Proto-Kaw & other: July 2008

Actor finds a new "Virtuality"

Fans of the canceled "New Amsterdam" won't have to look far to find star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Coster-Waldau is sticking with Fox, taking a lead role in the network's two-hour sci-fi pilot "Virtuality."

"Virtuality" focuses on the 12-member crew of Phaeton, a starship that leaves Earth on a 10-year exploratory mission. The ship has been equipped with state-of-the-art virtual-reality modules that let the crew escape their constrained surroundings. When things start going wrong with the virtual reality, actual reality gets extra-complicated as well.

Previously announced stars for the pilot include James D'Arcy, Kerry Bishé, Jimmi Simpson, Joy Bryant, Sienna Guillory, Nelson Lee, Omar Metwally and Richie Coster.

See Also

Hidria Spacefolk

Artist: Hidria Spacefolk

   Genre(s):
Rock

Discography:

Live Eleven A.M.

Year: 2005
Tracks: 8

Violently Hippy Rmxs

Year: 2004
Tracks: 10

Symbiosis

Year: 2002
Tracks: 9

Hillary's Mass Hotel Exodus

Hillary Clinton won't have to worry about gettin' the munchies -- because her Rocky Mountain High is officially burnt out.

Sources tell TMZ Hill and Co. had blocked out hundreds of Mile High City hotel rooms for staffers and supporters during the Democratic Convention in August -- looks like they won't be needing those anymore! So the campaign has sent emails to politicos, charity organizers and supporters expressing their desperate need to dump their reservations.

Hill should ask her hubby -- we're thinkin' Slick Willy could definitely find a way to keep a few of 'em occupied.

No response from Hill's camp.

See Also

The Brave

Artist: The Brave

   Genre(s):
New Age

Discography:

Moroccan Spirit

Year: 2002
Tracks: 12

Crazy Drunk Cher Fan a Little Too Overzealous

Don't you know you can't touch the Cher! An overzealous fan got a little too close for Miss Thing's comfort early this morning in Nashville, and cops took him down.

Cops say 36-year-old Calvin Houghland was drinking a bit too much last night at some place called "The World Famous Tootsies Orchid Lounge" when he started harassing Cher and at one point, tried grabbing the 62-year-old diva.

That's when cops kicked Houghland out of Tootsies, telling him to get lost. He was arrested around 1:00 AM after he kept going back to the club. He's been charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct, and is currently cooling his heels in the slammer awaiting release on $3,000 bond.

See Also

Guests for the Sunday TV news shows

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

---

ABC's "This Week" - Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.; American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Red Cavaney; Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

---

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Carly Fiorina, adviser to John McCain's campaign; Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.

---

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Biden, D-Del.

---

CNN's "Late Edition" - Govs. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., and Richardson; Reps. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., and Eric Cantor, R-Va.; former Labor Secretary Robert Reich; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain adviser; Ahmed Rashid, author of a new book on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia.

---

"Fox News Sunday" - Former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; former Gov. Tom Ridge, R-Pa.; Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers.

See Also

'Gladiators' stars' twins born to grandma, 52

GOODRICH, Mich. —

A 52-year-old Michigan woman gave birth to her own twin grandchildren after serving as a surrogate mother for her daughter and son-in-law, contestants on NBC's "American Gladiators."

Crystal Sirignano delivered the babies, a boy and a girl, Wednesday at an Arizona hospital, the family said.

"I just feel so blessed and fortunate. It's the best experience of my life," said Sirignano, mother of Kendra Sirignano and mother-in-law to Aaron Simpson.

The healthy babies were delivered by Caesarean section; Domenic weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces, and his sister, Mia, weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces.

Sirignano offered to become a surrogate after her daughter, Kendra, went through several failed infertility treatments and surgeries.

"My mom did amazing," said Kendra Sirignano.

Crystal Sirignano, the owner of a fitness center, had to stop working out after she started carrying the twins. Despite being a vegetarian, she started eating meat. In October, she moved to Arizona to live near her daughter.

"I don't regret one second, even the times when I didn't feel good," Crystal Sirignano said. "None of that was as bad as watching what my daughter went through."

Kendra Sirignano, 30, a mental health therapist, and her husband, a 33-year-old wrestling coach, also have a 15-year-old daughter, Claire, whom they adopted three years ago.

See Also

Kid Rock Refuses To Sell His Albums Via iTunes

Kid Rock is refusing to sell his albums via iTunes as he claims the download service does not pay the artists enough revenue.

"Back in the day, we all know the stories of the Otis Redding's and Chuck Berry's and Fats Domino's who never got paid," Rock told the BBC. "The internet was an opportunity for everyone to be treated fairly, for the consumer to get a fair price, for the artist to be paid fairly, for the record companies to make some money."

Kid Rock also admitted that by refusing the download store his music, he is losing nearly 20% of album sales but he is standing up for musicians. "I will be on iTunes eventually because I can't avoid it, but I like to always stick to my guns and prove a point and do something original and because I believe in it."

"I've just sold a million records, I'm not really feeling that blow," he added.

See Also

Astura

Artist: Astura

   Genre(s):
Trance

Discography:

Cassiopeia - Cassandra

Year: 2004
Tracks: 2

Cassandra Wilson, Loverly

Spurned N.Y. wife-turned-YouTube star defends videos

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A British actress who found YouTube fame after posting monologues about her failed marriage to a Broadway theater owner and producer defended her popular videos in a New York court on Thursday.

Tricia Walsh Smith, 49, is fighting a claim by her husband, Philip Smith, 74, president of the Shubert Organization, that she engaged in spousal abuse by making the YouTube videos, which she says have been viewed more than 4 million times.

During the first day of their divorce trial, Walsh Smith said she made the videos after her millionaire husband threatened to leave her penniless. Several of the videos, made in the couple's Manhattan apartment, were played in court.

In them Walsh Smith accuses her husband and his daughters of conspiring to evict her from the plush apartment, and says she discovered her husband hoarding the impotence drug Viagra even though they never had sex.

"We don't live in the Middle East. I don't have to walk three steps behind my husband. I'm entitled to get angry and have an opinion," said Smith, who wore black-rimmed glasses and a brown button-down dress.

She said that she sent mass e-mails, including one with a link to one of the YouTube videos, to "everybody in the theater world" to ensure that friends and business associates of her husband would see it.

Philip Smith's lawyer, David Aronson, described his client as "petrified of publicity of any kind." He said that Smith's wife had said "horrible, horrible" things about her husband "for all the world to see."

Philip Smith, who wore a pinstriped suit and walked with a cane, showed no emotion during his wife's testimony.