CBC Leader Cleaver Abandons 99ers / H.R. 589

The leader of the Congressional Black Caucus Representative Emmanuel Cleaver appears to have abandoned the 99ers and H.R. 589.

In his article Is helping 99ers "cost prohibitive"? Jason Tabrys (Liberal Examiner for examiner.com) relays a White House conversation that seems to sound the death knell for HR 589 and with that, any hope the 99er Nation may have clung to for help from congress in order to survive. The article reads in part:

Representative Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO) said that the cost of H.R. 589, the unemployment extension so many millions of 99ers are desperate for is “cost prohibitive”.

The blog provides a detailed description of Rep. Cleavers exchange with President Obama reportedly detailed by Representative Cleaver:

“It was what I expected because my staff had done a lot of research on it. And we found that the cost of that program would be between $14 and 20 billion dollars which is cost prohibitive. So there was no point in the President saying, ‘yeah I support it…’ when I laid it out I said to him, ‘Mr. President, I’m going to raise this, and this is one of our issues because this is one of our issues — it’s an issue among our members…’ I ended it by saying, however, I understand that the cost is enormous. He (President Obama) said (to Rob Nabors sitting on the sofa) ‘Rob how much is it?’ And Rob said, ‘between 14 and 20 billion’ and I said, let’s move on. Because there was no point — that’s not going to happen”

....with Representatives Bobby Scott and Barbara Lee set to meet with the Republican leadership in the coming days doesn’t Representative Cleavers lackluster advocacy for this bill throttle any chance of bi-partisan support or was this just another political game played at the expense of people running out of air?
99ers are exhausted, their energies overdrawn by the battle to merely survive. “Cost prohibitive” is a term that slashes at the soul of someone comprised of breath, blood, and bone who is withering away. Is their existence “cost prohibitive”?

So it is NOT too “cost prohibitive” to BOMB Libya - just too “cost prohibitive” save millions of Americans from hunger & Homelessness. Where are Obama’s Humanitarian principles when it comes to the suffering of Americans?

This President and most every current member of Congress has GOT TO GO! The 99er Nation should be committed to making that so unless they get the help they desperately need to survive. Don't tell me that 7 million people, plus the additional 4 million that will be 99ers by next year (plus all the friends and families they can influence) cannot vote OUT this terrible President and every "Do Nothing House & Senate member" with their skewed priorities! The 99er Nation surely out numbers the Tea Party. We can and we MUST. Then again that will depend in part what other choice we have come Election Day 2012. If the 99er Nation, the Unemployed and the Under Employed would just join together we would have an enormous and undeniable constituency no politician could ignore or defeat. But will we?

Either way, it looks bad for the once “last Hope of the UI exhaustees” (HR 589) and the 99ers - now without any UI Lifeline for well over a year and going hungry and homeless at an alarming rate. Alarming for real humanitarians, that is, but apparently since that suffering is on America’s shores - Washington could care less.

[If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]

Sergio Aragones - Interview With Mad Magazine's Legend At WonderCon SF

Sergio Aragones is a giant in the comic book World, and indeed, in American Culture, but in an oh, so subversive way. Or, as he puts it, because his work is in print, Sergio gets to lead a "normal" life at home. But when he attends WonderCon and ComicCon, all that changes, and he's "mobbed" with "all this adulation," as he says with his infectious laugh.

Sergio Aragones is, with Al Jaffee, one of MAD Magazine's longest running cartoonists, and is best known for the barbarian named "Groo." More recently Mr.Aragones was signed on as a cartoonist with The Simpsons franchise, and Bart Simpson Comics.

But how did Sergio come to work for MAD Magazine? "I had come to MAD from Mexico, and had a portfolio of magazines, and everyone thought that what I did was a little too crazy for them, so they said 'Go to MAD. Go to MAD,' so I did.

"The reason that MAD is what it is,"Aragones said, "is because, in the beginning, parents thought it was a subsersive magazine. So kids would read it against the will of the parent. The parent would say 'Oh you shouldn't read that,' without knowing why."

