Casey Anthony to Go Into Disguise

At the clip is Bill O'Reilly's compelling exchange with Nancy Grace from last night:

Also at RCP: "Nancy Grace: 'Somewhere Out There, The Devil Is Dancing Tonight'."

And from London's Daily Mail, "'She doesn't get how much people hate her': Casey Anthony considering disguises and a fake name after release." And at Fox News, "Casey Anthony Reportedly Plans to Use False Name, Disguises Upon Release From Jail."

'The Beatles Illuminated: The Discovered Works of Mike Mitchell' — at Christie's

I saw this on ABC News last night, "Unseen Photos of The Beatles' First US Concert."

And at Christie's: "Sale Information."

And staff members at Christie's share their memories of The Beatles, from surprisingly profound (Kerry Keane) to embarrassingly lame (John Hays). And from Laura Paterson, insightful honesty:

I love the early albums and movies, Hard Day’s Night and Help! This was the Fab Four at their most carefree and surreal (Yellow Submarine notwithstanding). By the time I reached my teens, they simply weren’t cool (Granny liked them, after all), and I switched my allegiance to their rivals, the much edgier seeming Rolling Stones (Granny hated them). Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate their immense influence on popular music and culture. The Beatles define superstardom; from L.A. to Ulaanbaatar, everyone knows who they are.

Kate's 'Marilyn Moment'; or, Rule 5 as Celebrity News Reporting

It's not just ogling at beautiful women. Rule 5 blogging can also bring you up-to-the-minute news. Thanks to Teresamerica, I caught the news of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and her Calgary upskirt moment: "Rule 5 Saturday: Kate Middleton Duchess of Cambridge - The Air Up There."

And now I see the original source material, at the Toronto Sun, "Kate's 'Marilyn moment' in Calgary" (via Instapundit).

It wasn’t the royal honey ‘moon’ Canadians were expecting.

That's for sure.

Impressions: The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil

I mentioned previously how moved I was by the show in Las Vegas. Charles Spencer, writing at The Telegraph UK in 2006, really captures the feeling:

Everything that was bold and beautiful, fresh and funny, sad and just plain silly about the Beatles comes together in this ravishing and almost indecently spectacular show. It's what old hippies call a head-trip, a constant 90-minute rush of dazzling sights and sounds.

But for those of us who grew up with the Beatles - and the first record I ever bought was She Loves You, aged eight, in 1963 - this latest piece from Cirque du Soleil is also overpoweringly moving. For it achieves the apparently impossible, allowing you to hear the Beatles with fresh ears. At times you seem to be listening to the music of your childhood and youth as if for the first time.

Spencer's a progressive, but folks might put aside ideological reservations and just enjoy the show. We were kids once. "Let It Be" is my most powerful Beatles memory as a child (and "Hey Jude" is right up there), and sometimes nostalgia is overpowering. And recall that recently I've been moved by George Harrison's songs, and it turns out that the one entirely original song at LOVE is Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." It's just so impressive all around.

I'm taking my kids to see LOVE next time we're in Las Vegas. They'll have to listen to some of the CDs, but they're already familiar with a whole lot of The Beatles from hanging out with me, my musical tastes, and from just the radio environment.

Leftists Freaked Out Over News of John Lennon as Republican

Well, mostly Jon Wiener at The Nation, although Joel Achenbach, at WaPo, "can't imagine" John Lennon as a Republican. Cute, isn't that?

But see James Delingpole, at Telegraph UK, "Was John Lennon a secret Reagan Republican?"

Over at the leftie Nation, historian Jon Wiener is having a massive sense of humour failure at this outrageous slur on a man probably second only to Che as an icon of international left-wing street credibility.

Exactly.

This story is so last month, but I couldn't get it out of my mind this week while visiting The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil.

Dude Who Snagged Derek Jeter's Home Run 3,000th Hit Gives Ball Back For Nothing

At New York Daily News, "Derek Jeter's 3,000 hit ball nabbed by Highland Mills resident Christian Lopez at Yankee Stadium."

