Machinist" with Christian Bale,
boy that's some kinda movie! How he didn't get an
Award for that acting, I'll never know.

He lost so much weight for that movie and I've lost nothing
and I Fasted 26 Days!

I watched Bale in this awesome film and then when to CPK
and had a Thai Chicken Pizza!

Now I'm in serious pain!

I got Thai cause Aaron is now back in Thailand to see his wife
and have her squeeze that puppy out. He'll be gone for maybe
6 months.

I hope to fly over and see him... But then I was kinda thinking
of going to Spain to be in a movie a friend is making.

Okay, on Tomorrow's show...

Aaron calls in and talks about his new life in
Thailand, then just as it's going good... I drop in
the sound effects from Poseidon Adventure, or the
toilet flushing and Aaron starts screaming and sounds
like he's running!

How's that?

Screw that Katrina coverage! We'll top that with our
own disaster!

It's gonna suck if New Orleans is wiped out, yet the MTV
Video Awards' only trouble is Suge Knight's shooting.

If I had to choose between Miami or Nawlin's getting
wiped, spun and flushed... I'd go with Miami.

I would have played Katrina and the Waves and gone
old school on MTV, but they didn't ask...

Today has been movie day for me.

I rented Charles Kiselyak's "A Constant Forge--The
Life and Art of John Cassavetes" it is a detailed
journey through the career of one of film's greatest
pioneers and iconoclasts. Great candid interviews
with Cassavetes' collaborators and friends, archival
footage, and the director's own words, the film paints
a revealing portrait of a man whose fierce love,
courage, and dedication changed me and the face of
cinema.

Lelia Goldoni has to be one of the most beautiful
women ever. She was in John Cassavetes' "Shadows."
I guess I have always had a crush on her as I have
had on Gena Rowlands.

One Blonde and one Brunette.

I'm so split.

I also rented, "Faces" again for the Bonus Disc and
the documentary, "Cinéastes de notre temps" as I
have always wanted to see Cassavetes' house/film
factory.

Funny that I say Factory, because I also rented
"Andy Warhol: The Complete Picture." The best
thing in that was seeing Mary Warnov describe
Warhol's Screentest technique. Fantastic!

I've been writing a screenplay that so far I am
enjoying. It's a horror film that I want to shoot
very soon.

It would be very different than any horror film
I know, because it would be very much a personal
vision. Dream like and very disturbing, but very
much contemporary. Certainly it will deal with
what I am going through in my life.

The writing has been very easy, it seems to
want to be told. I picked up one of my cameras
to try an experiment that I think I will use in
the movie.

Watching it again as I digitized it into my
Power Book with some filters added, it looks
pretty good.

I hope to be shooting very soon, so if you want
to audition, let me know!

Man who killed a Fresno cross dresser will spend four
years in prison.

In a related story Fresno Cross Dressers will now tell
EVERYONE interested that they are really dudes in a
dress.

$249,000 dollars worth of marijuana is off the streets
after a raid in Coarsegold, and a 52 year old man is
in jail.

Agents from the Madera County Narcotic Enforcement
Team (MADNET) served a search warrant for a house that
had a fully equipped indoor grow capable of growing
marijuana all year long. Plants, some as tall as 8
feet had been moved from inside the home to an outdoor
garden where agents ripped out 83 plants.

In addition to the plants, agents confiscated a large
trash bag filled with processed pot, several rifles,
shotguns, handguns, and an illegal assault rifle.

The 52 year old Coarsegold man, who says he is a self
employed landscaper, has been arrested and booked into
the Madera County Jail. His bail is set at $75,000.

A La Habra family has been facing angry backlash after
their house was wrongly identified as the home of a
terrorist on Fox News.

Well, that's Fair and Balanced, yet wrong for ya!

Ex-members of Guns N' Roses has a federal case.

Duff McKagan and Slash filed a lawsuit in U.S.
District Court against Axl Rose, accusing their former
frontman of trying to cheat them out of royalties to
the song catalog.

Hurricane Katrina, which intensified throughout the
day, shut down MTV's Video Music Awards extravaganza,
forcing the cancellation of dozens of outdoor
concerts, poolside cocktail parties and promo events.

Sean Astin, who starred in the "Lord of the Rings"
trilogy, is joining the cast of Fox's real-time drama
"24," which will again kick off its season with four
episodes screening on two consecutive nights.

Astin will portray a new addition to the Counter
Terrorist Unit in the drama series, which stars Kiefer
Sutherland as agent Jack Bauer.

Season 5 will pick up 18 months after the fourth
season ended, with Jack presumably dead but actually
living a new life with Diane and her son Derek.

Too late for me to even start watching this show.

Enraged parents beat up an Indian headmaster who
threatened teenage girls with a cane to force them to
strip and then photographed them.

After taking the girls' photos on his digital camera,
he sent them to pornographic websites, as well as
storing them on his computer.

After being beaten, he was garlanded with slippers –
an insult – by several parents and taken to a police
station where he was arrested.

"To escape from being penalised by the cane of the
headmaster, girl students went up to his room and
posed for his digital camera," said police assistant
commissioner.

He said he had bullied 16 girls into stripping.

Police in North Carolina have arrested two people who
allegedly castrated a man and also cut off his ears.

Authorities said the man was mutilated after he got
into a fight with another man who was supposed to give
him a bad tattoo. They said his attackers used a
butcher knife to slice off his ears and slash his
genitals.

The attackers then put a bandage around his head, put
him in his car and told him to leave. The victim drove
to a home and asked the residents to call police.

Police have charged a 29-year-old man and an
18-year-old woman in the attack. They were charged
with malicious castration assault with a deadly weapon
inflicting serious injury, kidnapping and maiming of
body parts.

The man who was mutilated is listed in stable
condition in a Winston-Salem hospital.

A postal worker has been charged with putting urine in
the coffee of co-workers who set up a video camera in
their break room after they became suspicious,
authorities said.

A vehicle mechanic for the U.S. Postal Service, was
charged with two misdemeanor counts of adulteration of
food or placing harmful objects in food.

Prosecutors said workers believed he poured urine into
a coffee pot in a break room two different times.
Suspecting a problem, cause good coffee doesn't taste
like wiz, workers started their own investigation.

Teen actress Scout Taylor-Compton, known to TV viewers
for her recurring roles on Gilmore Girls and Charmed,
has gone missing from her California home.

I've never seen these shows, but the girl is very cute.

Her family and police confirmed that the 16-year-old,
whose credits also include a starring role in the 2004
teen comedy Sleepover and a bit part in in the 2004
Jennifer Garner comedy 13 Going on 30, had not been
seen at her home in Apple Valley, about an hour
northeast of Los Angeles, since Aug. 12.

I can't imagine what it would be like to have a kid lost
like this, or one that was in War.

Samsung’s SCH-B250 actually shows HD TV, coupled with a 2
megapixel camera, 128 Mb of memory and an Office and
PDF document viewer, with a clamshell flip screen that
swivels to give you widescreen moble viewing.

I want a cellphone with IMAX!

Universal studios are aiming for a summer 2007 release
of a movie based on "Halo" and "Halo 2," a science
fiction series about an alien-fighting warrior.

This is so exciting!

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson told MTV.com that the
upcoming movie Spy Hunter, based on the hit video
game, will be made, despite the long development
period. "Spy Hunter is going great," Johnson told the
site. "We've got Stuart Beattie, who's writing it
right now, who wrote Collateral, as well as Pirates of
the Caribbean, so he's a great writer. He's got a
great take on it."

I just watched, "Pirates of the Caribbean," last night.

Confusion as to whether The Rock or actor Karl Urban
of the Lord of the Rings trilogy fame would be the
film's main star still remains. Urban's character,
John Grimm, is the leader of a special-operations
group that includes Johnson's character, listed only
as "Sarge."

This too is so exciting!

Taking much of its inspiration from the PC game Doom
3, the film will take place in a paramilitary research
facility on Mars, where things go awry and hell is
literally raised. Some theories say that the Rock is
actually Satan in disguise, which would tie in to the
film and game's devilish setting.

This could really ROCK!

A custodian was arrested in Miami for making
methamphetamine inside the First Baptist Church where
he worked, police said. Richard J. Mosley, 30, has
been charged with felony manufacturing methamphetamine
within 1,000 feet of a youth center.

This Meth was Blessed!

A woman with a parakeet on her shoulder and a man
walked into Trustworthy Hardware and walked out with
nearly $400.

The store's owners, said the woman, who kissed the
bird during the robbery, pretended to be interested in
buying a cookie jar.

She was grabbed by the arm and pulled into a back room
where she saw that one of her employees had been hit
and was on the floor.

The suspects, and the bird, left the store and were
still being sought.

Ohio man was drunk when he tried to run down two law
enforcement officers while driving a 10-ton bulldozer.

