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CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela's garrulous President Hugo Chavez on Thursday began a marathon four-day edition of his trademark television show to mark 10 years since the influential and widely watched program first hit the airwaves.
Chavez is a tireless talker who uses frequent television appearances to make policy announcements, berate opponents and even sing during rambling speeches often delivered in the florid vernacular of working class Venezuelans.
Normally transmitted on Sundays from a different corner of the South American oil exporting nation each week, 'Alo Presidente' is the boisterous socialist's favorite forum, with the program once running to eight hours.
"'Alo Presidente' starts today and finishes this Sunday, we don't know at what time," Chavez said at the start of Thursday's program broadcast from an electricity plant in Venezuela's oil heartland state Zulia.
Venezuela's media reflect its polarized society, with government stations strongly supporting Chavez and private newspapers and Globovision TV relentlessly critical of the president and his policies.
Chavez believes strongly in the political power of the press and TV. In 2007 he refused to renew the license of the nation's largest television station, implicated in a brief coup against him. This year he has increased pressure on Globovision.
Chavez, who keeps his energy levels high with multiple cups of coffee, has used his television show to announce nationalizations, and rail against the United States.
He once shocked his defense minister on the show by ordering tanks to the border with Colombia.
On Thursday he began the program giving sexual education tips to a group of teenagers and talked about problems with his weight, which has ballooned since he took office in 1999.
Chavez also quoted from a letter written by his close friend Fidel Castro, in which the former Cuban president said "Alo Presidente" had broadcast a total of 1536 hours, or 64 full days, since it was first aired.
"Never has a revolutionary idea made use of the media so effectively," Castro wrote.
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Here's a strange but true and very Canadian story about Conan O'Brien, who takes over as host of "The Tonight Show" on Monday.
In the early '90s, before he became host of "Late Night," O'Brien went on a trip to Vancouver with his buddy Greg Daniels ("The Office"). Watching TV in their hotel room, the two comedy writers became fascinated with a long-running CBC series: "The Beachcombers."
"It was about guys picking up logs in the water!" said O'Brien, summing up 18 seasons of the series.
In particular, O'Brien and Daniels were mesmerized by the performance of Pat John as the native business partner, Jesse Jim. John's odd, halting cadence was so out of left field that O'Brien and Daniels decided that they had to see for themselves if this guy was for real.
They found his name in the Vancouver phone book, called him up and went over to where he was living at the time. They told him they were producers scouting for talent for an upcoming project - but really, they just wanted to meet Jesse Jim.
What this tells you about the new "Tonight Show" host is that a) he can find the funny in the strangest places, b) he's not afraid to get up close and explore it, and c) he watches way too much television.
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The third point is probably not true all these years later as O'Brien gets set to take over "Tonight." Since handing off "Late Night" to Jimmy Fallon in February, O'Brien, 46, has been busy moving his wife and two young children from New York to L.A., glad-handing with dozens of NBC affiliates all over America and shooting test episodes of his new series.
"It has been a marathon," the late-night talk show host told critics on an NBC conference call earlier this week.
The marathon actually started five years ago when NBC first announced O'Brien would eventually be taking over "Tonight." Earlier in the decade, after triumphant road stops in Toronto and Chicago where frenzied fans filled auditoriums, O'Brien and his team knew they were ready to take their act to the next level: 11:30 at night.
An unbroken, decade-long winning streak in the 12:35 a.m. time-slot also had everyone's attention. Anxious to keep the younger O'Brien from jumping to ABC or Fox, NBC made the deal to offer him Jay Leno's job.
As a consequence, as O'Brien put it this week, "I feel like a racehorse that was put in the chute five years ago."
What O'Brien didn't want to happen over that time was to over-think how he was going to approach "Tonight." A student of TV and a great fan of the "Tonight Show" hosts who went before him - Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Leno - O'Brien (who will be Leno's final guest Friday night) wanted to balance the traditional approach viewers expect to find at 11:30 with his own comedy style.
By the Harvard grad's own admission, that tends to run a little wild at times.
"I'm not a snob when it comes to comedy," he says, citing a Three Stooges short where a bear driving a car puts its paw out for a left turn as his idea of comedy gold.
"I can appreciate a Steve Martin prose piece in The New Yorker as well as when he went on stage and put an arrow through his head."
O'Brien says his show is at its best when it is at its silliest. The "Year 2000" bit - where he and whoever is guesting hold flashlights beneath their chins and make strange predictions - is one of his favourite sketches.
"It's basically just a good way to deliver jokes," he says, adding that, as a writer, it seemed like something he could have sold to Carson.
Although he expanded his monologue to include more jokes as he was winding down "Late Night," O'Brien says he won't attempt to duplicate Leno's nightly 35-40 joke barrage at the top of the show. While Leno was more into jokes, O'Brien - a big fan of the classic Canadian sketch show SCTV - is more into ideas.
