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| THURSDAY • NOVEMBER 19, 2009 |
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 LBN-INVESTIGATES: Sugar and cocoa are often added to cigarettes, a fact many diabetic smokers are unaware of.
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TERRORIST SCOREBOARD-90 DAY SURVIVOR: Abdel Baset Ali Al Megrahi, the 57-year-old man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 returned home to Libya to die after he was released from a Scottish prison. In August, doctors had given him only three months to live after he was severely diagnosed with terminal cancer. Yesterday, November 18, 2009 marked the end of his expected three-month time frame. His release upset many relatives of the 270 people who were killed when the jetliner blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland. Hes still alive.
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SENATE BILL INCLUDES PUBLIC OPTION: Is everybody happy? The $849 billion health-care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled on Wednesday night includes a public option, which states will be able to opt out of, and compromises on abortion coveragefederal funds will be prohibited from being spent on abortions, but one plan in the exchange would be required to offer abortion services and another would not.
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SUPERVISOR WARNED ARMY ABOUT HASAN: DON’T SAY THERE WEREN’T WARNING SIGNS: NPR has obtained a memo from 2007 written by the supervisor of alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan at Walter Reed. “[Hasan] has serious concerns about CPT Hasan’s professionalism and work ethic,” writes the chief of psychiatric residents at Walter Reed, Scott Moran. “He demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism.” It goes on to say that Hasan is “somebody who could potentially put patients in danger.” Sources tell NPR that Walter Reed sent the damning evaluation to Fort Hood before Hasan went there.
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SCREENING POLICY WONT CHANGE, U.S. OFFICIALS SAY: The Obama administration distanced itself Wednesday from new standards on breast cancer screening that were recommended this week by a federally appointed task force, saying government insurance programs would continue to cover routine mammograms for women starting at age 40. As the task force recommendations stirred concern among women, and came under fire from lawmakers of both parties, the White House emphasized that they were not binding on either physicians or insurers. Administration officials also fired back against Republicans who argued that the recommendations illustrated the dangers of an expanded government role in medical decision making.
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 AOL TO CUT ONE-THIRD OF WORKFORCE: As spin-off from Time Warner looms, the dial-up provider and online media company says it plans on cutting staff to save $300 million: AOL plans to cut one-third of its workforce after its spin-off from Time Warner is completed, the Internet media company announced Thursday in a government filing. Tim Armstrong, AOL’s chief executive, also told his staff Thursday that he will not take a bonus for 2009.”As a member of our team and the person who takes accountability for the results of the company, I am making the decision to forego my 2009 bonus,” Armstrong said in an e-mail to AOL employees. “That decision is a personal one and is not a sign for the future payout of the overall bonus plan for employees.”
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 LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Eddie Murphy is attached to produce, and may star in, “The Misadventures of Fluffy,” a new buddy comedy set up at Paramount. The Risky Business blog reports that Sam Pitman and Adam Cole-Kelly sold the pitch for the R-rated comedy and will write the script for what is described as a road trip through New York featuring talking animals, and with an element of social comedy reminiscent of “Trading Places.” ***Land of the Lost’s dismal box office helped land star Will Ferrell at the top of our annual list of Hollywood’s Most Overpaid Stars. Ferrell is no longer the sure bet he seemed after hits like Elf ($220 million worldwide box office) and Talladega Nights ($162 million box office). ***A few weeks ago, the company that made Crazy Heart thought it so unpromising that it was refusing to put it in theaters; now, buzz is that its lead actor, Jeff Bridges, could win an Oscar. The film stars Bridges as a washed-up country star. The film was originally made by Viacom, but the companys Paramount Pictures division did not want to distribute it. The movies writer and director, Scott Cooper, got permission to sell it to Fox Searchlight, which pushed up its release until December and now finds the film generating Oscar Buzz. Bridges has been nominated for an Oscar four times but has never won. ***Kim Basinger exits CAA signing with UTA’s Tracey Jacobs and continues to be managed by Oren Segal. ***Michael Stuhlbarg signs with ICM and continues to be managed by Lisa Lossemore.