Sergio explains that it was something people weren't used to at the time, but because kids loved it so much, MAD grew in popularity. Today, people still read it, he says, because "It hasn't lost the touch." And more because MAD fits the culture of the time, the Zeitgeist. Aragones has to ask his daughter to help him understand who a certain rapper MAD may parody is, for example. He calls MAD a "primer in humor" for young people.

Is The Marriage of Comics and Film A Good Thing?

Is the use of comic books as platforms for movies helping or hurting the comic book industry? While movies like Spider-Man and the various versions of the Batman comics have done well at the box office, some comic book artists grumble about how Hollywood's arrogance has contaminated the industry. Overall Aragones observes that "it's a good thing."

"The only people who get hurt," he says, "is a lot of people don't get the credit they deserve. So the big companies are very oblivious of what should be done. They want their names on it, and they don't care about the creators. It's very good for them economically sometimes, but the big producers, they come to ComicCon, they get a comic book, they make it into a movie, and they don't care. The pay the publishers big money. The publishers keeps it; and the publishers doesn't share it.

While Sergio says that's the only downfall of Hollywood's involvement, he reports that younger artists are more "hip" to the ways of Hollywood. "Before," Sergio says, "we were very stupid. (we say) 'Uhhh...' (Over the excitement of a large check.) They don't let the publisher keep the moneys (from movie deals). So now, it's different.

Aragones says that a common comic book may see a circulation of 100,000, but a movie version of the same work is seen by millions of people. One example of this is the graphic novel called Scott Pilgrim, which had various volumes, including one called Scott Pilgrim Versus The World. It was little known outside a small cult following of devotees, but the production of the movie Scott Pilgrim Versus The World brought the story of Scott Pilgrim's battle to win the heart of a girl with too many evil ex-boyfriends to many, and even though it didn't break even, the movie boosted demand for the book series, and gave it Worldwide visibility.

Did MAD Draw Government Attention?

Did MAD ever go "too far?" So far that it drew the attention of the Federal Government? Aragones says no: "Satire," he says "was one of the things that guarantees that things won't be touched." If an alien came to Earth, Sergio would show the person "anything" because words aren't necessary. "Let him choose."

Caddieshack's Cindy Morgan Is Lacey Underall And Yori From Tron

The movie Caddieshack is so well-known to so many people, from baby-boomers to students of American pop-culture, that some can even recite lines from the movie. Say that you're interviewing "Lacey Underall," and everyone knows that she's connected with Caddieshack. And the "she" who played her is Cindy Morgan, who also starred as "Yori" from the first Tron.

Since Tron Legacy was just released last fall, we started our talk there. What did the star of what she calls "classic Tron" think of the newest version? "I thought it was fantastic," Morgan said, "all the great special effects. It was really interesting, where they took the story."

How she came to be in Tron is the story of how Hollywood works, at least at that time in the late 80s. The story she tells has some interesting holes that it's hard to pick through. She says she was dating a guy who said he was in a cartoon but didn't decribe it, then she switches into talking about a time later, during a period where she "hadn't worked a lot since Caddieshack," she had what she describes as a "run-in" with one of the producers, where she says she "just came to do my job, and that's it."

She didn't identify the producer, or explain what happened in detail, or which movie the encounter was connected with, and since I only had a good five minutes, which I hit on the head, pretty much, there wasn't time to press her on the issue.

Moreover, at that point in our conversation, this blogger became overly senstive to the idea that it was easy to perhaps say the wrong thing to Ms. Morgan - just being blogger honest. That whatever's happened to Ms. Morgan (and perhaps she's saving her anger for her book) it's clouded her view of men in Hollywood. But also that she put herself in an environment where the kind of men she needed to deal with to get work thrive, and perhaps on some level believed she needed to be around men like that to get ahead.

Now, it feels a lot like she's angry. There's nothing at all wrong with that, but everything wrong with covering it up. It's bottled-up there; why not release it? Actress Sean Young, who starred in No Way Out and Blade Runner excellent at talking openly about sexism in Hollywood, and reminds you that she was 'blacklisted' after her drunken verbal assault on Director Julian Schnable at the 2006 Directors Guild Awards, as you can see from my interview at last year's Night Of 100 Stars Oscar Party:



But I digress.

