The GUILD 12-21-2002 Final Stretch to Christmas

Good morning, all. Yes, don't the Kerry-Heinzes look like an adorable, loving couple? He's going to wonder if marrying all her money was worth it, once the fur begins to fly.

Where in the world is Bill "Carmen Sandiego" Clinton?

Sighted: Bill Clinton and Glenn Close huddled with Court TV head Henry Schleiff at a Rainbow Room remembrance of Robert F. Kennedy ... Daily News

The long-awaited (gag) autobiography of Susan McDougal has arrived! A snippet:

Though she professes respect for Clinton as a politician, she gets in digs at him, too. "I have never known another human being who needed to be told all the time how great he is," she writes. When confronting -- in a sole paragraph -- the rumor that she once had an affair with the man, hence her legal loyalty, she first flatly denies it, then throws out this zinger: "Have you seen the way he looks in a pair of running shorts?" WashPost

Speaking of B.S. autobiographies:

Clinton is eager to tell his story
By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

Bill Clinton, who's getting nearly $12 million for his memoirs, says everyone eventually should write his or her life story.

"Everybody talks about how terrible this book-writing is. I've enjoyed it," the former president tells C-SPAN in an interview to be shown Sunday (6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET/ 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. PT).

"Everyone who is fortunate enough to have lived to be 50 should sit down at some point and write the story of his or her life, even if it is just for yourself, your children, your family."

It's important, Clinton says, "to try to come to terms with the life you lived and think about how you wish to spend whatever years are remaining."

Clinton, who says he's working without a ghostwriter, aims to submit a "publishable draft" by August. That's two months after the tentative publication date for the memoir of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. (She got $8 million.)

In a 25-minute interview and 15-minute walking tour of his presidential library, which is under construction in Little Rock, Clinton discusses his policies, legacy and impeachment, but not Monica Lewinsky:

On whether he's reading what his wife is writing and vice versa: "We do a little bit of that. You know you get writer's block in these things. You rock along, do just fine, you're writing about a five-or-six-years-or-so period in your life, and it begins to work, then all of a sudden you have to make a transition. And you ask yourself, 'What do I really want to say about this period of my life? How do I say it without looking either defensive or self-serving?' You know, that kind of stuff. So when we get to the blocking point, sometimes we try to help each other. Otherwise, we pretty much do these things on our own."

On his personal archives: "You know, I save stuff. I've got my elementary school band concert program. My mother saved my baby book. I've got every letter my mother wrote me when I was in college that I saved. I've got college test papers and stuff. So I've been fortunate. I looked at a report I did in the fifth grade on England the other day — I don't know why I save this stuff."

On other presidential memoirs: "Grant's was a best seller because he was dying and he needed the money, but Mark Twain helped him with it, and because he had a great story to tell, and because he wrote it himself. If you look at Truman's memoirs, they weren't such a good seller because they seem kind of stiff. But if you look at the oral history Truman did with Merle Miller (Plain Speaking), basically he wrote it, because it was an oral history, interviews. It was a runaway best seller because it was Harry Truman being Harry Truman. You know, it was real. You didn't have to like it all, but it was him."

On his book: "I decided not to worry about whether or not it would be a best seller; what I wanted to do was to write every word. I wanted to make the decisions about what to leave in, what to leave out. ... I wanted it to be an authentic book, and if it's authentic, then the public and Americans throughout the world will decide if it is a best seller."

The interview and library tour video will be posted today at www.c-span.org.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2002-12-25-clinton_x.htm

Hollywood celebs in search of a candidate to fund:

WASHINGTON (Variety) - With Al Gore bowing out of the bidding for the Democratic nomination last week, Hollywood is turning its full attention to 2004 presidential hopefuls John Kerry and John Edwards -- in that order.

Even with 9/11 and the faltering economy, the stream of Dems visiting Hollywood to fund-raise for their party or themselves never really slowed. Kerry, the sophisticated U.S. senator from Massachusetts, has been spotted about the town the most, with Edwards close behind.

Just last week, Kerry met with Stanley Sheinbaum, who is something of a Democrat kingmaker in Hollywood circles, and other prominent local Dems at the Regency Club. And at a cocktail party hosted by Daphna Edwards, Kerry kicked off a 30-minute speech with the emphatic statement "I am running for president."

The decisiveness of his tone was not lost on attendees, among them real estate titan Eli Broad, Gov. Gray Davis and an array of top actors and celebs. Neither Kerry nor Edwards has Clinton's incredible dynamism -- nor his lapses into scandal.