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GIULIANI IS SAID TO HAVE DECIDED NOT TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR: Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has decided not to run for governor of New York next year after months of mulling a candidacy, according to people who have been told of the decision. His decision is a blow to many Republican leaders, who had viewed Mr. Giuliani as the strongest potential candidate in a year in which voter anger and anti-Albany sentiment appear to be swelling.
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ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: In addition to being read in all 50 of the United States, this LBN E-Lert is read daily in 24 foreign countries including: India, China, Russia, Japan, Korea, Israel, Iraq, Germany, France, Sweden, Greece, England, Australia, South Africa, Norway, Brazil, Canada, Mexico among others. Keep the revolution alive, please forward the LBN E-Lert to all of your international friends.
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 LBN-TODAY IN HISTORY-ABRAHAM LINCOLN DELIVERS GETTYSBURG ADDRESS (1863): The Gettysburg Address, one of the most quoted speeches in US history, was delivered by President Lincoln at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and half months after the famous battle fought there. In approximately three minutes, Lincoln’s address redefined the American Civil War as not merely a struggle for the Union, but as “a new birth of freedom” for the US and its people.
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 LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***The word from my inside source is that the deal to sell The Hollywood Reporter and several other flagship Nielsen titles — like Billboard — may be done by Friday. WaxWord reported a week ago that the ailing trade THR was about to be sold to James Finkelstein, a young publisher based in New York whose family’s News Communications Inc owns the “Who’s Who” series. ***Is Fox News going to start holding its anchors accountable? The Swamp reports that heads could roll after the network was caught misrepresenting footage for the second time in a week. Shortly after Jon Stewart nailed Sean Hannity for a similar crime, Fox News host Greg Jarrett was caught claiming that footage from a McCain-Palin rally was, in fact, from Palin’s book tour. “This was a production error in which the copy editor changed a script and didn’t alert the control room to update the video,” Michael Clemente, senior vice president of news at Fox, said. “There will be an on-air explanation during Happening Now on Thursday.” The Swamp says “serious disciplinary action” is planned. ***The price of Facebook stock on exchanges for private companies is up some 42% in recent months as site membership tops 300 million users and the company turns cash flow positive. Facebook, analysts say, could sell stock through an IPO in the next 12 months. ***Readers of the Wall Street Journal have the highest median annual household income ($135,740) among print publications, according to Mediamark Research. Other print titles with big household incomes include The Economist, The Atlantic and Conde Nast Traveler. ***Reader’s Digest Association, now working through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is abandoning its longtime headquarters in Chapaqua, N.Y. Executive offices and Reader’s Digest magazine editorial will move to space at 750 Third Avenue that was recently vacated by Conde Nast. ***Lots of talk and kudos today for Ruth Seymour, who announced to her staff last night that she will retire as head of KCRW. ***The LA Weekly’s editorial staff is down to six full-time employees: three editors (Drex Heikes, Jill Stewart and Tom Christie) and three reporters. ***Sharon Waxman, founder and editor of The Wrap will be the guest of honor at the next Beverly Hills Media Tea on December 10th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
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 BORN IN U.S., A RADICAL CLERIC INSPIRES TERROR: In nearly a dozen recent terrorism cases in the United States, Britain and Canada, investigators discovered the suspects had something in common: a devotion to the message of Anwar al-Awlaki, an eloquent Muslim cleric who has turned the Web into a tool for extremist indoctrination. Mr. Awlaki, 38, the son of a former agriculture minister and university president in Yemen, has never been accused of planting explosives himself. But experts on terrorism believe his persuasive endorsement of violence as a religious duty, in colloquial, American-accented English, has helped push a series of Western Muslims into terrorism.
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LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***The results are in from one of publishing’s biggest nights, the National Book Awards. Colum McCann’s novel, Let the Great World Spin, a tome about mortality in 1970s New York, won the fiction prize on Wednesday night, while T.J. Stiles’ biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, The First Tycoon, won for nonfiction. To commemorate the awards’ 60th year, the public voted on a special prize naming the best fiction winner in the awards’ history. Flannery O’Connor’s The Complete Stories won despite stiff competition from Eudora Welty, John Cheever, and Ralph Ellison. ***Paul LeClerc announced that he would step down as president of the New York Public Library in 2011.
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 SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Ice skating champion Dorothy Hamill along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.