Ms. Morgan got a call from the director of Tron, which she says is "unusual," that a director would call, and read a part of the movie script with Jeff Bridges, said "Thank you," and left. And, next thing you know, she was cast in the roll of Yori. The person who took her to lunch and talked about the "cartoon" was talking about Tron. He didn' get to be in it, but she did - something Morgan learned 20 years later.

Because so much of what Cindy said was "coded" the question to ask was obvious: is the work climate better for women in Hollywood today? Morgan says she's not in Hollywood anymore, but "the more things change, the more they stay the same. Some (men) still need a map and a calendar, but God bless them."

One thing that's obvious from our conversation is Cindy had a Hollywood experience that reads like an iceberg: we just saw the tip of it. Whatever happened to her, it's seemed to cloud her ability to joke about it, and the men who she encountered, some 20-plus years later.

As to what she's doing now, it's finishing a book on Caddieshack, which means Cindy's aware of the movie's impact on popular culture. As to her favorite lines, Ms. Morgan thinks Bill Murray had the best lines like "Freeze Gopher!"

Cindy explains that Lacey Underall is a real person, but her last name wasn't "Underall." Additionally, Morgan says that she played against type, as Cindy describes Lacie as a "carnivorous female of biblical proportions who could have anything she wanted."

But maybe's Cindy Morgan wasn't playing against type at all. Morgan said she "got nervous" when she realized she was the only person reading for the part (another story not told) and said that she hoped the person reading with her was a man, and if so, she would "make him sweat."

She's good at that.

Star Trek's Celeste Yarnell With Malachi Throne: On William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, And Her Life Today.

Celeste Yarnell is someone such that you may be caused to think "I've seen her before," but aren't sure why, unless you are a Trekker. Fans of Star Trek, The Original Series (TOS) remember and celebrate Ms. Yarnell for her one appearance as 'Yeoman Martha Landon' on an episode called "The Apple."

 "The Apple," which aired on NBC October 13, 1967, was known only to avid fans until improvements in digital media after the turn of the century led to its wide availablity, thus giving Yarnell's character, and her, a kind of second life.

For example, here's a review of the episode on YouTube, which opens with Yarnell and Walter Koenig:



Now, Yarnell is regularly called on to reminisce about her time with Star Trek's cast and crew, as we did during her second WonderCon appearance.

Asked what is was like to be on the set, Yarnell revealed a secret: until her work in 1967, she'd never seen the show. "I had no idea what Spock was or Captain Kirk," she said. "I walk on to this set with paper-mache rocks and my initial reaction was 'This must be a great cinematography crew to make this stuff look good."

After being offered the role of Martha Landon, Yarnell was asked if she wanted a part with more substance, and she said "no." She was happy with what she was asked to do in playing a Yeoman, and even asked to have her dress shortened "because mini-skirts were hot in those days," she said.

Yarnell said shortening her dress, which she thinks may have been used by Grace Lee Whitney who played "Yeoman Rand" caused some on the Star Trek crew to fear a conflict should Ms. Whitney return to the show. But the costume designer ruled out that possibility and told her people to make the dress fit Celeste.

How did she like working with the Star Trek cast? Of all, Yarnell gushes about William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk, and made the character part of American Mythology. "I adored Will," she said, and who she described as "The colossal jokester." But Celeste was afraid of Nimoy because he "stayed in character. He was so stern. He never smiled." between shootings for the episode. For the few who don't know, Mr. Spock is a Vulcan humanoid who's emotions are buried deep and controlled by a culturally-induced ethic of logic. A practice made diffcult for Spock because he's half-human.

Celeste and Malachi Throne

As we talked about Star Trek and her life today, a television legend this blogger met at last year's WonderCon was just next to us, and behind us on the video: Malachi Throne (pronounced "MA-LACK-Hi").

Mr. Throne played in Star Trek's flagship episode "The Cage" as the irracible Commodore Jose I. Mendez, and has appeared on perhaps every major science-fiction, secret agent, or comic-book based television show of the 1960s, from Batman to The Outer Limits, and starred with Robert Wagner in It Takes A Thief. Yarnell and Throne are friends to this day, as was obvious during the segment of our video where we went over to include Mr. Throne, thus pairing two legends from the World of Star Trek.

