NBC News correspondent David Bloom, who died Sunday of a blood clot while covering the war in Iraq, apparently ignored doctors' advice to seek medical attention just days before his death. According to Business Week reporter Frederik Balfour, who was traveling with Bloom, the 39-year-old weekend Today co-anchor complained of cramps behind his knee last week. After describing his symptoms via phone to doctors overseas, Bloom was told he may be suffering from deep venous thrombosis, a condition in which blood clots develop in veins deep within the body. The physicians advised him to seek medical attention, but Bloom "ignored their advice, swallowed some aspirin and kept on working," says Balfour. NBC could not confirm the report. For more on Bloom, click here.
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At Monday's Country Music Television 2003 Flameworthy Video Music Awards (say that three times fast), Toby Keith's controversial anthem "Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (The Angry American)" picked up awards for video of the year, cocky video (huh?) and best male video. Keith dedicated his big victory to "Mr. Rumsfeld and Tommy Franks, and all the people over there [in Iraq] putting it down for us tonight." Somewhere, Michael Moore is foaming at the mouth.
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Penelope Cruz is suing Australian magazine New Idea after it published a story that contained "false and defamatory statements" about her relationship with Tom Cruise. It's not clear what the story alleged, and to be honest, I really don't feel like looking into it.
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Here's your chance to own a piece of Hollywood history: Winona Ryder wants to auction off for charity the $5,500 worth of already-way-overpriced merchandise she stole from Saks Fifth Avenue in 2001. Ryder's attorney made the offer at Monday's progress report hearing in Beverly Hills, during which Judge Elden Fox praised the 31-year-old actress for completing her community service ahead of schedule. Fox postponed a decision on the whole charity auction idea.
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Question: What is the name of the other M*A*S*H unit in the TV series? I can never remember the name and it is driving me crazy! Thanks. — Kari, Beaverton, Ore.
Televisionary: The 8063rd.
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HBO will do anything to keep its Emmy streak alive. The pay cabler has hired Bryce Zabel, the top exec at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (organizer of the Emmy Awards), to pen a drama series pilot set in the world of military intelligence.
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Spike Lee has agreed to direct The Game, a two-hour drama pilot for Showtime about San Francisco street gangs... A contestant and two audience members from the UK version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire were found guilty Monday in a London court of using a system of strategic coughs to win the show's jackpot... Nick at Nite is developing an animated series based on Bill Cosby's best-selling 1986 book Fatherhood.
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Tonight's Jeopardy features a category devoted to classic TV Guide covers. Apparently, producers rejected my first suggestion: classic TV Guide Online columnists.
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Question: I remember (and I seem to be the only one) that in the mid to late '70s, there was a Saturday morning cartoon featuring two cats, Waldo and Felicia. My brother and I named our two cats after these characters, but no one I've ever talked to can remember such a show. Help! — Sally
Televisionary: You're thinking of The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty, which was about a wimpy cat (shot in live-action sequences) whose daydreams of grandeur (animated sequences) were the stuff of this show. Most of the fantasies involved Waldo saving himself and his gal-pal Felicia from the bullying bulldog Tyrone, who made their lives miserable in "real" life.
Sound a lot like
James Thurber's
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty? The attorneys thought so, too. Facing a lawsuit, the producers changed the title to
The New Adventures of Waldo Kitty. (Big difference, eh?)
Wal
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