Kerry, 59, boasts more is the more statuesque candidate and is earning marks from liberal Dems in Hollywood for speaking out against President Bush without sounding shrill.

"Kerry is working hard, he's operational, he's focused," said former California Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, who gives the Massachusetts senator the inside track. "My instinct tells me he's the one Hollywood will back."

Not everyone agrees. "I certainly wouldn't be looking to anybody who thought they were against the war and then voted for it," said actress Susan Sarandon, referring, among others, to Kerry.

"I want someone with some courage to vote for their issues," she added. "We're tired of people voting to protect their careers."

Sentiment is split as to whether the 49-year-old Edwards, with a folksy North Carolina drawl, is ready to run in '04. His advantage is that he's got a youthful persona and hasn't been on Capitol Hill that long. Ergo, he doesn't have a lot of baggage.

If there's one thing most agree on, it is that the entertainment community won't ultimately throw its collective support behind Sen. Joseph Lieberman. The reason is his continuing charge that Hollywood intentionally polluting America's children with violent, salacious images and words.

Lieberman, 61, isn't wasting any time in making showbiz a campaign issue, as he did when running as Gore's VP in the ill-fated 2000 presidential contest. Just before Christmas, Lieberman called for congressional hearings on violent vidgames.

The voting electorate always loves a dark horse, and one surprise Democratic candidate may be Col. Wesley Clarke. The former NATO supreme commander has wowed CNN audiences with his gentle and easy-to-understand analysis. He's also incredibly ambitious.

Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a 54-year-old doctor, is the most liberal of those considering a run for the Democratic nomination. He is openly critical of Democrats who act like moderate Republicans, an argument that is likely to resonate with many Hollywood Dems. Some political mavens have called him a version of past presidential hopeful John Anderson.

No one seems jazzed about a bid by Rep. Richard Gephardt, the top U.S. House of Reps. solon who took plenty of heat after the Republican sweep in the November midterm election. There have been numerous Hollywood fund-raisers for Gephardt, whose resignation as House minority leader was a sure sign of a presidential run. It's also remains uncertain whether outgoing Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle will make a bid for the White House.

"It's a wide-open field, but there's nobody perfect yet," said Torie Osborn, executive director of the Liberty Hill Foundation, which functions as something of a rallying point for the Dems' left wing in Los Angeles.

Myth has it that Hollywood is the country's campaign contribution capital, and that the fate of the Democratic Party rests in the hands of showbiz. In reality, there are industries that contribute far more than showbiz to campaign coffers, but political support offered up by celebs and studio moguls receive far greater publicity.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20021225/people_nm/people_politics_dc_1

Don't get too Close, Glenn

It's important, Clinton says, "to try to come to terms with the life you lived and think about how you wish to spend whatever years are remaining."

Good luck with this one bent.

I looked at a report I did in the fifth grade on England the other day — I don't know why I save this stuff

That's probably what Chelsea submitted as her senior paper at Stanford.

The WV lottery does not have the money to pay the winner and will give him an IOU, until they get money from the multi-state system sometime in Jan.

Well, we don't have much money for just about anything, do we?

What are the chances Slick will be called as a witness in this case?

When Mario Crespo blew into town in 1998 from the United States, the former immigrant was a completely changed man.

He had a new name, was on a first name basis with then US president Bill Clinton, and seemed to have an inexhaustible well of cash. He set up residence in a palatial villa formerly owned by disgraced Brunei Prince Jeffrey Bolkiah, topped up the presidential campaign coffers of the popular action movie actor Joseph Estrada, and donated millions to various charities. The man even managed to land himself a seat in the House of Representatives, representing one of Manila's poorest districts.

As he contemplates a possible lengthy prison term in the United States, Mr Crespo, the former computer salesman who now calls himself Mark Jimenez and who became a fugitive from US justice in early 1999, will be meditating on how things could have turned so horribly wrong over the last 24 months.

Under an agreement with a Manila regional trial court and the Philippine Justice Department last week, Mr Jimenez, aka Crespo, was to turn himself over to the US authorities not later than midnight last night. He would be flying back to a jurisdiction where he potentially faces a lengthy prison term and huge fines if convicted of any of the 47 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, tax evasion, false statements, and the making and concealing of illegal conduit contributions to the Democratic party.

Full story, Bangkok Post.

You are such fun BWB - don't you just love surprising the dear hearts at Christmas?!

Whoa! That Clinton-Kerry poster scared this 'ol boat right outta the water:

Scaring a boat out of water isn't near as messy as what it scared out of me. ;~)

I don't know how that captain could have driven that tanker onto that breakwater - he better have a good explanation, like loss of engine power or loss of rudder system or horrible weather.

