People: Ungrateful stiffs for $500, please
“Jeopardy!” ace Ken Jennings, who won $2.5 million during his record 74-game winning streak in 2004, has a few unkind words to say about the show – and dapper host Alex Trebek.
The game show is like “the Dorian Gray of syndication,” Jennings wrote in a posting titled “Dear Jeopardy!” on his Web site.
“You seem to think ‘change’ means replacing a blue polyethylene backdrop with a slightly different shade of blue polyethylene backdrop every presidential election or so.”
As for Trebek, Jennings wrote: “I know, I know, the old folks love him. Nobody knows he died in that fiery truck crash a few years back and was immediately replaced with the Trebektron 4000 (I see your engineers still can’t get the mustache right, by the way).”
In a later “correction,” he added: “We regret the insinuation that Mr. Alex Trebek is a robot … Mr. Trebek’s robotic frame does still contain some organic parts, many harvested from patriotic Canadian schoolchildren, so this technically makes him a ‘cyborg,’ not a ‘robot.’ “
Next, the pointy-toed bossa nova
“Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams says his weekend wedding aboard a yacht in the San Francisco Bay was “tremendous” – and even the dancing wasn’t too bad.
“This wedding has taken more planning than the invasion of Iraq. And yet there is still one guaranteed failure built into the plan: the first dance,” Adams wrote in his Web journal Saturday, the afternoon before the ceremony.
But on Tuesday, he said the stepping to Keith Urban‘s “You’re the Only One” was “not as embarrassing as I thought it would be. We had actual moves.”
Ten years of her life back?
Peter Cook, Christie Brinkley‘s estranged husband who allegedly had an affair with an 18-year-old employee while married to the supermodel, has made a public apology.
“I’m sorry. I’m contrite. I’m stupid. Foolish. No excuse,” Cook said through his lawyer.
Added the attorney: “He hopes there’s no divorce. IF she wants one, and he certainly hopes this doesn’t happen, but IF – it will not be nasty. She can have whatever she wants.”
Airing their dirty laundry
Finally, a few high-flying developments:
“An air service businessman has been sentenced to eight months in federal prison for secretly videotaping Michael Jackson and his attorney as the pop star flew to California to surrender in a child-molestation investigation in November 2003.
“Former “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit model May Andersen, accused of hitting a flight attendant on a plane from Amsterdam to Miami, will participate in an anger management program under an agreement announced Tuesday.
“Actress Monique is claiming racism after being kicked off a United Airlines flight Sunday following a dispute with a flight attendant.
“I felt like I was being treated like an animal,” says the “Phat Girlz” star, rumored to be in line to replace Star Jones on “The View,” adding: “I won’t (fly United again), and I hope no other black person will fly them either.”
The birthday bunch
Director Blake Edwards is 84. Singer Mick Jagger (the Rolling Stones) is 63. Actress Helen Mirren is 61. Actor Kevin Spacey is 47. Actress Sandra Bullock is 42. Actor Jeremy Piven is 41. Actress Kate Beckinsale is 33.