William Armstrong, 52, refused to stop as his
Caterpillar excavator rumbled toward a sheriff's
deputy and Thompson Township police chief who had
parked in his path. Armstrong's blood-alcohol level
was .244 percent, more than three times the legal
limit of 0.08, according to sheriff's tests.

Armstrong was jailed after pleading innocent to two
felony counts of assault on a law enforcement officer.
His bulldozer was confiscated by the sheriff's office.

A 43-year-old North Country man has made the Guinness
Book of World Records in a new entry for the longest
eyebrow hair at 3.78 inches or nearly eight
centimeters.

"I don't know why it grows like that; it just always
has," he said.

A Belgian nun's acrobatic and dancing with a
missionary during the Catholic World Youth Day in
Germany earned her a reprimand from her mother
superior.

Pictures of the 29 year old dancing Nun being held up
in the air by the missionary, and then clinging to him
with her legs wrapped around his body.

With out panties...

A man clad only in swimming trunks and wielding a
baseball bat went on a vandalism spree at the home of
his estranged wife and her former husband, then
smashed his pickup truck through the back doors of the
Adair County Courthouse.

Dave Chappelle is coming to Fresno
You know the Chappelle show on Comedy Central, and now
you can see him in person at the Save Mart Center on
September 24th.

Tulare County has now driven ahead of Fresno on the
list of the cities with the highest rate of car thefts.

The Visalia-Tulare-Porterville area ranked seventh,
passing Fresno at ninth.

For a second year in a row, Modesto is number one,
according to the study by the National Insurance Crime
Bureau.

In all, seven California cities made the top ten US list.

A caravan intended to show support for U.S. troops in
Iraq stopped in Fresno. The group is on their way to
President Bush's ranch in Texas.

Members of the "You Don't Speak For Me, Cindy" tour
held a brief rally in downtown Fresno after leaving
the Bay Area early in the day.

The group is made up of conservative activists and
military families and is sponsored by Move America
Forward, a Bay Area based organization.

They're traveling to Crawford, Texas to counter war
protester, Cindy Sheehan.

Sheehan, whose soldier son, Casey, was killed in Iraq,
started the anti-war movement on August 6th.

She flew to Los Angeles last week after her mother had
a stroke, but has vowed to return to Texas in a few days.

Brock Peters who in To Kill a Mockingbird was the
doomed Tom Robinson, died at his Los Angeles home
following an eight-month battle with pancreatic
cancer. He was 78.

He was in the Jim Brown revenge opus Slaughter's Big
Rip Off.

Peters played Commander Sisko's father in Star Trek:
Deep Space Nine and appeared as Starfleet Admiral
Cartwright in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star
Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

In 1981, he began work on the National Public Radio
production of the original Star Wars trilogy. He was
the voice of Darth Vader, the role old friend
James Earl Jones originated in the movies.
Other genre credits included 1973's
Soylent Green and guest shots on the likes of
Battlestar Galactica and The Bionic Woman.

A movie about the BTK killer Dennis Rader is in
production for CBS, "The Hunt for the BTK Killer"
stars Robert Forster as a Wichita, Kan., police
detective who discover that Rader has resurfaced after
almost 15 years and must be caught.

A former church congregation president and Boy Scout
leader, Rader led a double life in which he called
himself BTK for "bind, torture and kill."

The film, being produced in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
because It's just like Wichita, Kan.!!!

California loses millions of dollars in tax revenue
when filmmakers leave the state, according to a study
released on Monday that bolsters the case for a tax
credit favored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In recent years, film and TV shows have increasingly
headed from California to other states and Canada
where tax incentives make production less expensive
than in Hollywood.

In Louisiana, for example, production expenditures
rose from $12 million in 2002 to $330 million in 2004
after the state adopted incentives.

We need that money here! I'm thinking of getting with
Mayor Alan Autry of Fresno with some ideas I have to
see if we can bring more money here with
more film productions.

We can make Fresno look like almost any part of the
World. We can make Hanford, Visalia, Tulare look and
smell like any stinky place in the World.

Were there vampires in the Old West? Was the frontier
tamed by silver bullets?

It's 1876. You're Jericho Cross, a train robber. You
open a vault that you believe to contain vast riches.
It actually contains the spirit of one of the most
evil vampires to ever exist. He bites you, and now
you've got to find and kill him before the curse
completely takes hold.

Even though Jericho is still human, he can tap into a
few different vampire powers. These are meant to
differentiate Darkwatch's gameplay from the rest of
the pack, which is why it's a little disappointing
that they're so by-the-numbers. The "blood frenzy"
power adds a bit of extra damage to your attack.
"Fear" makes certain enemies run away from you.

You upgrade these powers by choosing whether to help
or hurt people in danger. At certain times during the
mission, you'll be able to use your vampiric powers
for good or evil -- remove the poison from bitten
humans, or feast on their remains yourself.

The choices you make determine which abilities you
improve: your "evil" powers or your "good" ones. You
can upgrade both concurrently -- and you'll have to if
you want the full range of Jericho's powers.

Dear Jerry,

I tried calling you the other day when that listener
was telling you about the Watts Valley Wolf Ape, but I
got cut off.

It's real, rare but real.

The Older Indians and historians know about it and
some local farmers have seen it. You are right, it's
not really a wolf as we today know them. Their legs
are more like human and monkey, than canine.

You have to understand that this area is unique, the
first humans to enter North America crossed the Bering
Strait land bridge at the end of the Pleistocene
Period, or the last Ice Age, approximately 15,000 to
30,000 years ago.

They migrated southward from Alaska and populated this
area and some continued on south. They entered
California approximately 15,000 years ago; evidence
from the early-man archaeological is all around here
if one looks and the evidence could push the date back
to 50,000 years ago.

The characteristics of California Indians prior to
European contact have drawings and tales of unusual
creatures that traveled with them. Some of these now
exctinced creatures bread with other local animals
creating hybrids.

There's a great story about Ansel Adams, the old
photographer that took pictures of Yosimite and a run
in he had with a pack of wolf apes while he was in a
tent back in the 30's.

About 15 years ago there was a Watts Valley Wolf Ape
seen drinking water on Bass Lake and people started
thinking it was a very hairy man who walked on all
fours.

The local Indians do say if you see one, riches will
come to you, but then they also run the Casinos, but
also these animals were seen just before the Gold Rush
here in California. So maybe you can get rich seeing
one.

Thanks, Taylor

One of my filmmaking heroes, Rob Nilsson, this
coming Sunday, Aug. 28 is shooting a big scene
for the last 9 @ Night film "GO TOGETHER."

I'm thinking I want to be a part of cinema history.
I'm hoping I can get a part in this film. I don't need
any lines, I just want to watch this Master at work,
creating his Art, see his energy and learn from him.

I'll be at the Parkway Speakeasy Cinema, Oakland
near Lake Merritt for the shoot. Hope to see you,
if you are there...

Fresno Police got a call of a rooster fight on
Brawley, between Shields and Clinton. When officers
arrived, they say a dozen men took off running from
the location.

As they walked the property, they found 200 fighting
roosters in individual pens, and a building that had a
fighting pit. In the building with the fighting pit,
they found boxes of razors that organizers strapped to
the rooster's talons during a fight. Several thousand
dollars in wages were also found, that had been left
behind.

The owner of the facility was contacted and reportedly
told Fresno Police officers that he makes an average
of $1000 per day operating that facility and housing
the roosters.

Additionally, the SPCA was called out to take control
of the animals, and the decision was made to destroy
all of the animals.

Destroy? Can't they be destroyed in the fight? Can't I
wager on that?

2 men shot in Goshen by Fresno Police... If you've
ever been shot in the Goshen, you know that's painful.
I've been kicked in the Goshen...

Two armed robbery suspects are in the hospital after
being shot by Fresno Police officers. The officers
were investigating the 2 males as possible suspects in
a handful of recent robberies.

They followed the men to the Goshen area where they
walked into an Exxon station on Betty drive, just off
Highway 99.

The police officers watched the men walk in with
weapons. The officers, themselves, decided to wait
outside to keep employees and customers safe.

Yeah... Maybe the Officers were bad shots.

Investigators say that the suspects brandished their
weapons at the officers. The bullet holes in the
suspect's car windows show that the officers fired
their weapons several times.

I wonder if the suspects were in the car, or did the
cops just fire at the car?

No officers were hurt. One of the suspects is in
critical condition.

The men are identified as 21 year old Tao Yang, and 18
year old Ger Yang, both from Fresno.

And with the name Yang, it's a good chance they were
French, or part of the Woo Yang Clan.

They may be the suspects in the serial robberies
between Fresno and Kingsburg over the past month.

Joaquin Phoenix says tabloid reports that he had a
breakdown while filming the upcoming Johnny Cash
biopic is bull.

Phoenix banged his head on a bedpost during a scene
related to Cash's brother's death, prompting
speculation that he was reacting to the 1993 death of
his brother, River.

"You know, the press has kind of imposed upon me the
title of Mourning Brother, and because I haven't been
vocal about it, the assumption is that I'm holding
onto this crap that's just not there."

