"Entourage" actors before they broke out (oh, savor the symmetry)

I've got a profile in today's Star of Emmanuelle Chiriqui. She plays Sloan, that sweet and thoughtful girlfriend that Eric may or may not deserve to have on "Entourage." Those of you watching the show will probably catch the meaning of the headline, The other "Entourage" girlfriend -- for the rest of you, suffice it to say that Mandy Moore has been stirring the pot off-screen even more than she has been on the show.

And on a related note, Beth Pinsker earlier this month published The Secret Past of Adrian Grenier - iVillage, which she describes as "a long-lost interview with Adrian Grenier that the NYT killed a lot of years ago because he wasn’t famous enough."

Also in today's Star, I have some bad news about "Biography" for those of you still watching it, plus a couple of weekend picks.

Well, it beats "Crystal Meth Rush"

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• Troy N. Diggs writes, I'm probably the only one in the Metro who cares, but -- why on Earth
  did VH1 change the title of its overnight video block from "Insomniac Music Theater" to "Nocturnal State"? (It's been "Insomniac Music Theater" for as long as I can remember - and I gotta say, that's just wrong.) The answer, from VH1: It's more rock-driven than pop.  We changed the music mix, title and look to make the block feel more active and focus on the 25+ males that dominate the overnights.
• Congratulations to John Njagi, who takes over as the producer on KTWU-Topeka's "Sunflower Journeys." He's a native Kenyan who got his B.A. in Mass Media from Washburn University in 2001. The program is going into production and its 19th season will begin January 2006. It's now airing on both sides of the state line, thanks to KCPT's adding the Kansas-centered magazine to its Sunday afternoon lineup. 
  
• Speaking of ABC Family, as we've been doing lately: I'm watching "Beautiful People," in part because I'm enchanted by the mom and smartsie daughter, less so by the drippy people surrounding them. Watching the promos, I notice there's another teen sudser airing on the channel called "Wildfire," that seems to involve a fair amount of horseplay, in more than one sense of the word if you know what I mean. Anyway, if you're a fan of that show, here's good news.
  

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Root, root, root for the home team

Ah, there's no better feeling than to enjoy a night at the old ballpark as your home team, the Kansas City Royals, play host to the Boston Red Sox.

Why, if you prick up your ears, you might even hear the fans around you putting up a good rousing cheer for the local boys.

Like this one.

That's right, they're chanting "Let's go Red Sox!" in our ballpark. Many Boston fans had apparently come into town for the three-game series, or at least for Thursday's game, which was Curt Schilling's first start after spending most of the season in relief.

But on this night, Schilling took a shelling and the Royals emerged victorious, 7-4, mere moments before the heavens parted and the town was given another good rinsing. As one of my seatmates observed, "David Glass (the Royals' owner) doesn't care, as long as people are buying tickets." More pictures at my Flickr page.

The 2 faces of Martha

Stewart at the press conference; goofing on an old modeling photo in the "Martha" open. (Click to enlarge any photo. Taken off a TV monitor, in case it wasn't obvious.)

My favorite part of this morning's double-dip press conference at Martha Stewart's new TV studio -- she was promoting both her daytime syndicated show and "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" -- was when she was answering a question and turned to Mark Burnett, the reality titan who's producing both, and said, "What's that word you use, Mark -- fun?"

There, there.  I know Martha knows from fun. Still, it took a videotape of her serving shakes and hot dogs at a popular New York City walkup stand to prove that she was going to try pushing out of her comfort zone and making herself into that more down-to-earth personality that seems to be required of every big time American TV star. As for the press conference, it was strictly business, the lines rehearsed, the spontaneity forced.

We got to see the opens for both "Martha" (the daytime show) and "Martha Stewart: The Apprentice" (theme song: "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics). And, obviously, we got to see the TV studio where "Martha" will be shot (more pictures on the jump page). One thing is clear -- Mark Burnett has planned a daytime show that is every bit as high powered as its host. I doubt it will remind anybody of her old daytime show, which was notable for its dead air and slow pacing (and, lest we forget, very decent Nielsen ratings).

