Blergh

I never really had a problem with Will Smith as an actor per se (and, at times, he could be quite entertaining). However; how he and his wife have let their minor kids be exploited by their 'projects' is rather infuriating. Added to the ' what were they THINKING' list, should be that women's wear company that's now had Mr. Smith's teen son be their new 'model'. If an ADULT wants to do something that could bring lifetime ridicule and needless speculation, that's on them but either Mr. or Mrs. Smith and/or someone in that company should have put the brakes on that for the sake of not letting a questionable teen decision haunt him the rest of his life.

Sad that Schneider's no longer with us but considering that he seemed to have had Alzheimer's, at least he's no longer in that terrible limbo not knowing who he was.

I get what everyone's saying. I was overseas a few months ago doing my best to enjoy the ambiance of that city's unique natural beauty and historic sites but it seemed virtually every tourist under 35 HAD to do the selfie deal as in 'I don't CARE about this place but I just want folks to notice *I* am here!' . Vive that French girl and let's hope that means the NEXT generation will get burned out on this toy and 'tude.

Hanahope, I agree re Pat Banatar. Also, a plus on her bio that the Wilson sisters lacked- being willing to own her past mistakes rather than constantly do the 'not our fault that we did such and such. .' deal.

John Grisham- I mean, how many times can he do the 'young idealistic lawyer finds corruption and must try to overcome it' plot? About as one-trick pony as 'Scooby Doo' cartoons.

I guess everyone ELSE getting sick somehow takes care of it. I wonder if he (or Joanne) have ever given thought to at what point would he consider it going 'too far' re his consumption to chance his own kids emulating- ,coal slurry,nuclear waste or Ebola patients' dressings?

While it was a very tautly done, thrilling mystery, one thing that tainted it was the fact that Mrs. Christie originally titled it 'Ten Little N-----s'! Even taking into account that there were NO people of color as characters, it seemed a needlessly rude title and the term was NOT considered acceptable in polite British society back when she wrote it. Oddly enough, a few decades later it was released in book/play form as 'Ten Little Indians' despite there ,again, being no Native Americans as characters. I think it would have been best for all concerned (including Mrs. Christie) had she titled it 'And Then There Were None' from the beginning.

If folks like that (or any ) movie that much, why don't they just buy a DVD of it to watch over and over again for all their 'fave' parts instead of having cable endlessly rerun it to annoy those of us who might want to watch something else from time to time?

I can't say he was mine (that was Colonel Potter). However; inasmuch as the character never was righteous (unlike Hawkeye, Frank, BJ or even Charles), he was somewhat refreshing to show his flaws as they were. Still, considering the origins of his nickname (he got it from not letting a nurse leave a supply room so he could . . have a tryst with her), I have to wonder if they'd have let him have said nickname if they produced the show today. Also, ironic that everyone up to including Henry, Margaret and even Father Mulcahey just treated it as a joke among friends rather than something disturbing or criminal.

Ironic that both Nat 'King' Cole and his now departed Natalie each did a tremendous body of work besides "Unforgettable"- yet THAT postmortem duet will be the ONE thing both(and each) of them will be remembered for more than anything else in their respective careers by most people. I hope you've found your peace, Miss Cole.

As long as we're talking grammatical pet peeves -here's a slang usage I hope to live to see the end of: 'sick' as being used in place of terrific, wonderful and/ro (as in 'That new Katy Perry tune is so SICK!'). Well, I managed to outlive 'jive' , 'jamming' and seem to be on the verge of surviving 'awesome' [though not yet '__-sauce'] so maybe I can make it the end of the 'sick' tunnel. LOL

revbfc and Brattinella, No, I'm not referering to either of these individuals. This person just seemed to be a generic older doc helping to pitch an otherwise unmemorable men's health product who was touted as an 'anti-aging specialist' yet didn't seemed to have sipped the Fountain of Youth himself.

Maybe I'm getting cranky in my middle age but I'm more tolerant of crying babies on planes than I am of whining, TMI so-called adults on planes.

There's this new men's health ad that has nothing standing out except that it features someone described as an 'anti-aging specialist' - and he's a white haired old man! LOL I mean, wouldn't it make more sense to have someone who looks decades off his actual age so folks get the idea he knows what he's talking about?

In her bio, Miss Neal said that she really DID want to keep playing Olivia after that TV movie got picked up and turned into a series but no one asked her back. Since she herself HAD grown up in the mountains during the Depression, this was a role she truly believed in but I suppose they didn't want to chance her wrecking her health with the demands of a weekly series (and perhaps the insurance folks agreed). Yeah, as much as I enjoyed Miss Learned's performance, it's hard to imagine Miss Neal later evolving into the downright frisky filly Olivia became before she left the show altogether but then again it's hard to imagine she and Mr. Waite would have had the same chemistry as he and Miss Learned did. As for the 'other Grandpa'? That was Edgar Bergen [yes, Candice's dad] in one of his few dramatic roles. He usually was the 'straight man' for the marionette Charlie McCarthy on radio and the movies(and Jim Henson would dedicate the first "Muppet Movie" to him in addition to giving him a warm cameo) but here he played a completely different character. What's also interesting is that he HAD previously performed with Ellen Corby in the classic movie "I Remember Mama" in which he played, of all roles, the prosperous but shy object of Miss Corby's affections. Perhaps this was their way of imagining how things would have turned had these then-middle aged suitors had lived long enough to raise two generations. Mr. Bergen definitely played Grandpa with far less vitality than Mr. Geer would though ironically would wind up surviving his 'successor'.