The lifelong Yankees fan who snagged Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit shares a few qualities with The Captain: Hustle, generosity and class.

After outbattling a crazed bleacher crowd to snag the historic homer, Christian Lopez returned the ball Saturday to Jeter - passing up a possible six-figure payday for the irreplaceable memento.

"I'm going to give it to Derek," Lopez announced on the Yankee Stadium video board during the eighth inning - prompting the type of ovation typically reserved for Jeter.

"I got to see history in the making, and now I'm part of history," he said.

Well, the comments at that both the Daily News and YouTube aren't so supportive. Downright vicious, frankly. And I gotta say: Was that smart? Will the dude regret it? The Yankees gave him four season tickets for every remaining home game and the playoffs and World Series. That's pretty "suite." And he's getting his 15 minutes, so what the heck?

'Get Back'

Okay, this clip's from early in the show. Notice at how the dividing curtains fall at about 45 seconds. The theater is divided into quadrants. The curtains are up as guests are seated. Later throughout the performance projections onto large screens are used as part of the performance. There are also a couple of transitional segments with musical choreography projected as well. The crashing bricks here represent something of the Beatles' origins and search for meaning of the rubble of the war. From the commemorative booklet:

The action suddenly stops cold and we flash back further still, to the chaos and devastation of war. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is destroyed. But there is hope:

'A Day in the Life'

More video:

'Octopus's Garden'

Okay, I promised more from "Love."

"Octopus's Garden" is toward the last third of the performance. I'm looking around for some clips from earlier parts of the show, which begins with background from the Beatles' origins in Liverpool during WWII.

I love this, in any case.

Bonus: Ringo live clip. He was touring last month, and spoke to the 5th anniversary audience by satellite feed.

The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil

My wife and I have seen three performances so far by Cirque du Soleil. The shows are simply outstanding, but nothing's left me with the same feelings as the LOVE production. I'll be writing about it this weekend, and posting music videos and commentary. I've never been an absolute Beatles junky. The show was transformative, however. I can see better than ever how important The Beatles are to American culture. And not just from the show, which was so good — exquisite even. It's the fans, the excitement, and the demand for it all. I'll save some thoughts for later this morning. Here's the brief advertisement at the Mirage YouTube page:

The BBC had a write up in 2006, "Love unveils new angle on Beatles."

And last month, at Las Vegas Sun, "Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono lead celebration for ‘Love’ anniversary."

See the write up at Rolling Stone, "Paul McCartney Celebrates Fifth Anniversary of the Beatles 'Love' Show: Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon also attended Las Vegas performance."

Angie Harmon Squelches Rumors That 'Rizzoli & Isles' Characters Are Lesbian

Well, this story gives me a chance to blog Angie Harmon!

At Los Angeles Times, "'Rizzoli & Isles' — are they or aren't they?":

The first season of TNT's crime drama "Rizzoli & Isles" featured an episode with the title "I Kissed a Girl." Its stars, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander, played on a softball team, shared some intimate dinners, drank wine over candlelight and hopped into the same bed for girl talk.

But this is not a gay show.

Series creator Janet Tamaro described Harmon's Rizzoli and Alexander's Isles as a "power couple" — the center of a buddy drama, one that broke cable ratings records in its debut run and returns for its second season July 11. But the women are not together, as in together.

Tamaro chalks up the rampant are-they-or-aren't-they discussion to throwing "two gorgeous actresses together who have great, natural chemistry." She contends that Harmon's tomboyish homicide detective and Alexander's stylish medical examiner "are straight women who don't fear the interest in or the speculation about their relationship."