What She's Doing Today

On Saturday as she was at WonderCon, Celeste and her husband celebrated their 8th month of marriage. The two, Celeste and Nazim, enjoy life to the fullest, and are in business together in something called "Holistic Health Care" and have something called The Art Of Wellness Collection, and a series of websites on everything from supplements to "Hollistic Cat Care" at www.celestialpets.com.

Celeste Yarnell. Making the most of her Star Trek experience.

Will Obama Serve Again

There are many who may question President Barack Obama's chances of being re-elected. After the Libya decision that was made without Congress consent it is up in the air as to whether he stands a strong enough chance for a second term.

posted from Bloggeroid

San Francisco Hotel Community Video Talks To Hotel Employees

This video, sent to this blogger by a member of the San Francisco Hotel Community, explains their position in the issue of contract dispute with the Unite Here Local 2 labor union.

Here's the video:



Where Hilton has settled with the union, other hotel managers have not, and this video explains why. In it, they claim that Unite Here Local 2 labor union have drained $1 million of hotel employee union dues going to it. The video claims that the San Francisco hotel worker has nothing to do with Unite Here Local 2's attempts to unionize in other American cities.

This blogger's issue with Unite Here Local 2's approach is that it's ignorant of the current business climate, where money for travel and tourism is far less than even four years ago. It forgets that hotels can and do go out of business, harming the ability of workers to make money to help and maintain their families.

It would be better if Unite Here Local 2 itself actually ran a hotel, then it would be in a better position to understand what it takes to maintain a hotel as a business, and negotiate in a more intelligent way.

Courtney Ruby: Oakland City Auditor Talks Origins, ABC Security Issue

Courtney Ruby. A search for a video interview or comment from the City of Oakland's elected auditor reveals, until today, nothing. This is the first, and to date only, full long-form interview with Oakland's City Auditor.

Because the Akron, Ohio native was new to long video interviews, and to video-blogging, this interview was one part 'getting to know her,' and the other part on the issues of the day: the ABC Security issue that comes before the Oakland City Council this evening, and her budget. In all, the video - made at the new eatery Disco Violante (great burgers) at 347 14th Street in Downtown Oakland, is about 24 minutes long.  And because the ABC Security issue is "hot," this will be blog post one on Courtney Ruby, with two other posts to come later in the week.

But, for those of you interested in ABC Security, let's start with Ms. Ruby's comments about that.

Click here for ABC Security comments in the video at the 14:45 mark.

ABC Security and Favoritism.

ABC Security is an Oakland company located at 1840 Embarcadero, not far from Quinn's Lighthouse and in Oakland Council District Five, politically helmed by the legendary Oakland Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente.

Ms. Ruby has alleged that ABC Security may have violated the law by donating to Oakland councilmembers before seeking an Oakland contract valued at $2 million.   Even though ABC was the fifth, and then sixth ranked company, it managed to secure the recommendation of the Oakland City Council.  (For note, ABC Security wasn't the only security firm to be accused of a "pay to play" action, Marina Security, was as well.)

The City's Auditor forwarded the issue to the Oakland Public Ethics Commission.  One of the councilmembers who benefited was Jane Brunner of District One, North Oakland, who said that her choice of ABC Security wasn't due to the donation, and that she would return the money they've donated toward her.

Moreover, both Councilmembers Brunner and De La Fuente wrote about their reasons for supporting ABC Security, stating that...

ABC Security is an Oakland-grown, minority- and woman-owned local business with a long history of hiring Oakland residents and providing well-paying, union jobs. ABC currently employs 213 Oakland residents; that's 87 percent of its workforce...Nevertheless, because it has thrived and has exceeded the city's definition of a small business, it wasn't awarded preference points under the city's current point system, nor was it awarded points for its 42 years as an Oakland business nor for employing 87 percent Oakland residents.

