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CURRENT EVENTS JOKES CONSUMER PRICES JUMP MOST IN 26 YEARS CELEBRITIES, FAMOUS PEOPLE, HOLLYWOOD GOSSIP MORE SECRETS OF MADONNA More things we're learning from Christopher
Ciccone's book, "Life With My Sister Madonna": Alex Rodriguez threw an all-star party in
New York on Monday. None of his teammates from the New York Yankees showed up. "He's
become a huge distraction with the Madonna fiasco," a source told the New York Post.
"It's always all about him." That explains why none of his fellow Yankees went
to the All-Star bash he hosted Monday night. Instead, his mother and a couple of other
friends were by his side in a corner booth at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club as he threw back shots.
Reps from Berk Communications, who threw the event, kept insisting Madonna was on her way,
but she never showed. Instead, A-Rod was entertained by dancers who shimmied to Material
Girl tunes and desperately tried to make eye contact with him. SARAH JESSICA PARKER'S MOLE IS MISSING Sarah Jessica Parker has apparently had her
famous mole removed. Parker has long had a trademark mole on her chin, which has been
visible throughout her career. She had it last month at the MTV Movie Awards. But in
pictures from Tuesday night's All-Star game, the mole had vanished. No word - if indeed
she has had the mole removed, if it was for medical or cosmetic reasons. EVA LONGORIA PUTTING ON WEIGHT FOR "HOUSEWIVES" Eva Longoria says she is not pregnant,
insisting her recent weight gain is for her role on "Desperate Housewives". The
actress claims her slightly fuller figure is a reflection of changes in the life of her
on-screen character Gabrielle Solis, who becomes a mother-of-two in the forthcoming fifth
season. According to Longoria's publicist: "She's a worn out mother with two kids.
And even the weight gain wasn't enough. She's also wearing butt pads and a stomach pad to
play the part." LINDSAY LOHAN ON TRACK Lindsay Lohan's attorney says the star is on
track after pleading guilty last year to drunken driving. Lohan's attorney, Blair Berk,
gave an update Tuesday on how the actress is complying with her sentence for misdemeanor
drunken driving and cocaine charges. Berk told the judge that Lohan is "completely on
track with everything." She has complied with the judge's orders, spending 84 minutes
in jail, completing community service, and visiting a morgue and an emergency room. The
judge seemed satisfied but scheduled another progress report for January. Lohan did not
attend Tuesday's hearing. ANDY DICK ARRESTED Remember Andy Dick from
"NewsRadio" and "Less Than Perfect"? Dick - who has a long history of
self-medication, substance abuse and crude and infantile behavior - was arrested
early Wednesday morning in Murrieta, California on suspicion of drug possession and sexual
battery. Police responded to a report of a person urinating in the parking lot outside a
Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, causing a disturbance. Once there, they stopped a van and
found Dick in the passenger seat. He was arrested for allegedly groping a 17-year-old
girl's breasts and pulling her top down. When he was searched, cops say they found
marijuana and one Xanax in his front pants pocket. BEN & JERRY'S MAKES ELTON JOHN ICE CREAM Ben & Jerry's has made a flavor of ice
cream just for Elton John's performance in Vermont. The limited-batch ice cream, called
"Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road", is made from chocolate ice cream, peanut butter
cookie dough, butter brickle and white chocolate chunks. It will be available from July 18
to July 25 in the company's Vermont scoop shops, with proceeds going to the Elton John
AIDS Foundation. ABBA MEMBER FORGETS THE PAST ABBA star Bjorn Ulvaeus says he has
forgotten much of his time in the pop band because he is suffering from severe memory
loss. The songwriter has revealed the condition is now so crippling that he can't even
recall any of the highlights from his career including winning the Eurovision song contest