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FLOOD RULE: A federal judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers negligence caused huge flooding after Hurricane Katrina.
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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***High-end stores are trying to stamp out discount fever by stocking fewer items and selling them at full price. ***At bank after bank, the coroners of the financial crisis are discovering that regulators knew lenders were engaging in hazardous practices but failed to act.
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 LBN-THE “INSIDE” STORY: A French woman whose fiance asked her to marry him 2 days before he was killed in a car crash has been granted a posthumous white wedding in their village. Magali Jaskiewicz, who has been grieving for her partner since his death a year ago, became his legal widow in a ceremony (pictured above) held with family and friends. The Bride stood beside a portrait of her late partner as the marriage rites were read in the village of Dommary-Baroncourt in the east of France. Under French law posthumous marriages are possible as long as evidence exists that the deceased person had the intention while alive of wedding their partner. In Britain we dont go as far as the romantic French, but marriages can take place even if, judging by the many photos of ceremonies seen in local newspapers, one or both of the participants are brain dead.
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LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***Responding to news reports of unusually high wholesale price increases in brand-name prescription drugs, four House leaders and one senator asked for government reviews of the pricing practices. ***Boys exposed to high levels of phthalates in the womb are less likely than other boys to play with cars, trains, and guns or engage in “rougher” games like play fighting. These chemicals, used in the manufacturing of many plastics, have the ability to disrupt hormones, some by mimicking the female hormone estrogen. Previous research has also linked prenatal exposure to the compounds to impaired genital development in boys. This recent study, which measured phthalate levels in the urine of pregnant mothers and later evaluated their childrens style of play, suggests that early exposure to these chemicals can have a long-term influence on gender identity and play behaviors.
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LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Shaquille O’Neal is curating his first art show, charmingly titled “Size DOES Matter.” The 7-foot-1 Cleveland Cavalier is putting together the show featuring large pieces of contemporary art, including works by Maurizio Cattelan, Andreas Gursky and Ron Mueck’s sculpture of a naked, hairless giant called “Untitled (Big Man.)” ***Yoga enthusiasts are trying to build momentum for competitive yoga in the United States.
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LBN-VIDEO LINK: The Onion News
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LBN-NOTICED: ***Sela Ward was also at the Tuesday night performance of Baby it’s You at the Pasadena Playhouse. ***Josh Brolin at Spin playing pingpong with Mel Gibson at the wrap party for “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps,” as director Oliver Stone partied with Shia LaBeouf and Wall Streeter Tim LoBello in NYC. ***Harper’s Bazaar Editor-in-Chief Glenda Bailey and Lanvin creative director Alber Elbaz dining at Le Caprice in NYC. ***Steven Tyler, in Crocs, getting his hair done at the Alma Salon on East 21st in NYC. ***Ivanna Trump signing copies of her new book, “The Trump Card,” at the Book Fair at her alma mater, Chapin School in NYC. ***Lawyer Barry Slotnick, who’s repped hotels and casinos, dining with wife Donna at Havana’s Parque Central Hotel in NYC. ***Dr. Ruth at the Beverly Hills Hotel where she’s staying as she tapes two episodes of “The Doctors.”
***Kellan Lutz chatted with Samantha Ronson at Teddys inside the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. ***Holly Madison celebrated the 2009 harvest of Georges DeBoeuf Beaujolais Nouveau wine at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. ***Alexander Skarsgaard and Kate Bostworth attended the GQ Men of the Year bash at Hollywoods Chateau Marmont Hotel. ***Megan Fox and boyfriend Brian Austin Greene were spotted shopping in the Sherman Oaks mall with his 7-year-old son Kassius. ***BE AN LBN CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.
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LBN-HUNGER CHART: The deepening hunger crisis revealed this week by a U.S. Department of Agriculture report has largely been attributed to the recession. But an exclusive analysis by The Daily Beast finds several states with hunger problems that far outpace their poverty rates, an indication that it isnt just the fragile economy thats to blame.