On the ABC Security issue, which begins at the 14:45 minute mark of the video, Courtney Ruby and this blogger didn't address Brunner's and De La Fuente's statements, and Ruby seemed eager to avoid any political finger-pointing.  How did the issue come to her?

"I knew that the contract was before the council from the (City Council meeting) agendas.  I knew that a contract had been let. I always watch the committee hearings, so I know what's going on in the city."  She said that there was "conversation" regarding one company that was rated number one and ABC, which at the time was rated number five.   So, Ruby made it a point to visit the next committee hearing to hear the "next level of discussion" on the security contract, and watched as council recommended ABC Security, even though their ranking had dropped by one to number six in the field of firms under consideration.

She was "alarmed" that a contractor would go through an RFP process and, even though the best company, Cypress (at 452 Tehama Street in San Francisco, CA) met all of the criteria, it wasn't the one selected by the Oakland City Council, and they would consider picking a firm that was six levels down in the competition. Councilmember Pay Kernighan (District Two) tried to make a separate motion to have both Cypress and ABC Security moved to full council level, but the motion failed.

That's the issue the full City Council, will here this evening.

If the Oakland City Council wanted to have only Oakland firms, the RFP should have been restricted to companies in the city limits. But the RFP process was so geographically broad, that didn't happen. The Oakland City Council should not go against the city's own RFP criteria process in this way. That's this blogger's take.

Stay tuned.

Butler, America's Favorite, Was Ahead In NCAA Game, Is On Twitter

IF you read Twitter trends, Butler's America's favorite basketball team as they play U Conn for the NCAA Championship.

According to Trendistic, the platform that tracks popular twitter terms and keywords, as many as over one percent of all tweets were for Butler during the game, which is in the second half now, as this blog post is being written.

By contrast, UCONN takes up just .075 percent of all Twitter tweets.

Here are some of the Butler Tweets:

dtracy89 Dan Tracy
Reason No. 27 I'm pulling for #Butler: Their college newspaper is better than UCONNs. http://thebutlercollegian.com.
1 minute ago Favorite Retweet Reply

edkuryluk Ed Kuryluk
Are there any bricks left in Houston? #uconn and #butler seem to have thrown them all
2 minutes ago

That last one's a good one!

How about UCONN, you ask? Er. Well, OK. After all, my school's Cal, so I don't really care, sorta off.

Oh. You mean Twitter Tweets? Here they are:

phillipmbailey Phillip M. Bailey
Swear...I thought he was about to miss that dunk. #UConn #Butler #NCAA #MM2011
34 seconds ago

Bhog YungWilt Chamberlain
#UCONN b beatin shit downlow
34 seconds ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Typereckless Cdeasy
Let's go LAMB #UCONN
1 minute ago

AmandainOK Amanda
Slam dunk! #UConn #Butler
1 minute ago

UCONN's pulled ahead of Bulter 31 to 26 in the second half.

2011 NFL Draft: ESPN Mel Kiper Off Blaine Gabbert Bandwagon

At first, Missouri Quarterback Blaine Gabbert was the darling of the NFL Draft, with draft analysts from Mike Mayock at the NFL Network to the legendary Mel Kiper at ESPN singing the Mizzou signal caller's praises, even though he didn't win a single 2010 award of note, wasn't in the Heisman Trophy consideration contest, lost a bowl game, and didn't throw at the NFL Combine.

What Blaine Gabbert had and has going for him since January of this year is CAA Football's Tom Condon as his agent; a man described by some media types as "powerful" without explaining how that is. That "power" may have had something to do with all of the positive PR buzz surrounding Gabbert in the months since he hired Condon, especially a very slanted and frankly racist USA Today special focusing on 2010 Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton vs. Blaine Gabbert.

That article, which this blogger picked apart, featured Mel Kiper and USA Today's Jim Corbett inexplicably comparing Newton to other black quarterbacks as far back as 1999 without explaining why, or saying "Hey, these guys are black," making it look like "dog whistle" racism.

