Before Jackie Evancho, there was Charlotte Church, a Welsh singer who was born in 1986 and had a musical breakthrough at the age of 11 singing  Pie Jesu  over the telephone on a television show.  ( Watch her singing this song shortly thereafter .)  Two years later in 1999 she sang at  Rupert Murdoch 's third wedding, to Wendi Deng, when he was 68 and she 30.  I digress here, for the  following is kind of interesting. They were married for 14 years. His fourth was model Jerry hall when he was 85 and she 59.  Stayed together for six years. In 2023, at the age of 92, he got engaged to Ann Lesley Smith who was 56, but two weeks later called it off because of her infatuation to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.  Three weeks later, he fired Carlson. His fifth marriage occurred on June 2024, to retired Russian molecular biologist Elena Zhukova, whose daughter Dasha is the ex-wife of Roman Abramovich.  Who is he?  Worth  $14.5 billion, wit...

First, on the entertainment front, the favorites did well at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last night.   You did not miss it, for to watch, you had to stream Netflix.   Here, view the results .  Yes, the whole thing, beginning with that Red Carpet walk.  Meaning, 8 hours and 21 minutes.   Not being on network television, a lot of F words, and some winners came up drunk. The favorites all won, especially  Oppenheimer . Barbra Streisand won the Life Achievement award.   Just this , less than 10 minutes. As I don't feel particularly spiritual today, will skip on to something I recently saw on Music Choice, Elaine Paige.  Was the original Grizabella who sang  Memories  from  Cats .  It was 1981 in the West End.  In 1998 she played that role in the movie.  Mind you,  Rotten Tomatoes  reviewers gave it an embarrassing 20% rating.  On the other hand, the audience bestowed 80%, and I follow...

First, yesterday President Joe Biden gave a talk about democracy in Arizona.  This was his most blistering attack yet of Donald Trump and his MAGA extremists.  Did you know that  Joe introduced John to Cindy , his wife? And speaking of Trump: His civil fraud trial trial in New York could begin as soon as this coming Monday.   Also, his pool of funds to pay legal bills for his cronies is running out.   Trump won't bother to even seek a transfer of his case from Georgia to a federal court. Finally, that House quagmire about the government shutdown tomorrow.  Looks like Keven McCarthy lost his battle to pass anything only with Republicans.  Democrats in the House say that if only 5 Republicans vote with them, all this nonsense can be avoided.  But if McCarthy makes that move, he will lose his speakership.  So be prepared for at a short shutdown.  Will this be terrible?  Nah.   The USA has had 21 of them over the pas...

Well, I survived  Barbenheimer , and was underwhelmed by   Barbie   and consumed by   Oppenheimer .  Sure,   B   got twice the box office revenues of   O , but that is because   B   is for children with grandparents, and   O   was R-rated, with actual nudity.  The two, combined, earned more than half a billion worldwide dollars in one weekend, and both were actually highly rated by reviewers. The bizarre attraction is that they are two films that are about as opposite as you can get, making it a once in a decade event.   About possible Oscars?  Let me start with  B : Margot Robbie was the star, and she in the past got two nominations, in 2018 for  I, Tonya  as Best Actress, and in 2020 as Best Supporting Actress for  Bombshell .  I don't think this kind of movie can be taken seriously, so she probably will miss the final cut of five actresses. Ryan Goslin, however, might slip into th...

  Some good news.  According to an article in   Forbes ,   both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may offer years-long protection against COVID-19 , including variants.  Even mixing the two--one dose each--should be equivalently good.  There could be other vaccines with similar immunity power, but the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was not expected to be as durable. One more tidbit:   is Kim Jong-un on a diet or seriously ill?   At one time he was supposed to be 5'6" tall and more than 300 pounds.   When he took control nearly a decade ago at the age of 27, he was less than 200 pounds.  He proceeded to gain 14 pounds/year.  Not anymore.  He is said to be emaciated, putting his followers in despair.  Who will replace him?  Children too young.  He does have an older brother, and, of course, a sister, who is a lot more prominent, but said to be scared for her life. America's Got Talent is well-into its  ...