Jeepers, talk about having a bad day.

Ha Ha!

How's the step dad? Home for Christmas?

Goodmorning, Timeout. Stepdad is still in the hospital. He had a tube down his throat yesterday. Mom didn't go to the hospital yesterday because she had the flu. One of his sons stopped in,,, he thought he was about the same.

Hope he's feeling better soon.

Now, something that will make us all ill:

NEW YORK - Democrats have chosen Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to give the party's response to President Bush's weekly radio address Saturday.

It's a first for the former first lady, and a step back to the national stage. Since her election two years ago, Clinton has focused on issues affecting her New York constituents and on developing relationships with Senate colleagues. [Oh please, as if she's been a shrinking violet the past two years!]

Clinton will urge Congress to extend federal unemployment benefits to more than 800,000 people due to lose them Saturday, said Ranit Schmelzer, spokeswoman for Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, who tapped Clinton for the role. full story

I hope her address is chock full of "ums" and "you knows."

Mariah Struggled To Sit Like A Lady During Live KARE Interview
C.J.
Star Tribune

The official story is that Mariah Carey flashed nothing more than her "Charmbracelet" on "KARE-11 Today." Heavy breathing has it that Carey wasn't wearing underwear when she sat down for an interview following her special "Today" show concert at the Mall of America two weeks ago.

"Yeah, she was wearing underwear," said an assistant to Carey's NYC PR woman on Tuesday. "She did not know she was going to be seated for the interview; she was wearing a short skirt. . . . " The assistant's cell phone then conked out.

Carey's skirt length was an issue the minute the singer arrived. Taking one look at the elevated set, Carey seemed to realize she couldn't step up. Members of her entourage lifted her.

A woman who seemed to be among Carey's handlers appeared absolutely panicked as she kept going in and out of the bottom-right corner of the camera frame, holding a coat that was eventually draped over Carey's lap. On a raised stage, seated in a tall director's chair, Carey tried to keep those knees together as she crossed and uncrossed her legs and shifted positions.

Responding to a question from KARE-11's Roxane Battle, Carey said, "I'm very much into being with my fans, getting close to them." At this point, a hand that did not belong to Carey could be seen tugging at the hem of her miniskirt. Carey had just placed her left palm over that space that would give live guests a direct view of the nether region when she interrupted the interview.

"I'm sorry," Carey said, diverting her attention to someone to her left. "What's the matter . . . ?" said Carey. "We have a problem here," Carey told Battle, who asked, "Would you like to stand up, Mariah?"

Carey stood and tugged at the clingy brown dress, which couldn't come down much because of a lack of fabric. "We didn't know that I was coming to sit up on a platform, or I would have had a little bit of a longer dress," Carey told KARE viewers and throngs of fans at the stage.

Battle's co-host, Pat Evans, motioned to Carey that the camera angle was a chest-and-head shot. HA! Maybe Evans should have suggested on the air that the camera operators keep the angles tight, as in not from the knees up. People are insisting that Carey's skirt was so short you could see . . . home plate. I don't think I saw any untoward Carey scenery. Of course, I don't have a big-screen TV or the technology to enlarge frames. At one point, I saw a suspicious flash of something. I'm hoping and assuming it was upper thigh. Had it been more, don'tcha think this video would already be floating on the Web, not to mention getting the treatment by David Letterman and Jay Leno?

Still, one KARE insider reported that colleagues huddled in a viewing room to examine the tape: "I don't know what people saw or didn't see; but from what I heard, it was a revealing interview." Rimshot.

A KARE Demi-Boss viewed the tape after I called Monday to ask whether Carey had paid homage to Sharon Stone's "Basic Instinct" money shot. "I didn't see anything remotely interesting like that," DB reported Tuesday, sounding more like a member of Carey's image staff. "It's a standard old interview." Come on, there is nothing standard about Carey halting the interview and allowing a coat to be draped over the problem area.

There seems to be a little bit of the exhibitionist in Carey, as underscored by Twin Cities flirting authority and author Jill Spiegel's recollection of Mariah's "Cribs" episode. "She started out in kind of a regular skimpy outfit. Then we went into her closet. Then she changed into a negligee and got into the bath," said Spiegel. Carey might have covered up with a towel, too. As for the KARE appearance, a panty-less Carey "is not something that would seem totally unbelievable," Spiegel said.

"A lot of people don't [wear underwear] these days. She seems like someone who might not. You never see any panty line. She could have been wearing beige underwear, which always looks like skin." Fabulous point, Jill, but it will probably do nothing to quell what may become an urban legend.