His brother River Phoenix died of a drug overdose
outside the Viper Room when he was 23.

Suggesting that he'd use his personal life for "Walk
the Line," says Phoenix, "kind of makes me sick."

Time is running short for a group hoping to make the
boyhood home of Jimi Hendrix the centerpiece of a
community music center.

King County Superior Court refused to extend a
temporary restraining order that barred the city from
demolishing the two-bedroom house.

Croatian police said they would authorise a concert of
shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the coastal town of
Pula, despite protests from the powerful Catholic
church and parents worried that he is promoting
satanism.

"You should know that Manson fans turn the site of his
concerts into Sodom and Gomorrah," several Catholic
priests said in a letter sent to Pula's mayor.

"If they think that an artist can destroy their faith
than their faith is rather fragile," he told the local
paper.

"For me it is normal that as an artist I provoke
people and I don't claim that what I am doing is
suitable for everybody."

"I am very disappointed with policies and religions
who manipulate people," Manson added.

Sunday the Little Green Men Festival in Hopkinsville,
KY hosted hundreds with tales of what they believe are
some of the more fascinating, provable cases of UFOs
reported.

The festival, at the Hopkinsville-Christian
County Conference and Convention Center, commemorates
the 50th anniversary of the Aug. 21, 1955, report of
an alien invasion at Kelly,KY.

Singapore will host its first-ever Sex Expo in
November after receiving in-principle approval from
the tightly-controlled city-state's authorities.

The Singapore police have already imposed certain
conditions for organizers — no obscene acts can be put
on display and all exhibits and promotions will face
government scrutineers.

The exhibition will feature furniture "designed to
enhance lovemaking" and an erotic toy section, an
exhibition on the history of condoms is also scheduled
for show.

Singapore, a tiny, wealthy Southeast Asian city-state
of 4.2 million, has restrictions everywhere:
Cosmopolitan magazine can only be sold if wrapped to
avoid browsing by minors, and programs like HBO's "Sex
and the City" and "Six Feet Under" have been screened
with cuts by the country's censors.

Singapore also outlaws oral sex and homosexuality.
Officials say its citizens want censorship.

A controversial exhibition of skinned human cadavers
at a Florida museum goes on in defiance of a state
agency's vote to ban the display.

The exhibition at Tampa's Museum of Science and
Industry, features 20 human bodies and 260 human
organs. Board members were concerned it would not show
the proper respect for the bodies, which are preserved
and displayed in poses with titles like "Running Man"
and "Soccer Player."

500 people had paid to see the exhibit
in its first two hours. Premier Exhibitions of
Atlanta, which organized the show, said it obtained
the bodies and organs legally and without payment from
a medical university in China.

The Chinese government said the cadavers were
unclaimed and unidentified bodies.

An "electronic nappy" used to monitor wetness sparked
a bomb alert in a German post office when it arrived
in a parcel ticking suspiciously "They suspected it
was a bomb so they put the package into an empty room
and called the police," said a police spokesman.

"It was supposed to respond to wetness with bleeping
sounds but this one ticked."

Two squad cars rushed to the scene and immediately
contacted the sender. Police gave the all clear after
they contacted the woman who told them the intercepted
package contained only a malfunctioning diaper.

Tired of being blamed for the box office slump, the
nation's movie theater owners returned fire, accusing
the studios of delivering sub-standard product.

"Here's what we know about 2005: The movies are not as
good," said John Fithian, president of the National
Association of Theater Owners.

His remarks were part of a direct rebuke to Robert
Iger, who is about to take over as CEO of the Walt
Disney Co. Iger said last week that the industry
should move toward the simultaneous release of
theatrical films and videos.

Go to the theatre and see a movie, buy or rent the DVD
on the way out... Is that a bad, or good thing?

I'm tired of people talking during the movie, the ads
before the films, price of consetions, people putting
the feet up on the back of my seat and poor
projection. When the movies out of focus, there's
never anyone around to straighten it out!

Cable giant Comcast Corp. and the National Hockey
League outlined a new three-year agreement that will
place regular-season and several postseason games
exclusively on OLN, the cable channel previously known
as Outdoor Life Network.

The $200 million-plus deal vaults OLN into the realm
of larger sports channels with a major, if troubled,
sport. It was announced hours after ESPN, which had
held cable rights to hockey for most of the past 20
years, opted not to match Comcast's offer.

OLN, with distribution in 64 million homes nationwide
on mostly basic cable, is known for carrying outdoor
coverage and wheel-to-wheel coverage of cycling's Tour
de France but has less distribution and lower ratings
than ESPN.

OLN used to be one of my favorite channels, but
now....

China will soon have its own version of the extremely
capitalist reality TV show "The Apprentice," according
to a news report.

Donald Trump will be the executive producer of the
Chinese show, which will be hosted by a Beijing
property mogul, the version in the communist country
would closely follow the U.S. original, in which
contestants use their business savvy to compete
against each other, and the winner gets a job with
Trump.

Wonder what a good name for this show could be called?
"Crouching Donald, Hidden Egg Roll" okay, that's
stupid... Got a better one?

"The 40-Year Old Virgin," likes it on top.

Steve Carell's sex-deprived comedy about a middle-aged
geek who's prodded by buddies into seeking out love,
scored $20.6 million to open as the number one film
over yet another slow weekend at the box office.

After nearly six years of marriage, former Singled Out
host Jenny McCarthy is ready to be single again.

McCarthy and her husband, director John Asher, have
filed for divorce.

Billy Bob Thornton is putting on his spacesuit to star
in "The Astronaut Farmer," a drama about an eccentric
farmer who builds a rocket inside his barn, to the
chagrin of his neighbors and the government.

The Motion Picture Ass. of America (MPAA) has turned
thumbs down on an upcoming film's posters featuring
severed fingers.

"Saw II" is scheduled to open nationwide October 28.
It is a sequel to James Wan's "Saw," a horror thriller
about two men chained up in a room by a serial killer.
The first film, rated R, grossed more than $55 million
domestically when it was released last year.

Co-defendants in a drug case emptied toilet bowls in
their Federal Detention Center cells and yelled to
each other through the drainpipes about killing
witnesses who might testify against them, prosecutors
said.

What they didn't know was that the FBI was also
listening, via wiretaps in and around their cells and
toilets.

It began as an officer was using the toilet, flushed
and then heard voices coming from the bowl.

Back in 1966, James Lubeck bent over to secure his
sailboat against a gathering storm and his wallet
slipped from his back pocket into Marblehead Harbor.
The wallet and the credit cards inside were seemingly
gone forever.

Then Lubeck got word recently about a mind-boggling
discovery: A fisherman had hauled in the wallet's
sheath of credit cards in a netful cod, flounder and
haddock.

Fisherman Antonino Randazzo hauled in the catch in
June roughly 25 miles from where Lubeck lost the
wallet. The sheath was caked in mud, but the 10 to 12
credit and identification cards were in pristine
condition.

An anonymous tip led police to a large marijuana field
growing in plain view in a man's back yard. When
officers arrived at the home they found marijuana
plants growing in the yard. Some of the plants were
8-feet tall.

The man was arrested after he was allegedly seen on
surveillance tape working in the backyard field of
marijuana plants. During his arrest, he said that he
"likes to grow stuff. My hobby is growing stuff,
didn't know that this was bad, how can growing a plant
be wrong?"

Agents confiscated more than 42 pounds of marijuana
worth more than $22,000.

Jessica Knox 23 of Madera tells of insect like aliens
looking through her cds and dvds...

Dear Jerry,

One day you read a letter about a girl
who saw an alien looking at some paintings she made at
school that she had hanging on the wall.

That rang true to me because about one year ago I was
asleep and woke up to the sound of something
crackling. I couldn't move. I looked to my right and
saw a skinny person in what looked like an orange
scuba suit shuffling through my DVD/CD rack.

I tried to say something but may have only grunted.

It turned around and looked down on me, but it looked
like a bug with it's big black eyes.

I got so scared that I turned my eyes to the left so I
didn't have to see, but there were two other ones on
the other side of my bed. And one was sliding my
panties up my legs.

The one next to me put it's palm over my eyes and that
was it.

I believe I woke up after they had already examined
me.

Thanks for reading these letters, I know they are
scary, but I believe they help me and I bet they help
others like me,

Thanks Jessica

This weekend has been shot to hell!

Can't go into it, suffice to say, I need to runaway!

Old scam returns to the Valley as a 68-year old dude
from Hanford got a letter telling him he was
the winner of a Canadian sweepstakes.
The letter tells the winner to send a personal
check to cover the $950 owed in taxes on the
winnings.

I can't believe it, the scam part is that you are
taxed on winnings!

More than 12-hundred students moving into the dorms at
Fresno State.

For many students, this is their first time away from
their home. And the emotions are mixed as students
leave their parents nest empty and settle in a new
home.