So expect to see more sketches and signature characters (including Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) throughout the show, with O'Brien's old "Late Night" pal, Andy Richter, pitching in as announcer and comedy player. Back, too, will be Max Weinberg and the Max Weinberg 7, with O'Brien's familiar theme "brightened" for "Tonight."
O'Brien says that back when he was struggling to find his feet as a talk show host, he got a piece of advice from one of his heroes: Johnny Carson.
"He told me to just be myself, which is the best advice anyone can give you," he says.
As for moving out to the West Coast, O'Brien says he notices the difference when he's out riding his bike. In New York, he barely got noticed. In L.A., he gets followed by people with cameras, sometimes for long distances.
"Cars drive along with me and shoot me," he says, prompting him to ask, "isn't Johnny Depp on a unicycle somewhere?"
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Silver screen actress Jane Randolph has died after undergoing surgery on a broken hip. She was 93.
The veteran star passed away on May 4 in Gstaad, Switzerland.
Randolph, born Jane Roemer in Ohio, landed roles in 20 Hollywood films between 1941 and 1948, and found her big break in the 1942 film noir horror Cat People.
After filming a lead part in the 1948 comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Randolph married businessman Jaime del Amo and retired from acting.
She is survived by her daughter, Cristina del Amo.
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Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler's on-off marriage is back on for good.
The couple has split and reconciled numerous times since marrying in 2004.
Their marriage came to an end in 2006, but Moakler returned to nurse her ex back to health after his September 2008 plane crash.
Their brief reunion came to an end in March - but Moakler reveals the couple is back together again, and they are serious about plans to renew their wedding vows.
The former beauty queen tells America's Star magazine, "(We are) 100 per cent together. We are absolutely talking about one day renewing our vows.
"We love passionately, we fight passionately. That's just who we are."
Barker and Moakler have two children together: son Landon, five, and daughter Alabama, three.
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Well, it's just about that time in Susan Boyle's rise to fame where everyone turns on the singing sensation.
Just over a month ago, we were all tearing up over the 48-year-old's first Britain's Got Talent appearance (even Simon grew a heart for a minute) because it was surprising that such a dowdy lady could sing so beautifully. Also, you know, a glimmer of hope and dreams in "these tough economic times" and stuff.
Then there was makeover watch, Oprah, paparazzi outside her home every day and all that other famous-person stuff leading up to her semifinal performance of "Memory." And that is where Lily Allen's Twitters were a sign of the impending SuBo (that's what they call her in Britain) backlash: "i don't think she has an amazing voice" and "Susan Boyle is so overrated."
So now she's under the pressure that comes with sudden fame. Two sudden foulmouthed outbursts don't seem that unexpected, but that doesn't make them less newsworthy...
According to The Sun, two people at the Wembley Plaza Hotel wound her up and she freaked out yelling, "How f**king dare you! You can't f**king talk to me like that." Then police in the area spent 15 minutes calming her down.
Her spokesperson commented on the incident to the Daily Mail: "The police were escorting a journalist from the premises who had been winding Susan up. Susan and her sister were talking to the police telling them what had happened."
Then while watching BGT in the hotel bar, she reportedly yelled, "F**k off" when judge Piers Morgan praised her competition, 12-year-old Shaheen Jafargholi, as " the best singing performance we've seen so far."
SuBo's spokesperson says that isn't true and mentions annoying journalists again: "Susan was in the bar with friends but was getting hassled by a journalist. The four of them left before Shaheen's live performance to watch it in the room instead."
So now everyone is saying how she can't handle the fame, it's gone to her head, she's moody, she's crazy, she's a pain to other contestants, and all that fun stuff.
But she has a friend in her favorite judge. Piers Morgan blogged in her defense and also appeared on the CBS Early Show, where he said:
"I'm actually feeling more supportive today than I was before because I feel really sorry for Susan. From what I hear, she's been in tears the last two days. She even threatened to leave the show yesterday at one stage because of the sheer amount of pressure on her."
It's a classic story of overnight fame. Unexpected? Definitely not, but every time it happens it's like no one ever saw it coming.
SuBo performs in the Britain's Got Talent finals this Saturday and hopefully won't give the tabs the onstage freakout they're eagerly anticipating.
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WASHINGTON – Forty-one youngsters are competing for the title of national spelling champion.
The semifinals of the 82nd Scripps Nationals Spelling Bee began Thursday morning. The semifinalists are those remaining from a record 293 participants who arrived in the nation's capital this week.
About a dozen spellers will go on to the finals, aired on national television Thursday night. The winner receives more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.
Among the favorites are Kavya Shivashankar (KAH-vee-ah SHI-vah-SHAN-kar) of Kansas. She has finished in the top 10 for each of the last three years. Last year's runner-up, Sidharth Chand of Michigan, also made the semifinals, along with four-time bee participants Keiko (KAY-koo) Bridwell of South Carolina and Josephine Kao of California.
