movie reviews
From the NYT: The pope’s six-day visit lacks the thrill and historic drama that colored Pope John Paul II’s trips to the United States, but the occasion is still momentous enough to pump up the live shots, telegenic priests and papal biographers.
And nonstop coverage provides a dizzyingly catholic look at the Roman Catholic Church, seamlessly binding together the thorniest Vatican troubles — pedophile priests, shrinking parishes, nonobservant believers — with papal mystique and fun Vatican facts. Cable news channels and the networks interrupted their regular programming to provide live coverage of the pope at the White House as he read his speech precisely and evenly in a slight German accent. The pope, who turned 81 on Wednesday, smiled winningly when the crowd broke out in a ragged version of “Happy Birthday.” One anchor declared that the pope looked “thoroughly overjoyed.”
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On Fox News, Shepard Smith underlined the religious congeniality between President Bush and the pope, whom he described as an “honorary Republican.” And Msgr. James Lisante, a Fox News contributor, told Mr. Smith that he detected a political message buried in the pope’s speech.
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From the New York Times: Kathie Lee Gifford has been called perky and pesky, popular and polarizing but seldom, if ever, dull. Now, after almost eight years away from live television as the sunny half of “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee” for 15 years, Ms. Gifford is back on morning television. Mr. Bell said a light went on for NBC executives when Ms. Gifford made a guest appearance on “Today” last fall. The anchors had been shouldering a heavy burden with the new concept of a four-hour morning news program, he said, and Ms. Gifford seemed a natural to pair with Ms. Kotb. “It’s her candor, her experience in television and life,” Mr. Bell said.
It was classic Kathie Lee Gifford.
So at night she writes, prays, brainstorms.
She is working on a musical for preschoolers called “Party Animals,” and one for tweens about a California surfer girl. It is now searching for a Broadway home, Ms. Gifford said, after its run last year at the Signature Theater in Washington. The reviews for Ms. Gifford’s various theatrical ventures have been mixed, but she has forged ahead. “Privacy is like your health,” Ms. Gifford said. Rather, Ms. Gifford said, the paparazzi and the half-truths took up too much time and energy.
Back in the morning spotlight she is proud that an over-50 woman, honest about her life and her changing body, was chosen to be there, Ms. Gifford said.