Easy prey to get them to pose for calenders, wet t-shirts,
radio station websites...

Students can check into their dorms, any time, day or
night.

A tenant's southeast Fresno retirement community is
getting cleaned up. Her landlords say ther shrine to
the Virgin of Guadalupe is in the way. But its owner
disagrees.

The Virgin of Guadalupe shrine means everything to
Maria Pena. It is where she prays, worships and talks
to her.

Who doesn't?

Pena is furious right now. the management at Las
Casitas Retirement Village wants her to move the
shrine.

About 10 days ago, residents got a letter asking them
to remove everything from their front porch. It's so
crews can start working in the area.

For now, she's leaving it in God's hands, hoping
landscapers will respect her shrine.

I hope if there is a lightning strike, that it brings some rain!

I love monster stories!

I got this e-mail:

Subject: The Watts Valley Wolf Ape
To: lentz2001(at)yahoo.com
Dear Jerry,

I listened to those stories about the Bass Lake
monster and tried to call in about me and about my
uncle's sighting of a very scary creature called the
Watts Valley Wolf Ape.

I few years back my uncle got me hooked on collecting
Garnets and selling them on eBay. We do pretty well
and now I quite my job to hunt full time for, the
green grossularite garnets are found on the south side
of Watts Valley in Fresno County.

I walk alot and listen to you guys on my headphones as
I hunt.

The Native Americans around here know about the Watts
Valley Wolf Ape and if they know you well will tell
you about it, but until we saw it, I'd never even
heard about it.

My uncle one morning had a bad case of the shits from bad
syrup on his waffles. He was in a bush hurting bad and
we were going to head back to the truck when out of
the other side of this thick brush jumped the biggest
what I thought was a dog, but wasn't. I can only
describe it as a mangy gray hairy dog that must have
been 6 ft long with a face like a baboon. Evil
looking!

You know how a wolf or dog's eye slant down, well this
things eyes were flat on it's skull like a man's eyes.

It didn't really growl at us but it moaned really deep.
Then it opened it's snout and jaws really wide and
made a strange sound that sounded like a loud cough.

Since it was between us and the truck, my uncle pulled
up his pants slowly and we started running the other
direction.

I threw down a bag of food I was saving for lunch
hoping that would stop it from attacking us which it
looked very capable of doing.

It stalked us all over the hills. We climbed over
fences unto private property and it hopped those
easily. Cows ran in fear as we did. This thing was
unlike anything I've ever seen, it was big and scary,
but also looked very ill, sick and possibly deformed.

Just when we were too tired to go on we found
ourselves climbing into the Watts Valley Cemetery, we
hide behind some tombstones as it slowly zigzaged
around following our scent.

My uncle pulled some Big Red chewing gum and scattered
it around hoping the hot cinnemin smell would distract
it from killing us.

It seemed to work.

Then an old man drove up in a truck carrying lawn
mowers he too saw it as we climbed in. We all watched
it a bit then it took off. He drove us back to out
truck and I've never been in that spot again.

I'd like to hear if any of the hunters, or Indians
that listen to your show have heard of, or seen the
Watts Valley Wolf Ape.

You guys rock, Marty

Man, I couldn't wait for this day to get here!

I have so many plans, yet no energy to even attempt
to accomplish them.

Sister Mary Michael the 61-year-old Catholic nun hates
"The Da Vinci Code," a film based on the Dan Brown
best-seller and starring Tom Hanks that is being
filmed this week at the towering Gothic cathedral in
her home of England.

I love England and old cathedrals. I wish I could live
in England. I bet I would be just as misserable there
as I am here.

The sister staged a 12-hour prayer vigil to protest at
the decision to let director Ron Howard use it in his
movie of the novel, which has angered the Vatican by
suggesting Jesus was married and had children.

Senior Vatican officials have said the book is an
example of "literary and artistic parasitism," which
insults the Christian faith and should be shunned like
rotten food.

Sister Mary Michael does not want to take her
opposition too far. She has sent Hanks a gift of a
potted plant with a note declaring "no hard feelings."

You know she was trying to get some...

A former child actor and his wife were ordered to
stand trial for the murder of a wealthy California
couple who were tied to the anchor of their yacht and
thrown overboard alive, never to be seen again.

Skylar Deleon, who appeared in the "Power Rangers" TV
series, and his wife, stand trial for the murders.

Prosecutors say Deleon came up with the plot after
spotting the yacht for sale in a boating magazine last
November and meeting owners Thomas Hawks, 57, and his
47-year-old wife Jackie.

A police detective testified during the hearing that
Deleon and his then-pregnant wife posed as interested
buyers and convinced the Hawks to take the yacht on a
test run.

Miles off the coast of Newport Beach, Thomas and
Jackie Hawks were attacked with a stun gun, handcuffed
and gagged with duct tape. After signing over power of
attorney to one assailant, they were tied to the
boat's 66-pound anchor and thrown overboard.

Where are the Power Rangers when you need them?

Jeff Goldblum has signed on to narrate the first nine
episodes of AMC's new original series "Movies That
Shook the World," The documentary series explores why
certain movies were so "explosive" when they were
released, the new paths they blazed and why they
remain so influential today. Among the films to be
spotlighted are "The Graduate," "Birth of a Nation,"
"Do the Right Thing," "Fatal Attraction" and "The
China Syndrome."

What? No, "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous."

The family of a disabled seven-year-old boy wants an
apology from a movie theater after the manager threw
him out for laughing too loudly.

The parents of Anthony Pratti say it happened in
Wallkill, New York, when they took their son to see
"March of the Penquins."

The boy has cerebral palsy and autism. The family says
he was enjoying the movie from his wheelchair when a
theater worker said he was laughing too loudly, and
would have to leave.

Too bad it wasn't something like, "Schindler's List."

Gina Pratti said they would try to have their son
laugh more quietly, but the manager wanted him to
leave.

She says she was dumbfounded when the manager told
them the entire family didn't have to go, just the boy
in the wheelchair.

The manager refunded everyone's money.

A representative of Loews Cineplex are looking into
the matter.

The Potomac Nationals of the Carolina League are ready
to let the fur fly later this month.

The Class-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals will
hold its first-ever "Hairiest Back at the Ballpark"
contest before their game against a team from Salem,
Va.

Man, do I need to be lasered!

According to the team's press release, the winner will
receive a complimentary laser hair removal service
valued at $2,500.

Is that what it's gonna cost me?

In addition, there will be a drawing for a
complimentary laser removal service worth $1,200 for
those fans who do not want to participate in the
contest.

Two teens are under arrest after a click of the
computer mouse led police right to them. The two
allegedly burglarized a home. Then, they created a Web
site and posted pictures of their ill-gotten goods in
an attempt to sell them.

Police, operating on a tip, visited the site and
showed it to the burglary victim who then identified
his stuff; $20,000 worth of electronics and computer
equipment.

Police knew how to find the alleged burglars because
they posted their contact information on the Web site.

Dumb asses!

"We were able to see everything that was on there.
Also, it was photographed inside the background of a
house," said Mundelein police investigator Paul
Werfelman. "We were able to narrow down that we were
on the right track and we had the right equipment and
the right house."

It reminds me of that e-mail going around that showed
that nude fat guy's reflection in the coffee pot he
posted on eBay.

Jude Law Nude.

Woo Hoo....

Just a month after the Alfie star issued a public
apology to his fiancée, Sienna Miller, for
cheating on her with his children's nanny, Law's
private life is once again on display.

The actor was snapped in the buff by a lurking
paparazzo as he changed into a swimsuit outside his
mother's home in France.

The resulting money shot--a full-frontal pic of Jude
in the nude--quickly made the rounds on the Internet,
revealing Law's attributes to the world.

Law's rep, Simon Halls, scoffed when asked for comment
on the photo.

"Oh, please!" Halls told the New York Post. "The guy
is on vacation in France with his kids. People need to
give him a little bit of a break."

Despite the negative publicity that has dogged Law of
late, his popularity seems intact--at least with the
ladies.

The actor's unplanned nude scene came just days after
he was determined to have the sexiest rear end in show
biz, according to a poll of 1,000 British moviegoers,
who voted for Law based on his bath scene in The
Talented Mr. Ripley.

Pierce Brosnan has turned in his license to play Bond.
James Bond.

The now ex-007 star said he learned in a recent phone
call that his acting chops would not be required for a
fifth go-round as the secret agent.

Brosnan's exit from the franchise is hardly shocking,
seeing as the actor has been dropping hints for some
time now that he was sick of secret agenthood.

Now all that remains is to lock in the next fellow to
profess his fondness for martinis shaken, not starred.

Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Heath
Ledger, Clive Owen and Orlando Bloom are among the
names that have been floated so far as possible
replacements for Brosnan.

Esther Wong, who booked a who's who of punk rock and
new wave bands at her popular Madame Wong's clubs in
the 1970s and '80s, has died. She was 88.