I imagine they'd get quite a few fans of the show but I wonder how long it will last after the shows over. Also, could this and the huge warehouse/office deal be taking too much too soon?

Has anyone seen Paul Newman's Bavarian Pretzels lately? I haven't in my town in quite a few years and the stores never got back to me re my queries.

One from the past I recall is on the "Here's Lucy" ep 'Lucy, the Skydiver', Desi Arnaz, Jr. (as her son Craig) accidently called his sister Kim by her performer's (his real life sister's) name, 'Lucie' but since it happened immediately before Lucy herself was due to crash through the roof in skydiving apparatus, I guess they didn't want to have to redo the whole scene and counted on viewers overlooking it.

Could "Force Awakens" become to these Awards what Pia Zadora was to the Golden Globes?

Here's one that majorly disappointed me: Linda Ronstadt's. I've always enjoyed her music down the years and thought her memoir would give some good insights re what made her tick but it fell a bit flat. Oh, it started out promising re vividly sketching out her early childhood and extended family in New Mexico where she learned to appreciate a wide variety of musical styles and even waxed a bit about her childhood pony. Then it became somewhat withdrawn re talking about her mother suddenly becoming very ill then being paralyzed for months on end. What condition this was never got mentioned but this required the family to employ a caregiver who Linda loathed apparently for requiring the children to wear shoes. Then suddenly Linda relocated to California to start her professional performing career but what led her to do this and whether this was initially a stopgap measure until she did the conventional route of college and marriage goes unmentioned. What also goes unmentioned is why no one seemed to be more than folks she 'spent time with'. I mean I actually like memoirs in which the authors are discreet and try not drag others down with them but being coy for its own sake does get a bit weary. Even when she's an adult and found out her mother has died, all Linda said is that she was doing her laundry in London when she found out- then finished with her laundry. That's it. Even more frustrating was how she dealt (or didn't deal) with her offspring. It's well known that she adopted them in her 40's as a single woman at a time when few folks not conventionally married did so but what led to that decision and how it impacted the three of them goes unmentioned. In fact, apart from a single photo of herself holding her infant daughter with the caption of 'my daughter and me', a few odd references to 'my baby/ies', 'my kid/s' ,' my son', 'my daughter', the only thing we learn about them is that when her son was fourteen he developed very different musical tastes from her. She never even gave their names. It would have been one thing had she said 'I love my children and since they're not public figures, I want to respect that by not detailing their lives so I hope the reader understands', but she made them seem like bystanders in her life. Regardless of this rather unsatisfying book, I'll always enjoy her music and, of course, wish her well in making the best of her Parkinson's.

Agree, Snow Apple. What was especially maddenly ironic was how often the writer expressed frustration re how much and often Miss Lee and the other Hovac family members obscured if not obliterated their actual pasts but the author just made thing even more confusing for the reader.

Agree with you re Bob Woodward's 'work'. It seemed Mr. Woodward was unable to wrap his head around the concept of the possibility that the late Mr. Belushi could have actually done anything positive in his life. Yes, I know that Mr. Belushi had serious problems and demons he was not able to overcome but he DID do a lot of good and was a genius entertainer and it's too bad Mr. Woodward refused to touch upon this. I always was intrigued by the fact that he developed his very physical nonverbal antics as a means to communicate with his adored grandmother who raised him but she spoke almost no English whilst he spoke almost no Albanian- and how utterly heartbroken he was at her death which I believe was a contributing factor to his too-early demise.

OK, I have quite a few I've read down the years of celebrities, politicians, etc. I'll start the ball rolling by the duo bios of Loretta Lynn "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "Still Woman Enough". While it's been revealed in recent years that she fudged her age for many years that in itself took nothing away from her accounts re of her many struggles and triumphs down the decades from her early childhood onwards and she didn't shy away from describing how she coped with such challenges as her husband's chronic alcoholism and infidelity to say nothing of her heartache and regrets re her elder son's sudden death and how it impacted the entire family for years onward. In short Mrs. Lynn even when she made regrettable choices, she wasn't shy about admitting them for what they were rather than trying to justify or spin them and for that reason amongst others I consider her bios amongst the best.

What do we consider the worst bios/autobios read? Are the authors needlessly coy or outright dishonest re subjects' ages/origins,etc? Do the bios avoid significant parts of their subjects' stories up to and including spouses & offspring? Do the bios skip back and forth with no logical or chronological order? Do they wind up causing the reader to thoroughly dislike their subjects due to bad deeds and tudes spun? Here's a thread to discuss our least fave bios we've read and why.

What are our fave bios/autobios? How candid are the authors re their subjects' lives or families?Are the stories related honestly but without wallowing ? Do the bios cover as much of the subjects' chronological lives as possible? Can even bios admitting terrible deeds and tudes still be edifying re their subject matter? Here's the thread to discuss it.