Funny, I mistook him for the voice of Willie

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• Ellen Gray has the amusing story behind Felicity Huffman's upcoming guest appearance on the "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson." Ferguson met Huffman at a party and got her to agree to appear on his show -- only to realize later that the "Desperate Housewives" star had mistaken him for Jon Stewart's booker.  At this rate, Craig and Conan are not just going to be jousting for ratings the next several years, but for the distinction of which late-night host can play the biggest loser. (Link: Philadelphia Daily News | Felicity, meet Craig. Remember, your kansascity.com login will work there.)
• We have an answer to the Pat Robertson question posed in the next item down. Max Robins, then at TV Guide, now the top editor at Broadcasting & Cable, told the program "On the Media" in 2001 -- which was the last time something incendiary said on "The 700 Club" was picked up by wider media -- that Robertson's sale agreement to Fox included the stipulation that Fox would have to include "The 700 Club" in any future sales agreements. Reader Andy Rose, who found the transcript, notes: "I assume that cycle can't go on forever.  Furthermore, I wonder if Disney might use this as a way to get out of the deal to run the show. After all, they might be able to argue to a judge that they were mislead into the purchase... assuming they were inheriting an innocuous religious show, but instead getting a political soapbox that makes them look bad and devalues the property."
• This Salon article provides a heartbreaking postscript to the 2003 documentary "Lost Boys of Sudan," noting that a number of the 4,000 Sudanese refugees to the U.S., known as the "lost boys," have spiraled into substance abuse and suicidal behavior. An expert says many are suffering the clear effects of PTSD, which I don't doubt, given what they witnessed in Sudan and the terrible emotional strain that being separated from family (or knowing that you don't really have a family back home anymore) must take on at least some of them. Deep in the article there is a reference to the film, which is now on DVD, and it does not echo the upbeat account of other news reports at the time. As I noted in my review when "Lost Boys" aired on PBS last year,

Part of the film's appeal no doubt rests in our endless fascination with how immigrants can restart their lives in America. But "Lost Boys of Sudan" isn't really about that. Rather, it's about the slow yet inexorable way in which two young men pull away from the loved ones they have left behind in Africa, without forming equally strong bonds in their new home. Indeed, the Hobbesian struggle of American life leaves them so little time.

"Lost Boys of Sudan," made by two white, middle-class Americans, is less sweeping than a similar PBS series, "The New Americans," that aired earlier this year. Because of its slower pace and the age and nationality of the two boys, this is almost a coming-of-age film, only with subtitles and a loss of innocence that is felt halfway around the world.

Coming up: Rory goes to college. But first: Hugo's going to hell

Pat Robertson's latest bit of harmless joshing around -- you know, ordering a hit on Hugo Chavez of Venezuela on international TV -- once again brought attention to the bizarre arrangement by which ABC Family, home of the "Gilmore Girls" and "Full House" repeats, continues to air Robertson's show "The 700 Club" three times a day, including an 11 p.m. nightly airing that's wedged between "Whose Line" and "America's Funniest Home Videos."

I've been rummaging through Nexis trying to figure it out. How does a guy get a huge conglomerate to buy his TV channel for some huge sum of money, and get its executives to agree to carry his TV show ... and then get the NEXT owner of the channel to agree to the same terms??

Robertson is once removed from the current ownership of his erstwhile CBN. And yet, through all the changes -- from Family Channel to Fox Family Channel to ABC Family -- "The 700 Club" lives on. (As to why the channel still has the word "family" in it,  ABC was afraid that if they dropped the word, cable operators would drop their channel. A legitimate concern, given the recent ruling that allowed Time Warner Cable to drop AMC because it no longer aired classic movies. Also a moot point, seeing how elastic the word "family" has become in TV circles of late.)

If anyone has more legal insight into how Robertson could compel ABC to continue carrying "The 700 Club" (why it's called that) on a channel he hasn't owned for seven years, I'd love to hear it.