She died at her Los Angeles home from emphysema and
cancer.

Wong, who earned the nickname the "godmother of punk,"
showcased such popular groups as the Police, X, the
Go-Gos, Oingo Boingo, the Motels, the Knack, the
Textones and Plane English early in their careers,
giving many groups their first major break.

The native of China originally booked Polynesian bands
to play at her restaurant, but when hardly anyone
showed up to hear them she decided to take a chance on
rock acts. Almost overnight in 1978, hundreds of
people began showing up at her Chinatown restaurant to
hear the new sounds, and she opened a Madame Wong's
West in Santa Monica that same year.

Wong quickly became known as a no-nonsense proprietor.
She once halted a performance by the Ramones until the
band members left the stage and cleaned up the
graffiti they had put on a bathroom wall. She rarely
booked female singers, calling them "no good, always
trouble," and she was known to go into the audience to
try to sniff out marijuana smokers.

Wong auditioned performers by listening to their
tapes, often while driving in her car, until she said
her habit of flinging bad music out the window nearly
got her in trouble.

"One day I almost hit the highway patrol car that was
right next to me," she told the Times in 1980.

Born and educated in Shanghai, Wong traveled the world
as a child with her father, who was an importer.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1949 when the Chinese
government fell to the communists, working for two
decades at a shipping company before opening her
restaurant.

A farmer looking for love has planted a personals ad,
using corn stalks in a cow pasture. It reads: "S.W.F
Got-2 (love symbol) Farm'n." Underneath is a
1,000-foot-long arrow pointing single white females to
his house.

"It only took me about an hour — I did it with a corn
planter in May," Pieter DeHond said Wednesday as he
removed weeds from the 18-acre field. "I was just
horsing around. I wouldn't place a personal ad in the
paper. To me it seems desperate," he added, laughing.
"This is more of a fun thing. I put this out in a
field where nobody could see it unless you flew over
it."

The 41-year-old divorced father said running a
business and looking after his two teenagers doesn't
leave a lot of room for socializing.

His corn stalk appeal, featured this week in his
hometown Daily Messenger newspaper, has already drawn
quite a few phone calls and e-mails.

A woman faces two counts of kidnapping after allegedly
paying two boys for a lawn job with a fake $50 bill,
then holding them hostage when they caught on.

Tracy Lynn Clinton, 39, remained in the Eastern
Regional Jail, where she has been held on $12,500 bail
since her arrest.

The victims were two slightly built boys, ages 12 and
13, who told investigators they were terrorized by
Clinton. She allegedly screamed at them, threatened
physical violence and exhibited bizarre behavior that
included publicly urinating on a fence.

If convicted, Clinton could get life in prison on the
kidnapping charges and as much as a year in prison on
the counterfeit bill charge.

A fish caught in an east German lake near the Polish
border not only got off the hook but also lured a
46-year-old fisherman to his death, police in the
eastern town of Eisenhuettenstadt.

A police spokeswoman said the fish pulled the fishing
rod out of the man's hands and dragged it about 100
metres away from shore. The man took off his clothes
and swam after the pole.

An eyewitness said the man reached the rod floating on
the surface but then suddenly stopped moving. The
witness, swam out to help him and pulled the fisherman
back to shore, where he was later pronounced dead.

A new house on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,
lawsuit brought by five orphans who claim they were
exploited for, and by, the heart-tugging ABC reality
series. five orphaned African-American siblings
ranging in age from 21-14, both groups living in one
crowded three-bedroom house. Viewers watched as a
modest ranch-style home had been demolished, and
replaced with a nine-bedroom, six-bath, two-story,
spa-equipped, state-of-the-art spread. A happy ending
is enjoyed by all.

On camera, at least.

In the family's lawsuit, the orphans charge Once the
attention was had, the new house built, and the TV
shoot over, they say they were all but forced out of
the home.

Jennifer Lopez, star in "Bordertown," In the film,
Lopez plays a Chicago-based reporter sent to Mexico to
investigate the killings of over 340 women who have
been slain over the last 12 years in Juarez, a city of
about 1.3 million people across from El Paso, Texas.
But human rights groups say the number of women killed
is much higher.

At least 100 of those deaths appear to fit a pattern
where a young, slender woman was sexually assaulted,
strangled and dumped in the desert outside Juarez.
Some have speculated that they were the work of a
serial killer, but investigators have denied that.

Oscar winning-director Oliver Stone has pleaded no
contest to a charge of marijuana possession and was
fined $100. Stone's lawyers entered the plea on his
behalf at a Beverly Hills court Stone, 58, who won
best director Oscars for the Vietnam War-themed movies
"Platoon" and "Born of the Fourth of July," was
charged after being stopped at a routine traffic
checkpoint in May.

Stone also pleaded no contest to driving under the
influence and guilty to cannabis possession in 1999 in
Beverly Hills. He was given three years probation in
that case.

Police were investigating a golf outing sponsored by a
gentleman's club in a Chicago suburb that allegedly
featured women strippers in bikinis giving male
golfers lap dances.

Residents who live along the Country Lakes Golf Club's
course said they were surprised to see scantily clad
women dancing and performing on the course. One
resident called police to complain and videotaped some
of the event from her back window. Ruining the fun for
everyone.

A court in Germany convicted a man for fraud after he
racked up huge phone bills phoning a sex hotline from
work and split the proceeds with a woman working at
the service.

The court handed the 38-year-old an eight-month
suspended jail sentence for the ruse which he cooked
up with the hotline worker while working for a local
medical insurer.

German media said the man had made more than 160 calls
within half a year, at a cost to his company of almost
$19,700.

Jimi Hendrix, regarded as one of the greatest electric
guitar players and known as a prodigious womanizer,
lied about being gay to get out of the U.S. Army and
pursue his true love -- music, according to a new
biography of the rock legend.

"Room Full of Mirrors," recounts the life of Hendrix,
from a troubled childhood in a black Seattle
neighborhood, to brushes with the law and a fast climb
to the top of the rock world with hits such as "Purple
Haze," and "Hey Joe," and "The Wind Cries Mary."

Hendrix did not begin playing guitar until he was 15.
Three years later, Hendrix enlisted in the 101st
Airborne Division in 1961 as a court-offered
alternative to jail for riding in stolen cars.

He claimed he was discharged after 13 months after
breaking his ankle in a parachuting drill, but
military records showed he was discharged for
"homosexual tendencies."

According to the records, he told the base
psychiatrist he had sexual fantasies about his
bunkmates, grew addicted to masturbating and was in
love with a member of his squad.

He was just letting his Freak Flag Fly...

Subject: Area 69

Dear Jerry,

I was asleep on the couch in the family room, I had
been watching an old movie. The tv was set was under a
large picture window.

Around three o'clock that morning, I opened my eyes
and noticed a flashing light outside the house. I
immediately thought that it was a firefly. As the
light continued to flash, I realized that it was too
bright to be a firefly. There are no fireflies here.

Then the light moved toward the window and--
unbelievably--through the windowpane into the room. It
passed in front of me, perhaps as close as three feet.
The light seemed as bright as a sixty-watt bulb. My
dog Sheba, who had been sleeping beside the couch,
woke up and noticed the flashing light. She began to
whimper and hid her head.

I was so scared. I heard a screetching, high pitched
sound growing from what I thought was the flashing
light, but began to realize was me screaming at the
top of my lungs.

I wondered why no one was running in to help me. My
whole family was sleeping in just the next rooms. But
no one came to help me.

When the light moved into the kitchen, I ran to my
sister's bedroom. "Move over," she said. "I saw
something that scared me and I'm coming into bed with
you." She didn't move. I looked at her and she was
asleep but her eyes were wide open and she didn't
move.

I covered my head in the quilt and shook and shivered
and then I must have fallen asleep.

The next morning my sister and I woke up. We were both
nude and our pajamas and panties were in one pile on
the window seal.

At breakfast we told our family what had happened, but
no one else had noticed anything or seemed to care.

I love the stories you tell, but was too embarrassed
to write you. But one day I was with my boss having
lunch at Red Robin and you were sitting and reading a
book in the next booth. Two people came over to say "hi"
to you and you were so nice to them, that I knew you
were okay.

Thanks,
Lora

Simon Cowell. The American Idol judge has been sued,
along with ABC for allegedly ripping off the concept
for his latest reality project, The Million Dollar
Idea the similarly titled series Million Dollar Idea,
which is already airing in syndication on over 125
stations.

Leelee Sobieski and Ellen Burstyn are joining Nicolas
Cage in Neil LaBute's indie "The Wicker Man," a remake
of a 1973 British horror film.

Cage plays a police officer who investigates the
disappearance of a girl in a small cultlike community.
Sobieski plays a barmaid who is Cage's confidant.
Burstyn plays the head of the cult. The film is
shooting in Vancouver. The original starred Edward
Woodward and Christopher Lee.

