As frosty winds nip at the rosy apples of your cheeks and holiday lights begin to twinkle, warm thoughts of hearth and home are crackling inside you like a roasting yule log, right? Well, excuse us while we douse that with an icy cold bucket of Friday Buzzkills. There, that's better. (Oops. Probably should have opened the damper first.)
– Morrissey is suing NME for defamation after the magazine printed an article where he discussed his views on immigration, suggesting he is a racist. (During the interview he allegedly said, "Although I don't have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears.") Of course, this isn't the first time NME has accused the Moz of being a racist; remember the infamous 1992 "Flying the flag or flirting with disaster?" piece where Andrew Collins pieced together a litany of quotes like "I detest Stevie Wonder" and "Reggae is vile" to prove he hates black people? Paint a vulgar picture indeed.
– Hope you're enjoying the last fizzy drops of scripted television being squeezed out of the tap, because it's probably the last you're going to see for a while. NBC has announced its strike contingency schedule for January, and as expected it's wall-to-wall reality fare such as The Celebrity Apprentice, American Gladiators (hosted by Hulk Hogan, whose post-divorce mental unraveling should at least be good for a laugh), and return runs for 1 Vs. 100 and The Biggest Loser.
– One of the last remaining reliable den of thiev–er, torrent sites, The Pirate Bay, is finally being sued, and surprisingly it's not by His Royal Badness. Fred Goldman (father of Ron Goldman) is suing the Swedish file-trading site to recover profits from the "illegal publication" of O.J. Simpson's kinda sorta hypothetical confession If I Did It, which Goldman claims has cost him about $150,000 since it was first put up for free. Of course, the defendants have responded by saying "they are not subject to the laws of the United States." The deathwatch for The Pirate Bay ticks on.
– Mod icon Michael Blodgett, famous (in some circles anyway) for playing Lance Rocke in the cult 1970 film Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, died yesterday at the age of 68. Blodgett was a former talk show host turned actor who also wrote several novels and screenplays. (Betcha had no idea that Lance Rocke co-wrote Turner & Hooch.)
Have a super weekend!