Morning Briefing:
On the continued insanity of Axl Rose: Guns N' Roses were in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday night, and after the show -- and a night of partying with what Swedish tabloids called "a bevy of leather-clad blond women" -- frontman Axl Rose ended up in a shouting match with an unnamed woman in the lobby of his hotel. When a hotel security guard tried to intervene, Rose turned his fury on him, and at some point in the scuffle allegedly bit the guard's leg. He was arrested and taken away in handcuffs, and after police determined he was "too intoxicated to be questioned," Rose was allowed to sleep it off; in the morning, he was released without being charged, but only after paying a $5,500 fine and giving $1,360 to the bitten guard. Tonight, GNR head to Oslo, Norway. (Page Six)
Things turn nasty on "The View": On Tuesday, Star Jones made her long-expected announcement that she will be leaving ABC's "The View" in mid-July, but what looked like it was going to be an amicable split has turned icy. Jones, in an interview with People that appeared online after the show aired, announced that she found out that her contract hadn't been renewed and decided to leave the show early. "I feel like I was fired," she told the magazine -- which, as it turns out, is basically true. "The network decided long ago not to renew her contract," Barbara Walters, the show's driving force, told Lowdown yesterday. "There are very strong reasons why [ABC execs] felt she had lost the audience. I had then decided, along with [executive producer] Bill Geddie, that whatever she wanted to say -- that she had a new job, that she was starting a new chapter -- we would back her up." Now, a source tells People, the network has asked Jones not to come back at all: "ABC has asked her not to return to 'The View' tomorrow morning." (Lowdown, People)
Dorkiest thing ever: This could very well turn out to be the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" of the NPR demographic, if that's not sort of weirdly redundant:
From: [redacted]
Date: June 27, 2006 5:06:22 PM EDT
Subject: News Release: A Prairie Home Companion
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COME SING ALONG WITH GARRISON KEILLOR, MERYL STREEP, LINDSAY LOHAN AND THE REST OF THE CAST OF ROBERT ALTMAN'S A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
NEW YORK, June 27, 2006 -- Theater chains across the country are hosting "Sing Along" screenings of Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, where audience members receive a book containing lyrics from the songs in the film and are encouraged to sing along with the cast.
"When the film opened we noticed that people immediately responded to the music and would hum or sing right along with the film," said Bob Berney, president of Picturehouse. "Since the film has such a communal feel to it, we decided that going into the holiday weekend, we should encourage the audience to interact with the film and one another."
Currently, "Sing Along" screenings are taking place in more than one hundred theaters across the country.
Also:
Michael Jackson has severed his ties in Bahrain -- on Tuesday, he fired his lawyers there, as well as his new manager and other support staff -- and is now apparently moving to Paris. "He wants to be in a place where people can meet with him easily," a source tells Fox 411. "Bahrain was not that place." (Fox 411) ... Mary J. Blige, Kanye West and Jamie Foxx each picked up two wins at Tuesday night's BET Awards, while Prince won for best male R&B artist and Chaka Khan was given a lifetime achievement honor. (Associated Press) ... With her divorce from Beatle Sir Paul McCartney still pending, Heather Mills McCartney says she's afraid for her very life. "John Lennon was shot and George Harrison was stabbed and loads of kids are kidnapped," she told British tabloids recently. "People are pursuing me round the country." (FemaleFirst) ... Star magazine editor Bonnie Fuller has just renewed her contract with parent company American Media, signing on for three more years at $1.5 million a year, plus big fat bonuses. (Hollywood Reporter) ... After more than 100 years apart, the remains of Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife, Sophia Peabody, who died and was buried in London, have been reunited at the Hawthorne family plot in Concord, Mass. (BBC News) ... Soccer may be the world's sport, but football is still the game of choice at home: A new poll says only 6 percent of Americans have actively been following the World Cup. (Rasmussen Reports)
Money Quotes:
Jerry Falwell, founder and chairman of the Moral Majority Coalition, on how to get ahead in Hollywood: "You know, you almost got to be a homosexual to be recognized in the entertainment industry anymore." (Media Matters)
Us Weekly editor Janice Min on why celebrity glossy magazines traffic in fluff: "It's not a pick-me-up to read about American soldiers getting beheaded." (New York Observer)
Katie Couric says she's relishing her time between jobs: "Unemployment is highly underrated." (Rush & Molloy)
-- Scott Lamb
Turn On:
Spike TV premieres "Blade: The Series" (10 p.m. EDT), sans Wesley Snipes, and CBS presents the underwater special "Shark: Mind of a Demon with Fabien Cousteau" (8 p.m. EDT).
On the Talk Shows:
Charlie Rose (PBS, check local listings): Stephen F. Cohen
David Letterman (CBS, 11:30 p.m. EDT): Robert Downey Jr., Fred Willard, Martha Wainwright
Jay Leno (NBC, 11:35 p.m. EDT): Jeremy Piven, Corinne Bailey Rae
Conan O'Brien (NBC, 12:35 a.m. EDT): Kevin Spacey, Strays Don't Sleep
Craig Ferguson (CBS, 12:35 a.m. EDT): Amy Sedaris, Dave Foley
Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, 12:05 a.m. EDT): George Foreman, psychotherapist Richard Cohen, Blue October
Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 11 p.m. EDT): Al Gore
Stephen Colbert (Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. EDT): Robert Baer
-- Lamar Clarkson
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