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MIAMI – Commissioners in Miami might delay the demolition of a waterfront expo center to accommodate the producers of the cable television series "Burn Notice."
Last year, Miami commissioners approved a proposal that included plans to demolish the decaying expo center.
But producers say the show might leave Miami if the facility is torn down. The expo center has served as the headquarters to the production of the Fox Television series, which airs on the USA Network.
Commissioners on Thursday could vote to indefinitely suspend the expo center's demolition.
"Burn Notice" stars Jeffrey Donovan, who plays a spy fired by the Central Intelligence Agency who uses his training to help others in trouble. The new season premieres June 4.
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LONDON – It's always a bad hair day for Susan Boyle — until she starts to sing.
The Scottish songbird with the frizzed-out hair doesn't look like a star — she's chubby, with plain features, and no thousand-watt show biz smile. But her golden voice has made her the overwhelming favorite in Saturday's Britain's Got Talent finals, expected to draw millions of viewers in Britain, where it's broadcast live, and tens of millions throughout the world, with the help of YouTube and other online sites.
If she can prevail over nine competitors, the overnight singing sensation from a hardscrabble village in Scotland would pocket 100,000 pounds ($159,000) and an invitation to perform at a Royal Variety Show in front of Queen Elizabeth II.
With her high-profile fans — including actress Demi Moore, expected to jet in for the finals — and an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show, Boyle has far overshadowed the other contestants. But she still must excel Saturday night, and hope that none of her rivals generate enough magic to win over the frequently fickle British public.
"I think with the swell of public sympathy behind her, she could win this competition, and from that I think she could have a very successful album and probably one successful world tour because people will be curious to see her," said Neil Warnock, chief executive of The Agency Group, which represents dozens of top musicians.
He cautioned, however, that fame may be fleeting.
It will be much more challenging, he said, for Boyle to perform an entire live show on a concert tour than to sing one three-minute number on TV.
Even if she stumbles, a professional career seems likely. She's been offered a recording contract, and her huge name recognition would give any debut offering a fighting chance. But a poor performance Saturday might relegate her to flash-in-the-pan status in a disposable celebrity culture that makes and breaks stars at warp speed.
The hugely successful talent show has its roots in Britain's music hall tradition, which brought performing dogs, ersatz magicians, ventriloquists and fire-eaters to hundreds of towns and villages in the days before television. Warnock said this is part of the charm.
"We tend to make fun of the very, very stupid acts, but it has its own Englishness and its own eccentricity and we love that," said Warnock. "And you see a spark of genuine talent every once in a while."
The ten finalists all have stars — and dollar signs — in their eyes. But the real financial rewards will have to wait until after the competition. Boyle has already had phenomenal success on YouTube, where her first round performance has generated more than 175 million views, but those legions of fans do not bring her any cash.
"From what we've seen, I don't think she gets any money from that, which is a shame," said Matt Fiorentino, spokesman for Visible Measures, a Massachusetts firm that tracks YouTube traffic. "We've measured hundreds of thousands of comments about her and people are begging for an album from her. People have really fallen in love with this woman."
He said her first performance — when she stunned the skeptical judges and audience with her angelic voice — was tailor-made for YouTube. It has become the fifth most viewed "viral video" of all time, he said.
"She has the perfect story for this medium," Fiorentino said. "You have this woman, everyone is rooting against her at the beginning. People judged her on her looks, and then she unleashes this amazing voice and it becomes a success, and with all the bad things going on people really want to latch onto something happy."
One strong finalist who has already developed a YouTube fan base is 12-year-old Shaheen Jafargholi, an assured soul singer who still wears a white undershirt beneath his shirt and vest.
Some critics say that Jafargholi, with his smooth delivery and youthful charm, is actually a better singer than Boyle, who struggled a bit at the very start of her performance in the second round of competition.
The other singer who has already qualified for the finals in Shaun Smith, 17, who got his start doing Elvis impressions for his family when he was four but used a slowed down, stirring version of the U2 classic "With or Without You" to move forward.
Two strong street dancing troupes, Diversity and Flawless, have also made the finals and are expected to draw strong support from younger viewers.
Less likely to prevail is the paunchy father and son comedy dance group Stavros Flatley, which surprised many by storming into the finals after a performance of Zorba the Greek while dressed in white skirts and no shirts.
The remaining four contenders are set to be chosen Thursday and Friday nights.
The competition is the sole topic of conversation in Blackburn, the small Scottish town where Boyle has long been a regular performer on Karaoke nights at the Happy Valley pub.
"We are all rooting for her," said pub manager Jackie Russell, who blamed nerves for Boyle's shaky start during the second round. "The best is yet to come."
Large screen TVs are being installed for a party being planned at the local community center, where Boyle worked as a volunteer.
"The whole village is abuzz," said June Mackay, 27. "Of course she will win and it will change her life. However, she won't move house, she'll stay here in Blackburn. It's her home."
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