Matthew McGrory, a deep-voiced 7-foot-plus actor who
you might know from a role as a gentle giant in the
movie "Big Fish," has died. He was 32.

McGrory, who had size 29 1/2 shoes, He attended law
school and showed up in music videos before starting
his career in Hollywood B-movies.

He played Tiny in the Rob Zombie horror movies "House
of 1000 Corpses" (2003) and its sequel released this
year, "The Devil's Rejects."

I worked with him in "The Dead Hate the Living."

A man annoyed by a noisy car alarm fired at least
three bullets into a Toyota Camry, silencing the alarm
and bringing out police who hauled him away in
handcuffs. David Owen Rye, 48, was arrested and booked
for investigation of reckless discharge of a firearm
and felony vandalism.

The owner of the Camry, a sailor whose ship the USS
Theodore Roosevelt just returned from an eight-month
cruise, was visiting a friend when he heard the
gunfire.

"I mean, that's not a safe guy. I mean, you get upset
over an alarm, over a noise like that, (then) there's
some little kids making too much noise and he decides
to do something awful," the sailor said.

A fan has been released from the hospital, and is in
police custody, after plunging from the upper deck
onto the screen behind home plate at Yankee Stadium.

Scott Harper intentionally fell 40 feet into the
screen during last night's Yankees-White Sox game in
New York. The game was stopped for four minutes.

The 18-year-old was carried from the ballpark on a
stretcher and taken to a hospital, where he was
treated and released.

Police say Harper told his friends he wanted to see if
the screen would hold his weight. He was booked on
charges of reckless endangerment and disorderly
conduct and is being held in a detention cell at the
precinct, awaiting arraignment.

Viewers of an Arkansas cable show helped Fort Smith
police crack a case after they watched a robbery on
live TV. Gary Spirito, host of the Shopping Mania
Auction Show, thought it was a prank. When a man came
in and demanded Spirito's car keys, Spirito informed
his audience that this was no joke. "There's a guy
robbing us, somebody call the police, he came in with
a gun. Somebody call police, there's a guy in here
trying to rob us," Spirito said. That's when Spirito
addressed the alleged robber directly. "Then I looked
up at him and said, 'We're doing a live show here and
there's probably hundreds of people out there right
now calling the police to come down on this building,
just so you know,'" he said. Mary Schell watches the
Shopping Mania Auction Show every night, but still
thought Spirito's call for help was a joke.
"We thought he was kidding at first," Schell said.
"Then I waited a minute after, and then I was like,
'No, he can't be joking. He can't be. Just call.'"
Spirito said the suspects escaped with nothing, but
thanks to the 911 calls made by viewers, Fort Smith
police caught two male suspects early Friday morning.
Fort Smith police said 23-year-old Eddie Crisp and
22-year-old Timothy Suggs are accused of robbing Keith
Cox, owner of the Legacy Motor Co., at 11 p.m.
Thursday. About an hour later, police said the
suspects robbed Spirito.
The men face two counts of aggravated robbery and
probation violations, according to police.

A motorist was asked to drive under police escort to
an optometrist to prove he was wearing contact lenses.

"I couldn't believe it," Silverstream writer Michael
Romanos said, after being pulled over by Wellington
area traffic boss Senior Sergeant Richard Hocken for
not wearing a seatbelt while on his way to do some
shopping yesterday.

A condition of his licence is that he wears either
glasses or contact lenses while driving.

"He asked me to prove I was wearing contacts and when
I said I wasn't going to take them out, that I needed
to have wetting solution to put them back in, he said
he would follow me to an optician . . ."

He received a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt.

William Sanderson spent several years awaiting the
electric chair on a double murder conviction before
having his sentence reduced to life in prison. While
sitting on a metal toilet in his cell attempting to
fix his small TV set, that happened to be a gift from
a group that protested his execution, he bit into a
wire and was electrocuted.

A Jay Courtman, checked the barrel of his old muzzle
loader, Investigators said he was cleaning a
54-caliber muzzleloader that had not been firing
properly. He was using the lighter to look into the
barrel when the gunpowder ignited. He was killed when
the weapon discharged in his face, the lighter was
blown completely through his skull and was imbedded in
the wall behind him sheriff's investigators said.

Christopher Reeve's widow, Dana Reeve, who cared for
her paralyzed husband for nine years up until his
death on Oct. 10, 2004, when she lost her Superman
husband. Now, in a cruel twist of fate, she now is
battling lung cancer.

A psychiatry professor who bills himself as a "pioneer
in past-life regression therapy," and has a client he
is convinced is the reincarnation of Monroe, says he
thinks the transcripts sound like the late actress.

Dr. Adrian Finkelstein and his subject, identified as
recording artist Sherrie Lea, Based on his interviews
with the purportedly reincarnated Monroe, conducted
while his subject was under hypnosis, he explained,
the original Monroe did not kill herself--at least not
intentionally.

Mystery may yet surround Monroe's death, but according
to Finkelstein, her reincarnated version, at least,
has found peace.

Said the doctor of his client: "She is relieved."

Marilyn Monroe was murdered, and transcripts of audio
recordings she made back up this argument.

Excerpts of John W. Miner's transcripts were published
in the Los Angeles Times detailing of a lesbian
one-night stand with Joan Crawford.

The nude body of Monroe was found in her Los Angeles
home on Aug. 5, 1962. The autopsy, which Miner
attended, showed the clinical cause of death was
barbiturate overdose; Monroe received her lethal dose
of drugs through an enema bag loaded with Nembutal by
"person(s) unknown."

The 28-year-old man, named Lee, had been playing
on-line battle simulation games at the cybercafe in a
southeastern city in Korea.

Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor
to play on-line games, He only left the spot over the
next three days to go to the toilet.

The death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion.

Lee had recently quit his job to spend more time
playing games, former work colleagues and staff at the
Internet cafe said.

After he failed to return home, Lee's mother asked his
former colleagues to find him. Lee said he would
finish the game and then go home.

He died a few minutes later, after 50 straight hours
of videogames.

Shortly after 5:00 am a frightened man in Antelope
Valley, north of Los Angeles woke up to what he
believed was a neighbor shooting at his house. He
grabbed he gun ran out and shot his next door neighbor
as he walked to his car. Killing the man for what
actually was the sonic boom of the Discovery shuttle
returning to Earth the loud noise that woke him up was
the sonic boom of the Discovery shuttle returning to
Earth.

Ttwo sheriff's offices in Los Angeles, fielded several
calls from people reporting loud detonations.

A resounding double sonic boom rang out over the
California desert as Discovery prepared to land at
Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave desert, 90 miles
north of Los Angeles.

Many Californians were unaware of the change because
the decision was taken in the middle of the night.

Marvin Williams thought it would be funny to put a
blue-and-red flashing light on the dashboard of his
friend's car and pretend to pull over another
motorist, police said.

But the joke backfired when Williams picked a car with
two undercover Tampa cops inside. Williams ran from
the vehicle, officials say.

He left behind two female friends who were riding with
him, and 7 grams of cocaine on the center console.

Officers also arrested a woman riding in the front
seat and charged her with cocaine possession.

Williams joked with his passengers about pulling
someone over in the moments before pulling behind the
Officers shortly before midnight.

"The joke was on him," McElroy said. "His victims
turned out to be police officers who escorted him to
jail -- with a real blue light."

A man who police say showed up at a sandwich shop
wearing nothing but a ski mask will face several
charges once he's released from the hospital, police
said..

Mathias Kout, 55, of Spencer, walked into a Subway
about 11 p.m. without any clothes on — except for the
mask.

He didn't stay long and he didn't order anything. A
woman was working at the counter when Kout walked in.
Not long after, the woman's boyfriend walked in and
Kout left.

Police spotted a pickup truck described as the one
Kout left in. During a chase, Kout lost control and
crashed.

Kout was taken to a local hospital, where he remained
Hospital officials did not release any information
about his condition.

No one believed Kout intended to rob the restaurant.
He wasn't armed, the chief said.

"I'm not sure what he would rob it with," he said.

A state board voted to publicly reprimand a Central
Linn High School teacher and football coach for
licking the bleeding wounds of several student
athletes.

The Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission
placed Scott Reed on two years' probation.

Reed must attend a class on the risks of blood-borne
pathogens within the next two months and furnish the
commission with written verification of his
attendance.

Reed agreed to "stipulated facts" that included him
licking blood from wounds on a track team member's
knee, a football player's arm, and a high school
student's hand.

It was not clear why he licked the wounds.

A police officer has been accused of flashing more
than his badge. Edison, N.J., officer David Salardino,
32, and a friend, Brian J. Rossmeyer, were arrested
after people complained the men were standing nude in
front of their hotel window.

"Salardino was attempting to 'show off' by flexing as
he stood naked in front of the window in order to
attract the attention of the people on the sidewalk in
front of the hotel," according to a police report.

The report also says Salardino identified himself as
an officer and later apologized for what he did, while
never actually admitting to exposing himself.