But now, in the wake of this bloggers post, which was picked up by Black Athlete, and caused Pro Football Talk to specifically mention that Gabbert got involved in a bar fight last year, something not widely reported before, Kiper's officially off the Gabbert Bandwagon.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated's Peter King, Kiper said:

Blaine Gabbert. Lotta people comparing him to Drew Bledsoe coming out, but I don't see it. I'm not buying into Gabbert. I know he runs a 4.65 at 6-5 and 235, and I give him credit for doing it with a poor receiving corps, but I think he's shaky. You realize he completed only 38 percent of his throws 15 yards [and farther] downfield? And he was only 44 percent on third down, with six touchdowns and five interceptions? You know what Andrew Luck was on third down last year? Seventy-one percent. [Gabbert will] go in the top five, but I've got him down past 10 -- not exactly sure where right now. Still finalizing that. But he and Newton will be around 12, 13 for me.

That was different from Kiper's earlier comments on Gabbert, where he had the QB going number one to the Carolina Panthers as recently as March of this year.

As a note, this blogger has nothing against Blaine Gabbert, but something against pumping him up just to counter the chance that Cam Newton will be picked by the Panthers, and something against the media bowing down to his agent without explanation. (Moreover, Gabbert should be careful how he uses Twitter, and his use of the term "IDIOT" in a tweet was not smart.) First, taking a quarterback from this class (or any class) that high is not the best expenditure of money. Second, it's a reflection of how little confidence NFL teams seem to have in their ability to coach the passing game to a new quarterback, such that the QB can start immediately - even though the NFL is a throwing league. If the confidence was there, the feeling would be 'We can coach anyone to be a good quarterback,' but that's not the case.

The logical choice for the Panthers in the 2011 NFL Draft is to take one of the defensive tackles number one, or trade down.

Stay tuned.

Liam Hemsworth In The Hunger Games, American Idol Stars At Reality Rocks Expo

A lot of news today. Liam Hemsworth, best known as Miley Cyrus once-former boyfriend, is starting in The Hunger Games, it was announced on Twitter by TheHungerGames (a Lions Gate Production).

And American Idol stars, along with Nick Cannon, DeAnna Pappas, Audrina Patridge, Eric Roberts, Karina Smirnoff, Jack Osbourne, and stars from Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Project Runway, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Dancing with the Stars, RuPaul's Drag Race, Food Network, Cooking Channel, and Bravo, will appear at the first Reality Rocks Expo April 9th - 10th, 2011 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA.

But first, the Twitter tweet about Liam Hemsworth in The Hunger Games:

TheHungerGames LionsgateMovies
We are pleased to announce that actor Josh Hutcherson has been cast as Peeta Mellark, w/ Liam Hemsworth cast in the role of Gale Hawthorne!
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

(An aside: Lions Gate almost has its' social media act together. If I click on this: http://www.facebook.com/OfficialHungerGamesMovie - it reads, as of this writing, "the page you requested was not found.")

The Hunger Games is a sci-fi novel by Susan Collins that according to Wikipedia,...

is the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy. It introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where North America once stood. This is where a powerful government working in a central city called the Capitol holds power. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the Capitol chooses one boy and one girl from each district to fight to the death. The Hunger Games exist to demonstrate not even children are beyond the reach of the Capitol's power.

The Hunger Games has a budget of $80 million and is set for release March 23, 2012.

And so we go from news about a movie about a reality TV show, to news about an expo that features reality TV stars. There's so much info from the press release about Reality Rocks, this blogger's going to post parts of it below, just to make sure you get all of the relevant information about this weekend's Reality Rocks Expo:

What is it? This is what the press release explains:

Reality Rocks Expo is the first and only comprehensive, live fan-based happening that brings the invaluable world of avid and loyal viewers of Reality TV together in an up close and personal setting with their favorite reality, unscripted, factual, and lifestyle shows, celebrities, hosts and judges networks and producers. The ultimate Realty TV fan experience, Reality Rocks Expo is about the fans, for the fans and by the fans.

The inaugural edition of Reality Rocks Expo will be held April 9-10, 2011 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA.

Reality Rocks Expo is a production of Prometheus Global Media, a diversified company with leading assets in the media and entertainment arenas, including: Music (Billboard and its related conferences and events, including The Billboard Latin Music Awards), Entertainment (The Hollywood Reporter, Backstage, ShoWest, ShowEast, Cineasia, and CineEurope); and Advertising & Marketing (Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek, Adweek Conferences, and The Clio Awards).