The worst 10 offenders for disproportionate hunger are:
1. Colorado
2. Alaska
3. Oregon
4. Connecticut
5. Utah
6. Nevada
7. Vermont
8. Maine
9. Missouri
10. Oklahoma
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By MICHAEL BARONE: On his 10-day trip to Asia and in his 10th month in office, Barack Obama is beginning to encounter limits on his ambition to change the world. Even as he bowed to the king of Saudi Arabia last April and to the emperor of Japan last week, the world refuses to bow back.
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LBN-COMMENTARY MEMO TO PRESIDENT OBAMA By RICK CITRON (Businness Attorney): Dear Mr. President Thank you for taking the time to think through the options for our military presence and actions in Afghanistan. Too many times we have acted in haste to prove to the world that we are in control with our military might. There are bad guys out there and we have to defeat them. And, we have to chose when and where and how, and with whom. The question of what a military victory means has to be asked and answered PRIOR to our renewed commitment. We did not do this analysis in Vietnam and it is a sign of strength that we are going through this process now. Recognizing that our military technology is allowing us options to how we fight this war is an extraordinary perspective and awareness. Take your time, this may be the decision of your Presidency.
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 LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By MARGARET THATCHER: I personally have always voted for the death penalty because I believe that people who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that that death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty. (1984)
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 LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….Wet paint…..
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 LBN-OVERHEARD: ***It’s been a tough week for Nicolas Cage. First, the bank foreclosed on two of his houses in New Orleans, and now his former business manager, whom Cage sued for fraud in October, has filed a countersuit. Ex-manager Samuel J. Levin claims that Cage’s tough financial situationhe currently owes the IRS $6.6 millionis the result of the actor’s own profligacy. Levin apparently gave Cage common-sense advice, like not to buy castles in both England and Bavaria, the suit claims, but Cage ignored him. Levin also says that he told Cage that he needed to earn $30 million per year to maintain his lifestyle. According to the lawsuit, Cage’s spending spiraled out of control in 2007, when he spent $33 million on three houses, bought 22 cars, including 9 Rolls-Royces, and acquired 47 works of art. By 2008, the actor owned 15 houses, four yachts, a Gulfstream jet, and an island in the Bahamas. ***Perhaps theres an open slot on the next edition of The Celebrity Apprentice? The New York Post reports that former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean recently called pageant owner Donald Trump for advice on what to do since her sex tape surfaced. Apparently, Trump said Prejean has no credibility or reputation left. “Maybe,” Mr. Trump said only half-jokingly, “she should become a major porn star, make millions of dollars, and give it to worthy causes.” ***”Having a girlfriend is like playing whiffle ball. Being married is the war in Iraq.” Thus spoke Jerry Seinfeld at the Autism Speaks benefit at Carnegie Hall, where Bruce Springsteen wowed the crowd with an acoustic set. Emcee David Gregory fulfilled his childhood dream by barely getting through a squeaky version of “Twinkle Twinkle” on his son’s violin. And Howard Stern — who banked his fortune before the slide in the share price of Sirius XM — was looking happy chatting with his boss, Mel Karmazin, and Donald Trump. ***Danny Glover, 63, is marrying a Brazilian woman, Eliane Cavalleiro, 43, a professor at the University of Brasilia.
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DID YOU KNOW: ***The practice of eating insects is called entomophagy. ***The fleshy projection above the bill on a turkey is called a snood. ***9 gallons is equal to 1 firkin. ***The shortest Oscar ceremony ever was the first, held in 1929; it lasted only about 15 minutes as all the winners had been announced three months earlier. ***Kate Winslet is the only actress to receive four Oscar nominations before reaching the age of 30. ***Typically, a copyright lasts for 50 years past the natural life of the original author.
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LBN-QUOTE: “Whats luxury retailing about? It is about a scarcity of supply.”-STEPHEN I. SADOVE, chairman and chief executive of Saks Fifth Avenue, on its declining inventory.
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LBN-HISTORY: On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.
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LBN E-Lert Edited by Shannon Donnelly
Contributing Editors: Rosita Buada, Natgeda Remy, Sargam Pathak, Rita Elias, Erika Sandoval, Marlynn Duran, Marissa Stone.
LBN E-Lert Disclaimer: 1.) The LBN E-Lert accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. The LBN E-Lert is not associated with any commercial or political organization and is transmitted via the web for the sole benefit of its subscribers. 2.) Unfortunately, computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses.
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