Witnesses told police they also saw Rossmeyer expose
himself for a brief period of time. Both men were
arrested on indecent exposure charges.

A New York City radio station that earlier mocked
tsunami victims on the air has agreed to stop its
"Smackfest" promotion, in which women slapped each
other for prizes, the state attorney general
announced.

They also agreed in a settlement to pay $240,000,
which equaled the maximum fine it faced.

The hip-hop and rhythm and blues station held 24
"Smackfest" contests from April 2004 to January 2005.
Young women took turns "violently" slapping each other
for concert tickets and as much as $5,000 in cash.

A man who left an accident scene was tracked down with
the help of some cheerleaders who witnessed the crash
and turned his license plate number into a cheer, the
Lincoln High School varsity cheerleading squad saw the
wreck near the University of Michigan campus.

"Like...I knew I was going to not remember it because
there was too much going on," Patricia Clark said."
"So, when I ran down the street and got the plate
number, I yelled to the girls: 'Remember this!'"

Gimme an E gimme an 4!

The cheerleaders put their skills to work, chanting
the license number.

"The coach just said it and we were saying it over and
over, and then it just turned into a big chant since
we kept repeating it," said Kimmie, a senior captain
for the team.

According to police reports, the cheerleaders saved
the day! They made a pyramid and the top cheerleader
jumped, flipped and landed on top of the criminal
knocking him out!

A Macedonian couple, who were traveling with their
4-year-old daughter, pulled over for gas in the
coastal city of Pesaro as they were heading back to
their home to Germany.

After filling the tank, the husband drove away --
without noticing that his 30-year-old wife had got out
of the car to go to the toilet.

The woman, who had no money or documents with her,
contacted the police who eventually traced her husband
to Milan, some 210 miles away.

The husband told police he hadn't missed his wife
because she always sat in the back of the car with
their daughter.

Knew the ride had gone smoothly and peacfully for some reason.

A Clovis family calls it a serious case of 'hospital
negligence.' A 62-year-old man was sent home from the
emergency room.

He was taken to Clovis Community Hospital but was
discharged with instructions to rest, drink fluids and
take Mylanta. That's not all he took home. The
intravenous hardware was still lodged in his hand.

The triple digit heat is causing serious problems for
some local farmers.

Growers say there isn't much they can do to protect
their crops from the sun.

Grape grower Carson Smith says a little heat is fine
for the vines, but this long heat wave is more than
the fruit can take.

The heat wave is slowing down the fruit ripening; and
in some cases, damaging the fruit.

But grapes are not the only crop to bake in the sun;
walnut growers say a walnut pest is flourishing in
this hot weather, and stressing the trees.

Cotton plants are in full bloom right now, and the
heat can damage the flowers.

The weather even impacts dairy cows; stress from the
heat is causing many to lose their appetites. That
means they process less milk.

Pot growers were too high to return my calls as to the
affects on their crops.

When George Lucas released "Star Wars" people grumbled
that the special effects masked a lack of character
development.

Charles Ross is starring in the "One-man Star Wars
Trilogy" at an off-Broadway show that brings Lucas'
three original films back to life in about as low-tech
a way as possible. Ross embodies all the characters
himself and provides his own sound effects for the
lightsabers, space ships and lasers — cramming all
three films into an hour's worth of high-energy, often
immensely comical entertainment.

It's a retrospective look at such a pop culture
phenomenon almost demands more satire to maintain its
interest.

After all, it reinforces that film characters that
have reached iconic status are also fallible —
sometimes badly written and overacted.

Stand-up comedian Dane Cook, whose new album just
became the highest-charting comedy release on the U.S.
pop charts in a quarter-century, is set to star in a
comedy pilot called "Cooked."

A who's who of standup comedy came out for a roast of
Pamela Anderson.

Among those in attendance were two of Anderson's
romantic partners: model Marcus Schenkenburg and
ex-husband Tommy Lee, who performed during the show.

Also musician-actress Courtney Love, who said she was
friends with Anderson "because she's really smart, and
she's really cool, and, like me, we share the
distinction of being the two probably biggest freak
shows on Earth, who have the most fame and the least
amount of money."

Anna Nicole Smith said she, too, felt many ties
binding her to Anderson. "She has a really great sense
of humor. She's bubbly. People make fun of her. She
just shoves it off. She doesn't care what people think
about her."

A strip club operator in Los Angeles has stirred
outrage among his neighbours by unveiling a sign
advertising the wares of his establishment in very
explicit terms.

The Century Lounge near Los Angeles' airport has for
years wooed passing trade with the sign, "Live Nude
Nude Nudes," but last week it stepped up the rhetoric
with a new sign proclaiming "Vaginas 'R Us."

"In sort of a naive way, I felt that there was nothing
terrible about it since the 'Vagina Monologues' was on
Broadway forever," he said.

Toys 'R Us complained about the similarity between his
sign. However White is facing heat from fire mashals
who issued him with a citation ordering him to remove
or replace the vinyl sign by this weekend as it is
made of combustible material.

Catch a stray cow from the hundreds roaming the
streets of New Delhi, haul it to a state shelter and
you will be given $46 for your pains.

The Delhi High Court had passed an order instructing
city authorities to offer money to rid the Indian
capital of 35,000 cows and buffaloes roam free in the
capital, sharing space with hordes of monkeys, camels
and stray dogs. Traffic routinely comes to a halt to
allow animals to amble across highways, leading to
accidents and sometimes deaths.

Cows are sacred to Hindus, who make up a bulk of
India's billion-plus population, and just a rumor of
mistreatment can prompt angry mobs to attack people in
revenge.

Remember sacred cows make the best hamburgers!

Sonya Thomas, at 99 pounds, gobbled her way to another
speed-eating title over the weekend by attacking a
Wisconsin staple — the bratwurst. She's known as The
Black Widow on the competitive-eating circuit downed
35 brats in 10 minutes to win the first Johnsonville
Brat-Eating World Championship. She edged out her
nearest competitor by half a brat to win.

She's ranked second by the International Federation of
Competitive Eating, Her various eating records include
ones for hard-boiled eggs (65 in 6 minutes 40 seconds)
and chicken wings (167 in 32 minutes).

The day before the bratwurst-eating contest, she won a
grilled-cheese-sandwich eating contest in San Diego,
eating 22.

Take her to New Delhi!

A photographer was shot in the leg with a BB gun
outside a home where he believed Britney Spears was
attending a bridal shower.

Eddie Murphy's wife left him citing irreconcilable
differences, Nicole Murphy filed for divorce from her
comic actor husband of 12 years. Now he's free to date
all the transvestites he wants.

Best-selling author Dan Brown has won a court ruling
against another writer who claimed Brown's book "The
Da Vinci Code" copied elements from two of his books,
Brown avoided $150 million in damages author Lewis
Perdue had claimed Brown's 2003 book "The Da Vinci
Code," which has 36 million copies in print worldwide,
infringed the copyright of his novels "Daughter of
God," which was published in 2000, and "The Da Vinci
Legacy," which came out in 1983.

Actor-director Mel Gibson has been asked to recreate
the crucifixion of Jesus Christ staging of the
Stations of the Cross, a live interpretation of
Christ's final hours, would be part of the Catholic
Church's World Youth Day in 2008, the reenactment —
similar to scenes from Gibson's hugely successful film
"The Passion of the Christ" — would use real nails.

Just watched the first 20 minutes of Hal Hartley's "The Girl From
Monday," anyone see it? I did and I feel woozy with the
DV stutter/flash effect that all the footage, or tape has...

I was excited to see that I own the same model camera Hartley
used to make the movie in the "making of" which so far is better
than the movie.

It's so funny, I saw a matinee of "The Island" (I know...) but
for some great reason I dug it in that silly, retro "Logan's Run"
way and I think "The Girl From Monday" has a bit of that going
on. Little action of course, but some of that "THX:1138" let's
make the Future out of what we see today kinda thing.

Anyone see it?

"Let's f--- and increase our market value," says Sabrina Lloyd
in the flick. A smoking hot alien played by Tatiana Abracos looks
like she was hired for the nudity, looks and not her acting ability.
Unless that's the way the aliens act, but I've only seen 20 minutes
and will get back to it as soon as my eyes settle down.

Themes of totalitarianism seem popular lately. Also the used
and dirty future that seems created by George Lucas is so tired
to me. I would like to see some clean and sterile futures like
Kubrick's "2001" every once in a while. It might be nice to find
a hopeful friendly Tomorrow in a film. I think it could be
Revolutionary.

Okay, back to the movie... Where's my remote?

Well, I finished it! Not sure I liked it as much as everything else
Hartley's done, but I am still thinking about it.

I keep looking at my DCR-VX2000 Sony Digital Handycam in
the corner all lonely and think, "I can now make a feature like
that!" It's the same model he used.

Just one problem, I'm not as talented as Hartley.