Also, this just in:

• "Third Man Out: A Donald Strachey Mystery" starring Chad Allen (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) premieres on here!, the nation's first gay and lesbian television network, on Friday, September 2nd.  This made-for-TV film centers on gay detective Donald Strachey (Allen) who delves into the seedy world of urban corruption, making enemies as he solves crimes.  He's a tough, cool customer in the tradition of the greatest hard-boiled detectives.  In a ground-breaking move, here! presents the first gay detective ever to be seen on television. (here! PR)  We can't get here! yet, although I've just been told that Time Warner Cable is adding it and the Q Network to local systems. But I have seen the promotional reel for here! and I'm glad to see they're taking this whole gay-network idea seriously. That promo was the campiest thing I'd ever seen.
• This from VH1, promoting its latest attempt at cashing in on a showbiz whack job, "Breaking Bonaduce": This series is a dramatic, honest, and compelling look into the complex relationship between Danny Bonaduce, his wife Gretchen and their two young children Isabella (10-years old) and Dante (4-years old). Meeting and marrying seven hours into their first date, the Bonaduces, who have been together for fifteen years, have faced addiction, infidelity and Danny's “death wish” antics, but can they continue to survive as a couple? Told through the unique lens of their couple’s therapy sessions, nothing is held back and the emotions are all real as they both deal with Danny's descent into drug use, drinking binges, sex addiction and his resulting 30-day stay in rehab. Therapy sessions? Rehab? These people have a problem, and continuing to sell it as a product is not doing them any good. Fifteen years ago, Danny Bonaduce's screwed-up personal life made for interesting radio. Now it's just sad. He looks more strung out as time goes on (currently he looks like he could be Morgan Spurlock's heroin-addicted older brother). Continuing to give Bonaduce national TV publicity is just wrong. Let him earn an honest living in radio or wherever, but VH1, move on!
• Kudos to Paul Harris for keeping the Bob Costas-CNN-Aruba story percolating over the weekend. The New York Times has just now gotten around to covering it.

Update: A lifelong friend of Bonaduce's -- with a surname you'll recognize -- responds on the jump page. Plus: A definitive answer on the "700 Club Til the Rapture" question.

Get me rewrite

Tonight's episode of "Over There" (10 p.m. ET on FX) features a storyline about a wire-service cameraman (guest star Mark-Paul Gosselaar) embedded with the troops. It doesn't begin very promisingly: There's one of those clichéd scenes where we see one of the characters through the viewfinder -- that old "window into the soul" viewfinder that's been used countless times since the  "M*A*S*H" black-and-white documentary episode 30 years ago. Worse, the journalist actually coaches the soldier during that interview, which makes him look like a Jerry Springer producer pumping up a jilted girlfriend before sending her out on stage. (And the camera's on while he does it!) Later, after an intense battle scene, before the troops are even out of danger, the journo declares his video "awesome" and says he can't wait to uplink it.  Please.

Then again, maybe he works for a really sleazy wire service, because later in the show an editor there does something to his video that completely changes its meaning. What is done to it, I feel confident in saying, would get that editor fired in the real world.

If this episode makes me feel this way as a journalist, it starts to make me wonder how its depiction of the military makes veterans feel. (According to this New York Times piece, the answer is: much the same way.)  But watch and judge for yourself.  I'm still recommending the episode, because a middling hour of "Over There" still beats any hour of "Law & Order." One other thing worth noting about this episode: During the unit's raid on an Iraqi village, see if it doesn't put you in mind of an "NYPD Blue" raid scene. Even the music sounds familiar.

In today's Star, I review an extended "Tom Brokaw Reports: Deep Throat" and the ABC Family's cruel-to-be-kind reality show "Kicked Out."

Coming up in the Star, I'll have features on two HBO shows: "Entourage" on Friday and "Rome" on Saturday, plus a preview of KSHB's new morning show.

Tonight, light this one

In a genre filled with idiosyncratic auteurs, I've seen few documentary filmmakers who bring their force of personality to bear so strongly on their work as Ross McElwee. Tonight, you're in for a treat as his celebrated film "Bright Leaves" airs on the PBS series "P.O.V."  As always, check your local listings.