Official media sponsor for Reality Rocks is the Los Angeles Times and additional media sponsors include Access Hollywood, GotCast.com, KIIS-FM, MySpace, On the Red Carpet, RealityWanted.com, TVLine and Zap2it.com.

The inaugural Reality Rocks Expo is bringing fans the ultimate opportunity to interact with some of their favorite stars from building with the stars of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to pitching the stars of Shark Tank and a reunion of Rockstar Supernova, Q&As with cast members of Big Brother and performances by past contestants of American Idol, when the ultimate reality TV experience, about the fans, for the fans and by the fans, comes to the Los Angeles Convention Center on April 9-10, 2011.

These stars join what is already a star-studded cast of reality TV favorites that includes previously announced Nick Cannon, Adrianne Curry, Christopher Knight, DeAnna Pappas, Audrina Patridge, Eric Roberts, Karina Smirnoff, and previous contestants and cast members from American Idol, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Project Runway, The Real World, Survivor, The Amazing Race, So You Think You Can Dance, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and top shows from Food Network, Cooking Channel and Bravo.

The Reality Rocks Expo will feature two jam - packed days filled with previews of brand -new television shows, meet and greets with fan-favorite reality TV stars and insightful panel discussions, as well as a special VIP Awards program for the Reality Rocks Fan Awards honoring fans’ favorite talent and programs. For an updated list of scheduled events and to purchase tickets starting at $35 for a one-day pass or $65 for a two-day pass to the Reality Rocks Expo, visit www.realityrocks.net.

Really exciting stuff. So many stars, one should expect to see Liam Hemsworth there. Get down to LA this weekend, if just for one day, to the Reality Rocks Expo.

Katie Couric Quits? CBS Evening News Anchor Still There

A katie-couric-getty-images, a photo by JTDGarlic on Flickr.

Katie Couric. Many have tried to push the CBS Evening News Anchor - the first woman to hold the role for CBS News - out of the door almost since she arrived in 2006. There were men like Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman who in my 2006 interview with him at the NFL Draft that year, questioned the choice of the then-Today Show host as the choice to be the latest in a long, distinguished line of television journalists, featuring the legendary Walter Cronkite.  There's even something called The Katie Couric (Blank) Death Watch, where you fill in the blank, with "career" or "credibility."

This corner believes in Katie Couric, and has from day one.  But, as a woman friend with one of the news networks in New York observed today, Katie "Makes a lot of money.  That kind of money is rare in this business." And the point is CBS may be looking to pair down the payments to any current or future CBS Evening News face.

So with all that sexist crap, it should come as no surprise that, when the leggy face of CBS News announces that she wants to expand her role beyond just reading the news, the word is somehow translated into "Katie Couric Quits."

Even our own Nikky Raney at Zennie62.com got into the act, quoting the LA Times blog, and the AP. Geez.

Thankfully, it took non-mainstream media site TMZ.com to set the record straight:

Sources connected with Couric tell us ... Katie has no hard feelings toward CBS and may end up staying at the network, but feels her role as anchor of the CBS Evening News has been way too confining.

We're told Couric is most interested in doing a syndicated show -- probably a talk show -- but wants to end up somewhere that has a news operation where she can contribute. Sources say she's in serious talks with CBS, NBC and CNN. Her reps are talking to ABC, but that's a long shot.

Katie's exit from CBS Evening News is "not 100%" but it's just a matter of time before Katie announces her departure -- sources say it will come in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned.

Katie Couric Calls It Quits

Katie Couric will be leaving "CBS Evening News" as reported by the Associated Press. A blog on the LATimes reports:

"Couric has not officially announced what her next move will be, but her contract expires in early June, and she is expected to launch a syndicated talk show in 2012. Meanwhile, she has been in talks with NBC, ABC and CBS, as well as Jeff Zucker, the ex-chief executive of NBCUniversal, who produced NBC's "Today" when Couric co-anchored the show."