Here’s The Things You’ll Want To See, Hear and Know Today.
The Big Picture
On Friday a guy went on a shooting spree in Santa Monica, California and killed four people, before cops killed him on the campus of Santa Monica College. Yesterday they identified him as 23-year-old John Zawahri. The first two victims were his father and brother. He killed them and then set their house on fire before he carjacked a woman and started shooting randomly at other cars and pedestrians. Debra Fine saw the carjacking in progress and tried to stop it . . . and he shot her four times. She talked about it from the hospital afterwards.
29-year-old Edward Snowden was the ‘whistleblower’ for the U.S. government’s surveillance over people’s Internet and cell phone usage. He’s a former technical assistant for the CIA, and has been working as a computer technician for the National Security Agency for the past four years. He did an interview with Britain’s “The Guardian,” and talked about leaking the information about government surveillance to the public.
Another long shot won the final Triple Crown race on Saturday. Palace Malice won the Belmont Stakes at 13 to one odds. Preakness winner Oxbow finished second, and Kentucky Derby winner Orb came in third.
Showbizzy Newz
A woman ran onstage and pelted Simon Cowell with eggs during the live finale of “Britain’s Got Talent” the other night. There were two opera singers named Richard and Adam in the middle of a performance at the time, and they didn’t miss a note. Turns out the woman actually tried out for the show last year, so it looks like she was still bitter. (Her name is Natalie Holt, and she tried out as a member of a group called the Raven Quartet. She was performing as a violist in the orchestra that was backing up Richard and Adam. Somehow she brought the eggs onstage with her, and got up from her chair in the middle of the performance to throw the eggs. She said she was doing it to protest the bad influence Cowell has had on the music industry . . . although that doesn’t explain why she was okay with auditioning last year.)
JOHN MALKOVICH helped save a man from bleeding to death in Toronto last week. The 77-year-old man tripped, fell and GASHED HIS NECK on some scaffolding. It was a serious wound, so John took off his scarf and used it to apply pressure and stop the bleeding until an ambulance came. When the victim asked for his name, Malkovich just said, “John.”
There was definitely a disturbance in The Force when PETER MAYHEW . . . the guy who played Chewbacca in the “Star Wars” movies . . . tried to catch a flight from Denver to Dallas.
Peter is 7-foot-2 and 69 years old. Not surprisingly, getting around isn’t really easy for him anymore. So he relies on his custom-made LIGHT SABER CANE.
But for some reason, airport security in Denver was AFRAID OF IT . . . so they confiscated it.
He Tweeted, quote, “Won’t allow me through the airport with my cane! Giant man need giant cane. Small cane snap like toothpick. Besides, my light saber is just cool. I’d miss it.”
Then he added, quote, “American Airlines won’t let me through the airport with me cane! Can I get a retweet?”
Somehow, that worked . . . because he later Tweeted, quote, “Magic words to TSA are not ‘please’ or ‘thank you,’ it’s ‘Twitter’. Cane released to go home.”
The TSA says Twitter wasn’t a factor . . . quote, “Because of the unusual weight of the passenger’s cane, a security officer alerted a supervisor. Less than five minutes later the passenger and cane were cleared to travel.
“Social media played no role in the determination.”
In a bit of an upset, the low-budget horror movie “The Purge” claimed the #1 spot at the box office this weekend. It made a hefty $36.4 million, despite only costing $3 million to make.
That OWEN WILSON–VINCE VAUGHN comedy “The Internship” didn’t fare nearly as well . . . it made just $18.1 million in 4th place. Here are this week’s Top 10 movies:
1. (NEW) “The Purge”, $36.4 million.
2. “Fast & Furious 6”, $19.8 million. Up to $203 million in its 3rd week.
3. “Now You See Me”, $19.5 million. Up to $61.4 million in its 2nd week.
4. (NEW) “The Internship”, $18.1 million.
5. “Epic”, $12.1 million. Up to $84.2 million in its 3rd week.
BRISTOL PALIN and JOAN RIVERS will be featured on an upcoming episode of “Celebrity Wife Swap” . . . even though neither of them are actually WIVES.
It’s going to be more like a pseudo-celebrity LIFE swap. Joan and her daughter MELISSA RIVERS will head up to Alaska to take care of Bristol’s four-year-old son Tripp . . .
And Bristol is coming down to L.A., where she will take over for Joan as the executive producer of the E! show“Fashion Police”.
She will also take care of Melissa’s 12-year-old son Cooper . . . and, quote, “entertain at formal dinner parties.”
The episode is set to air June 23rd.
Q Country Closeup
Carrie Underwood has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry for the past five years, and they just put together a little video to honor her.
http://youtu.be/U0gaiscLS9g
Jason Aldean brought up one of his biggest fans onstage recently, because he found out she was there to see her 100th Jason Aldean show. He gave her an autographed commemorative ticket, like the big checks the lottery winners get. Her name is Holly Hazell, and she’s been going to see him ever since he was playing tiny bars and no one knew who he was.
The Backside of the News
Remington Reimer was the valedictorian at his recent high school graduation from Joshua High School in Joshua, Texas. During his speech, his microphone was silenced . . . because he deviated from the prepared speech he’d given the school beforehand. He started talking about free speech, and how the school threatened him not to say anything other than what he’d prepared, then they cut the mic. Here’s a clip from his speech, and a woman who saw everything happen.
A 59-year-old Michigan man, who was unhappy with his golfing partner, so he stabbed him with a broken golf club. The pair was part of a foursome playing at a golf course north of Detroit. On the 12th hole the two began arguing about the score when one man broke his golf club over a 65-year-old golfer’s arm, then stabbed the victim in the arm with the club. The other two golfers held down the attacker as the victim fled in a golf cart to the clubhouse. Deputies later arrested the attacker at his home for felonious assault.
Randoms
Apparently the world record for fastest clapping has just been broken. Guinness hasn’t verified it yet, but a kid named Bryan Bednarek just posted a video online where he claps 802 times in one minute. The current record is 721.
There’s an unsubstantiated rumor going around that MEL GIBSON will appear in “The Expendables 3”.
“American Idol” has fired executive producer NIGEL LYTHGOE.
Kabang is a two-year-old shepherd-mix from the southern Philippines. In December, 2011 she jumped in front of a motorcycle to save two girls from getting hit . . . and ended up losing her SNOUT and upper jaw. Since then she’s had $27,000 worth of surgery in the United States, and on Sunday, she returned to the Philippines where they had a parade in her honor.