That hasn't stopped gay pop culture blog AfterEllen from dubbing the show, "totally gay, it just doesn't know it yet." Or another lesbian blog, CherryGrrl, from creating a "Rizzoli & Isles" drinking game, advising viewers to take a shot for interaction between the title characters that includes "stares lasting longer than three seconds," "sleeping in the same bed/couch/squad car," "adorable bickering which generally relates to sexual tension," or "complaining to each other about their inability to find a compatible mate, all while being completely compatible mates." The Washington Post even pointed to a hunky visiting FBI agent as a short-lived distraction from the "faintly lesbian undertones that the show keeps trying to establish."

Harmon, a veteran of "Law & Order," said she's familiar with the online chatter and that it's "super fun" to play a role that has some same-sex romantic vibes. She's relishing a character who's gruff and aggressive, the polar opposite of her own girlie personality, she said.

But as close as they are, Rizzoli and Isles are just best friends, she said. Really.

"I hate to disappoint, but these characters are straight," Harmon insisted. "If we lose viewers because of it — sorry!"

And that's amazing, that Harmon would note the possibility of LOSING viewers if the characters weren't gay. Reminds me of my post the other day, on the anti-hetero bigotry of Dan Savage. It's hard out there if you're straight. See: "Gay Sexual Abandon and the Perverse Inversion of Values by Same-Sex Extremists."

The Rizzoli & Isles page is here, on TNT.

John Lennon's Second Thoughts

Recall that by 1979 John Lennon was becoming outwardly conservative.

From David Swindle, at FrontPage Magazine:

How will the Left respond to these revelations? If the first reaction at The Los Angeles Times is any indication, the attempt might be to damage the credibility of the witness. Tony Pierce does not even bother commenting on the claims and instead noted that Seaman plead guilty in 1983 to stealing photos, journals, and letters from Lennon.

Jon Wiener at The Nation also jumped on this strategy to defend the icon he wrote a whole book promoting. Wiener went further though, trying to pass off a bland written statement in support of a group of striking workers and an ambiguous comment that the 1960s “gave us a glimpse of the possibility” of a better world as evidence that Lennon died a progressive. (At Salon Justin Elliott regurgitates this weak tea response.) Wiener ends with another ad hominem against Seaman, noting the former personal assistant also tried to “cash in” on his Lennon connection before with a book. Wiener fails to explain what financial stake Seaman could possibly have today in telling lies about Lennon’s politics.

It’s worth remembering that The Nation was the publication with the longest track record of defending the innocence of the Rosenbergs — regardless of every new piece of evidence to emerge over the last 30 years.

The problem with this kill-the-messenger strategy is that it labors under the mistaken impression that Seaman’s anecdotes are the only proof of Lennon’s Second Thoughts. As soon as one starts looking at Lennon circa 1980 as a Reagan conservative, more and more long-available evidence comes into focus. Old, familiar statements suddenly make sense in a new way. Some writers had even already theorized of Lennon’s political shift.

Well, progressives still have Paul McCartney!

Read the whole thing anyway. Progressive heads exploding at the news! You gotta love it!

John Lennon a Republican?

Well, if true, I might be able to enjoy The Beatles again (or enjoy them more, since I won't be so reminded of Lennon's stupid political idealism, and I love George Harrison no matter what).

At the Toronto Sun, "Lennon was a closet Republican: Assistant."

And worth a look: Daniel Foster, at National Review, "Fool Comes Down from Hill." (At Memeorandum.)

'I think everyone was kind of suspicious how I was going to be a sexual being, missing key pieces of equipment'

Says British actress Imogen Poots, at Interview:

[CARY] FUKUNAGA: Can we talk about boobs and why they’re necessary for Fright Night?

[IMOGEN] POOTS: Oh, the boob situation. I had to have a bra that made me look like I had bigger boobs because, you may know from being my friend and hanging out with me, that’s not a big situation, regarding my bust [laughs]. So we had to try all these props. I think everyone was kind of suspicious how I was going to be a sexual being, missing key pieces of equipment.

FUKUNAGA: Did you feel like somebody else?