in 1974. He says, "It is like I was not even there." Ulvaeus is now seeking
professional help for the condition which has robbed him of his memories, and he is also
turning to old photographs and video footage in a bid to help jog his memory. RON WOOD IN REHAB Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood has
entered rehab for a drinking problem. The announcement followed a series of British
newspaper reports that Wood, 61, had been spending time at his Irish home with a young
Russian cocktail waitress. The relationship had threatened his 23-year-old marriage to
wife Jo. ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA KATIE HOLMES GUESTING ON "ELI STONE" Katie Holmes will be doing a cameo on the
ABC show "Eli Stone". The actress was seen on the Los Angeles set of the show
Tuesday, accompanied by husband Tom Cruise and their two-year-old daughter Suri. The show
is about "a thirty-something attorney who begins having larger-than-life visions that
compel him to do out-of-the-ordinary things". "9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL" Dolly Parton has written a Broadway musical
version of her hit comedy movie "9 to 5". The show will open at New York's
Marquis Theater next spring, and will feature the song Parton wrote for the 1980 film,
plus new tunes she wrote especially for the show. The plot follows three workers as they
take on their sexist boss. One of the characters will be played by The West Wing's Allison
Janney. THE BUZZ WEDDING TRADITIONS THAT OUGHT TO GO From Thomas Foley on AskMen.com, here are
Wedding Traditions That Should Be Abolished: The Barbie doll is coming out with a new
look: Kinky fishnets, motorcycle jacket, black gloves and boots. The Mattel toy company
says Black Canary Barbie, out in September, is based on a DC comic superhero of the same
name. But at least one group doesn't like the new S&M look. The religious organization
Christian Voice said: "A children's doll in sexually suggestive clothing is
irresponsible - it's filth." U.S. NEWS WOMAN WAKES UP FROM SURGERY, FINDS TATTOO A New Jersey woman has sued her orthopedic
surgeon after awakening from surgery to find a temporary tattoo below her panty line.
Elizabeth Mateo found "a temporary tattoo of a red rose" below her panty line
the morning after her surgery for a herniated disc. Her surgeon does not deny he placed a
tattoo on Mateo. He says he puts washable marks on patients to improve their spirits as
they heal. Mateo is seeking punitive and compensatory damages. MAN FINDS KNIFE IN SUBWAY SUB A Queens, New York man is suing the Subway
sandwich chain for $1 million after claiming to find a large serrated knife baked into the
bread of his 12-inch cold-cut sub. The incident happened on June 27. John Agnesini, 27,
said, "After taking a few bites I could tell something didn't taste right. Then I
felt something hard on the bottom of the bread. I turned it over and could see the knife
baked inside. It's shocking. You see this metal knife. I mean, it's one thing seeing a
hair or something," Agnesini said. "If I didn't look at it, could you imagine
what would happen? I could've slashed the side of my mouth." He was not badly
injured, but became violently ill with "severe stomach issues" for three hours,
he recalled. A doctor told him he had the symptoms of food poisoning, which Agnesini
attributed to whatever contaminants may have seeped into his food, possibly from the
melted plastic handle of the knife. He also said the knife was "filthy." NASA SEEKS URINE Space program contractor Hamilton Sundstrand
is seeking urine from workers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston as part of its work
on a new space capsule that would eventually take astronauts to the moon. According to an
internal company memo leaked to the press, the company needs 8 gallons of urine a day to
test the space toilet. Designers of the space capsule have to solve a pressing issue of
getting rid of stored urine, said John Lewis, NASA's head of life support systems.