Still, I love the idea of this kinda science fiction and believe
DV low budget will make it possible to create some thought
provoking works. Why, it could be like when writers were
cranking out pulp stories for less than a penny a word for
Weird Science!

Imagine a gang of indy scifi filmmakers with little to no
money making quick mind twisting features with no stars,
no special effects, just acting, story, content, ideas, guts,
and a hope there's a growing following of like minded
viewers to grow a much need small fan base.

These filmmakers could be like local bands that sell
CD's and t-shirts at the gig and pimp their music on myspace
and ignore the record deal offers and control their own
destinies... The Stars My Destiny!

Who is ready to climb that DV Rocketship to planet Dogme?

Okay, I'll be there in a minute, still watching "The American
Astronaut."

The 6th Day of another Fast. Woozy and weak.

Was thinking about one of my favorite movies, "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" and did a search on it.

Just found out...
Sam Peckinpah (born February 21, 1925, Fresno, California) (had only a few lines: the gas man standing in the basement) Peckinpah went on to direct such famous films as: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) The Getaway (1972) Straw Dogs (1971) The Wild Bunch (1969).
The director of this film, Don Siegel (born October 26, 1912, Chicago, Illinois), played the cab driver in the 1978 remake of this movie.

Always knew...

Virginia Christine (seen in the Folger's coffee commercials for several years) was Wilma Lentz in the movie.

Lentz, that's such a cool name!

Director Peter Jackson, at work on his own remake of
"King Kong," is helping produce bonus materials for
the DVD debut of the 1933 original.

Jackson is working on a new documentary, "RKO
Production 601: The Making of Kong, the Eighth Wonder
of the World," a two-hour, seven-part feature included
in the two-disc "King Kong" set, which Warner Home
Video will release on Nov. 22.

Julie Delpy and Hope Davis are joining the ensemble
cast of the drama "Hoax."

Richard Gere will star as Clifford Irving, the man who
wrote and sold a bogus biography of Howard Hughes.
Delpy will play Irving's mistress. Davis will play
Andrea Tate, an employee at McGraw-Hill.

Delpy, who received an Academy Award screenplay
nomination this year for co-writing "Before Sunset,"
co-stars in Jim Jarmusch's "Broken Flowers." Her
credits include "An American Werewolf in Paris,"
"Before Sunrise"

Charlie Murphy, Eddie's brother, a writer and actor on
the funnyman's top-rated Chappelle's Show, dropped a
bombshell to the New York Post, saying that, to his
knowledge, the hit Comedy Central series has
officially run its course.

"I don't think Dave is going to do it anymore," Murphy
told the Post. "We shot about eight shows for the
third season, and they're hilarious. They'll be
released on DVD, I'm sure. But that's it."

Newsweek was the first to take a stab, reporting that
friends blamed a combination of too much partying,
overwhelming pressure to make good on his $50 million
contract and creative sparring with Comedy Central
executives led to the meltdown.

But Chappelle later said such suggestions were
half-baked.

"I'm not crazy, I'm not smoking crack. I'm definitely
stressed out," he told Time magazine in his only
comments on the matter.

"X-Files 2" remains in development. Technically.
The latest chapter in this sequel saga comes from SCI
FI Wire, which former "X-Files" co-producer Frank
Spotnitz spoke at the Television Critics Association
press event that he's just waiting for "X-Files 2" to
come together.

"My deal has been done -- and I'm not exaggerating --
for a year and a half," Spotnitz tells SCI FI.

So what's the hold up? Spotnitz doesn't know. Now,
take a moment to let that sink in ... The man who ran
the "X-Files" doesn't know why the movie hasn't been
made. "If you'd asked me a year ago, I never would
have believed it still wouldn't be in the works at
this point," Spotnitz says.

Fortunately, Spotnitz has a little project to keep him
busy: He's executive producing ABC's "Night Stalker,"
an update of the 70's TV show -- a show that had a
huge influence on "The X-Files." There might be a
"Night Stalker" feature before "X-Files 2"

Anyone who owns a 1969 Dodge Charger can yell
"Yee-haw!" over the boost in value the cars have
received from The Dukes of Hazzard.

Interest in the film appears to have increased the
car's value 64% over the past six months, from $28,200
in January to $43,900 in July, according to Kelley
Blue Book.

The publication, which tracks used-car values, says
Chargers with a powerful "hemi" engine are worth
triple that.

Renewed passion for the car has sparked new demand, to
the delight and despair of Charger fans.

If the film is a hit, producer Bill Gerber worries
about finding more Chargers for a sequel.

Of the 26 cars purchased for the film, only a handful
remain in working order after the many frame-crunching
stunt jumps and wrecks, movie car coordinator John
Feinblatt says.

"It's not only hard to find the cars, but it's hard to
find parts for the cars," he says. He paid about
$28,000 for good-condition Chargers and about $3,000
for junkers.

"I actually kept saying we should buy more (before
production) because the movie could drive the price
up," Gerber says. "But we didn't want to get too cocky."

George Lucas revealed that he wants to bring the
wonders of 3-D animation to Asia, produce television
shows much more cheaply than the rest of the industry,
Lucas is producing his upcoming series "Clone Wars" in
3D animation and building a facility in Singapore to
"use the amazing artistic talents in the Asian
community," he said. "A lot of (Asia) is still trying
to move into the 3D age. I set up a plan to speed up
the process and to build up the community there. I
also look at this as a way to get my foot into anime,"
he said.

Television is also new frontier for the use of digital
tools, he said.

"What would normally cost $20 million-$30 million we
can do for $1 million," Lucas promised. He is shooting
a live action series on a small Sony digital consumer
camera.

Lucas also said thinks that with advances in voice
recognition technology and artifical intelligence, the
fast-growing realm of video and online gaming will
move well beyond basic first-person shooter
narratives.

"I want to get to a point where you can talk to the
game and it will talk back, Lucas said.

An updated version of "Charlie Chan" for 20th Century
Fox with Lucy Liu attached to star and executive
produce the long-gestating project, which centers on
the granddaughter of the fictional Chinese-American
detective.

"Soylent Green" -- a remake of the 1973 Charlton
Heston starrer from Warner Bros is on the way.

Also "The Omen 666" for Fox.

Jose Canseco's best-seller "Juiced: Wild Times,
Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big."
is coming to the big screen... Possibly as a computer
animated film.

Pamela Anderson wants to make it very clear that she
and ex-husband Tommy Lee are NOT an item again. She's
just helping him drum up some publicity for his new
reality show.

"Tommy Lee Goes to College" debuts Aug. 16 on NBC.

The former Motley Crue drummer and Anderson had been
acting affectionate toward each other in public
recently, but Anderson said she was just helping out a
member of the "family." I've seen how she helps
Tommy's member.

Marijuana use is cropping up on some critically
acclaimed shows, and anti-drug forces fear the
glamorization of pot could boost its use among youths.

• Pot is an ongoing theme on HBO's Entourage. Sunday's
episode features two teens getting high at a bat
mitzvah.

• last week's premiere of Over There, FX's gritty Iraq
war drama.

• Marijuana is the core premise of Showtime dramedy
Weeds, a dark version of Desperate Housewives suburbia
with Mary-Louise Parker as a pot-dealing soccer mom.
In Sunday's special preview, a teen sells pot to
grade-schoolers until Parker's character blackmails
him to stop.

Hollywood's embellishment of marijuana use is
"irresponsible," says Tom Riley of the White House's
Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Shows that tacitly approve of pot-smoking,
particularly comedies, may exacerbate its use, says
Steve Dnistrian of the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America.

Kevin Nealon, who co-stars in Weeds, says the show
simply underscores pot's prevalence in society. "A lot
of baby boomers are baby bongers," he says.

A 2003 study - the government's latest on drug use -
found that 14.6 million Americans used pot at least
once in the past month, up slightly from 2002. And
more than 95 million have tried it.

Some auction News!

The Southern California lawyer who made headlines this
week for promising to auction off memorabilia of his
and Aniston's long-ago supposed summer of puppy love,
including the birthday card the future Friends star
was said to have improvised on two-ply, has scuttled
the sale.

Michael Baroni said he nixed the planned eBay auction,
set to launch on Friday, after hearing from Aniston's
camp that the actress would rather the items not be
put up for bid.

"I have nothing but fond memories of Jennifer as a
friend, and only wish her well," Baroni said in an
email.

Aniston's publicist did not return a call for comment.

Baroni planned to seek at least $100,000 for the lot
of photos and trinkets, some dating back to 1984, when
Aniston was 15, he was 16, and, according to him, they
shared a "summer passion" in New York.

A handwritten lyric sheet for "All You Need is Love"
used by John Lennon in 1967 was sold for 600,000
pounds ($1.04 million) at an auction in London.

The lightsaber used by intergalactic hero Luke
Skywalker in "Star Wars" sold for 200,000 dollars at
an auction of Hollywood props.

a leather jacket worn in "Indiana Jones," by Harrison
Ford snapped up for 94,400 dollars.