POOTS: I did. The first bra we tried on was so big I got kind of emotional, and Craig Gillespie, the director, was standing there, and the tears were brewing in my eyes—and I’m sure I was blushing so much. I said, “I just feel like a cartoon.” And Craig turned to me and was like, “Okay. We’ll take them a size down.”

There's a Fright Night trailer at the interview, but she's seen here across Michael Douglas in "Solitary Man":

VIDEO: Katy Perry Rolling Stone Photo Shoot

At London's Daily Mail, "'I wanted to lose my ample curves': Katy Perry reveals her unusual teenage dream to Rolling Stone."

And at Rolling Stone, "Katy Perry Talks Body Image, Fame and Politics in Rolling Stone Cover Story."

Peter Falk, 1927-2011

My parents let me and my sisters stay up to watch "Columbo" back in the day.

But I'll never forget seeing Falk in "Wings of Desire," in 1987:

An obituary is at Los Angeles Times, "Peter Falk dies at 83; actor found acclaim as 'Columbo'." And at New York Times, "Peter Falk, Rumpled and Crafty Actor on ‘Columbo,’ Dies at 83."

'Courage, New Hampshire' Premiers Sunday

At Hollywood Reporter, "Tea Partiers Create Their Own TV Show and Production Company (Exclusive)."

Also at Big Government, "‘Courage, New Hampshire’: Tea Party’s Shot Across Liberal Hollywood’s Bow." It's playing at the Krikorian Theater in Monrovia, but tickets are sold out. The program's going to DVD, so something to keep to look forward to.

No doubt. WaPo's Rachel Weiner concurs, "Can liberals start their own tea party?" (via Memeorandum).

Ellie Goulding — 'Your Song'

An encore from yesterday.

Goulding sang at the Royal Wedding. See Telegraph UK, "Royal wedding: singer's joy at 'honour' of royal wedding performance."

Amy Winehouse Booed Off Stage in Serbia, Cancels Part of European Tour

I spent three years in L.A. going to concerts, nearly every weekend, and the only performer I can recall on stage this drunk was Darby Crash of The Germs. He could sing, no matter how wasted, but he died from a drug overdose in 1980, just a couple days after the last time I saw the band play. I've never seen Amy Winehouse, but this is just sad. It's all sad, the drugs, the lost promise, the death. At the Independent UK, "They know that she's no good... Amy Winehouse booed off stage in Serbia," and Los Angeles Times, "Amy Winehouse cancels part of European tour":

Wall Street Journal Weekend Interview: David McCullough, 'Don't Know Much About History'

I think the culture's changed so much. I'm not sure the same measures of education should be applied to today's younger generations. Yeah, I wish kids read more, and took interest in engagement. Especially kids of diverse or disadvantaged backgrounds. Overall though, it is indeed blank stares in the classroom when checking for just basic historical knowledge. It can be real drag sometimes.

Check it out, at the link:

Boston

'We're raising young people who are, by and large, historically illiterate," David McCullough tells me on a recent afternoon in a quiet meeting room at the Boston Public Library. Having lectured at more than 100 colleges and universities over the past 25 years, he says, "I know how much these young people—even at the most esteemed institutions of higher learning—don't know." Slowly, he shakes his head in dismay. "It's shocking."

He's right. This week, the Department of Education released the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which found that only 12% of high-school seniors have a firm grasp of our nation's history. And consider: Just 2% of those students understand the significance of Brown v. Board of Education.

Mr. McCullough began worrying about the history gap some 20 years ago, when a college sophomore approached him after an appearance at "a very good university in the Midwest." She thanked him for coming and admitted, "Until I heard your talk this morning, I never realized the original 13 colonies were all on the East Coast." Remembering the incident, Mr. McCullough's snow-white eyebrows curl in pain. "I thought, 'What have we been doing so wrong that this obviously bright young woman could get this far and not know that?'"

Answer: We've been teaching history poorly. And Mr. McCullough wants us to amend our ways ...

RTWT.