ABC's World News with Charles Gibson mustered a rare ratings win — its first in seven months, actually — last week over NBC and Brian Williams, 9.7 million total viewers to 9.5 mil.... CBS Sports' James Brown will take a turn as coanchor of the Saturday Early Show for two weeks this month and another two in April, as the program seeks a full-time sub for Russ Mitchell.... Kate-Sawyer? Der-Mer? Cast your vote for TV's sexiest couple in TVGuide.com's new poll!
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Mere days after the passing of the Godfather of Soul, Spike Lee has signed on to direct a feature chronicling the life of James Brown, Variety reports. Lee will first rewrite the latest of several drafts of the script, which has been tossed around for years and boasts Brown's blessing (as well as all music rights). He'll then hopefully begin production by late 2007, perhaps early 2008. Hey, Jamie Foxx, do you feel good?
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Felled by congestive heart failure on Christmas morning, James Brown used his final breaths to tell longtime manager Charles Bobbit, "I'm going away tonight," the New York Daily News reports. "I didn't believe him," Bobbit relates, adding that a short time later, Brown sighed three times, closed his eyes and died. Per the News, fellow music legend Little Richard remembers Brown as "an innovator, an emancipator, an originator... Rap music, all that stuff came from James Brown." Adds Public Enemy's Chuck D, "To this day there has been no one as funky. No one's coming even close." Noting the singer's most holy final day of life, the Rev. Jesse Jackson says, "He was dramatic to the end.... He would have it no other way."
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He Knew He Was Right
He stole the child! That whackjob stole the child! Louis Trevelyan's madhouse antics are back, and he's seen some hard living since last we met. Has he been sleeping in a gutter, a morgue, some high-Alps Tyrolean crevasse? Get that man some under-eye concealer! He is in a serious hate spiral, and the only friend he's got left he has to pay to keep around — Bozzle, who, judging from his habit of speaking about himself in the third person ("Best to keep on the right side of Bozzle"; "Bozzle's got considerable connections"; "Yes, Bozzle understands, madame") has been passing his newfound time with little kidnapped Louey by watching Elmo ad nauseam. But the real highlights of Part 2 are the kooky sly-eyed catfights between the 19th century's
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Believe it or not, Michael Jackson has managed to recruit a handful of singers to perform on his Hurricane Katrina charity single. According to reports, Jackson has received firm commitments from Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, James Brown, Lenny Kravitz, Missy Elliott, Yolanda Adams, R. Kelly and Mary J. Blige. Jacko’s calls to the Chuck E. Cheese's Boys Choir have yet to be returned.
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