"Urine is a mess because urine is full of solids," Lewis said. Those solids clog
the venting system for dumping pee, so keeping the waste disposal system clear is
"really a challenge," he said. NASA has a long standing tradition of collecting
samples from its workers to help design better space toilets because "you can't make
fake urine," Lewis said. INTERNATIONAL NEWS WOMAN DEVOTES LIFE TO PARENTS; THEY LEAVE HER OUT OF THE WILL For 30 years, Christine Gill devoted her
life to caring for her parents and helping them run the family farm in Leeds, England. In
30 years, she spent only 30 days total away from her parents. Her mother had health issues
and could not be left alone. Gill's husband Andrew did thousands of hours of unpaid
farmwork. She devoted her life to her parents on the "clear and unequivocal"
understanding that she would eventually inherit the 287-acre farm. But after her father
died in 1999, and following her mother's death at 82 in 2006, Dr. Gill discovered to her
"immense shock" that the entire $5 million estate had been left to the RSPCA
(Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)- the animal shelter. She says
that she was repeatedly assured by her parents that she would one day get the farm. Gill
has begun a court battle to challenge her mother's will and claim the inheritance. Ceri and Rose Williams suffered numbness,
headaches and high blood pressure after eating grapes they purchased at a supermarket in
Cornwall, England. Mr. Williams, 52, and his 45-year-old wife had already started eating
the grapes when they noticed that something was moving inside. They found two spiders, one
alive and one dead. Mr. Williams also spotted a cotton wool-like substance - which turned
out to be the poisonous arachnid's nest. Minutes later, Mr. and Mrs. Williams fell ill and
drove to a hospital where doctors told them the fruit they had eaten had been covered in
the spider's toxins. Environmental health officers identified the beasts as "false
widow spiders", cousin of the famous Black Widow. False widow spiders are venomous
and have fangs that can pierce the skin, although the bite is about as bad as a wasp
sting. Mysterious tapping noises late on Tuesday
night caused residents in an apartment building in the town of Wetter, Germany to call
police, who broke into the empty apartment only to find an albino rabbit amusing himself
in his cage. The owners of the apartment were out of town, so neighbors were concerned
when they heard thumping noises and alerted the authorities, fearing an intruder. Police
said they heard the noises upon arrival, and were particularly alarmed when the enigmatic
being behind the door reacted to their verbal inquiries with angry thumping. Police broke
into the apartment and found an albino rabbit in a large metal cage who was passing the
time by drumming its hind legs against the floor of his cage. Police made sure the animal
was safe and tended to him before taking their leave. TV TONIGHT MORNING SIDEKICK'S
LOOK AT PROGRAMS - BROADCAST, CABLE, SATELLITE AND PREMIUM PACKAGES - ACTUALLY SCHEDULED
FOR TONIGHT CBS - "America's Greatest Dog" -
America's Got Fleas. ALMANAC 46 days 'til U.S. Labor Day (Sept. 1) BIRTHDAYS Mark Burnett (TV producer,
"Survivor", "The Apprentice") ... 48 BIRTHDAY QUOTE QUIZ - Ask your listeners "Who said it?" HINT: Today's their birthday! "Everything I've got in my life, I've
had to work for." THIS TIME LAST YEAR Has it really been a year? Here are some
topics that were in the news this time last year - Your listeners will be amazed how
quickly time flies: HISTORY 1997 - The world's email system crashed for
the first time and tens of millions of messages all around the world failed to reach their
destinations. 1989 - America's Stealth Bomber - a
revolutionary warplane invisible to radar, made its maiden flight. 1955 - Disneyland opened in Anaheim,
California. 1955 - The town of Arco in Idaho became the
first community to get all its light and power from atomic energy. 1938 - Pilot Douglas Corrigan got the
moniker "Wrong Way Corrigan" when he landed at the Dublin, Ireland airport
instead of Los Angeles where he thought he was headed. Corrigan said his 6,000-mile
mistake was due to following the wrong end of his compass needle. 1867 - The first US dental school, the
Harvard School of Dental Medicine, was established. 1861 - America's first paper money was
circulated. 1850 - The Harvard Observatory took the
first photograph of a star. 1821 - Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. MUSIC HISTORY 1987 - The Ozzy Osbourne Band started a
16-week tour of U.S. prisons. 1968 - The animated film "Yellow Submarine" premiered at The London Pavilion. The Beatles made a cameo appearance in the film but didn't supply their own voices for the characters. 1967 - The Monkees performed at Forest Hills, NY, with opening act Jimi Hendrix. FACT OR FICTION Two of these are FACTS, the other is FICTION
... But which one? MORNING SIDEKICK |
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