Link: Kansas City Star | Barnhart | Real smoking satisfaction from ‘Bright Leaves’

As usual, P.O.V.'s got lots of extras on the film at its website.  And here's an audio clip from the movie that I think captures his unique first-person style perfectly. (0:55, MP3)

In other news:

• In today's TV Barn Radio segment of my KMOX show, Aaron Barnhart talks about HBO's new series, "Rome," which debuts Sunday night.  Then we talk about my earlier item about Bob Costas and Jack Cafferty, who both expressed their dissatisfaction with their employer, CNN, on the air last week over the network's obsession with the BTK killer and Natalee Holloway. (Harris Online)
• The "What They Should've Said!" contest is off to an inauspicious start.  I may have to go out and recruit celebrity contestants to play for charity if we can't get any snappier responses than the unidentified reader known as Jason, who had Bill Clinton calling Wolf Blitzer "Shep" (which is actually funny enough to win, if only Jason would tell me his email).

FX to the "Rescue"

I haven't seen a lot written about INHD and INHD2, which offer 24-hour high-definition TV programming, but I watch more HDTV on those two channels than any other service on my high-def tier. INHD is offered exclusively to cable companies and it's obviously in Big Cable's interest to put as much interesting stuff on the channels to give cable the edge over satellite in this growing market of HDTV subscribers.

Thus, INHD offers two or three Major League Baseball games in high-def every week. When combined with ESPN HD, that means most nights of the week I can find a game in high-def (or, more accurately, my HD-DVR can). There are Phillies and Orioles games from Comcast; Red Sox games from Fenway Park thanks to NESN; and on Sunday I watched that jaw-dropping dinger derby against future Hall-of-Famer Randy Johnson courtesy of WGN. (The White Sox announcer Ken "Hawk" Harrelson's home run call, "You cannnnn put it on the booooard!" sounds even more impressive in Dolby stereo.)

INHD is also producing a series, "Cathedrals of the Game," offering crystal-clear tours of major league ballparks. They haven't come to Kansas City yet, but I'm sure that's just because they're waiting for the right time. Yup. That's it.

This just in:

• FX has placed a 13-episode third season order for its acclaimed drama series Rescue Me starring Denis Leary, announced FX Networks President and General Manager John Landgraf. Rescue Me has four all new episodes remaining this season with the season two finale airing on Tuesday, September 13th at 10 PM ET/PT. Production of its third season is scheduled to begin early next year and it is tentatively slated to launch in the second quarter of 2006. (FX PR) And to think they got through a whole season without that annoying, drug-crazed chimp.
• If you're just now finding out about the two reviews I wrote over the weekend (see below), fear not -- this is cable, and they'll repeat. The first part of "Inside 9/11"  will reair at 7 ET tonight, just before part two, and again at 11, right after it. And the "Six Feet Under" finale will reair at 10 tonight on HBO, then tomorrow on HBO2, and who knows, perhaps it will work its way down through all the HBO channels, though probably it will be tough to get it on HBO Family -- well, maybe overnights there.
• Bravo will air the eight-episode competition reality series "The Law Firm," beginning with back-to-back airings of the first two one-hour episodes Tuesday, August 30 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.  The subsequent, never-before-aired episodes will roll out Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. for six consecutive weeks starting September 6. (NBC PR) I think I'll just wait for the DVD. What's that? There's not going to be a DVD? My point exactly.
• And from the Emails I'm Afraid to Open Dept.: CHUCK NORRIS RETURNS TO CBS FOR "WALKER TEXAS RANGER: TRIAL BY FIRE," A NEW TELEVISION MOVIE TO BE BROADCAST OCT. 16.

Update: On the jump page, a reader says there's even more MLB in hi-def if you know where to look.

Two for Sunday

"Six Feet Under" is coming to an end tonight. If it's been a while since you tuned in to HBO's funeral show -- since, oh, midway through the maudlin fourth season -- now's a good time to come back.

Kansas City Star | Barnhart | The not-so-grim reaper visits "Six Feet Under"

Also, why is National Geographic Channel airing its big "9/11" program two weeks early?

Kansas City Star | Barnhart | Was 9/11 preventable?.