Here’s The Things You’ll Want To See Hear and Know Today
The Big Picture
Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad reached the coast of Florida yesterday, after leaving from Cuba two days earlier. It was the first time in history that someone swam from Cuba to Florida without a protective cage. Oh yeah . . . she’s also 64 years old. (This was her fifth try in the past 35 years, and it took 53 hours. She tried twice in 2011 and once last year. The past two tries have ended because of jellyfish stings, so this time she brought divers along to swim ahead of her and clear her path.)
Legendary British journalist DAVID FROST has died.
Kyle Busch won the Advocare 500 on Sunday in Atlanta. It was his second victory this year, and he locked up a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. (Joey Logano came in second, and Martin Truex Jr. finished third, driving with a broken wrist. Busch gave his pit crew credit for the win, because his car started off in bad shape and they found a way to win with it.)
Showbizzy Newz
They finally picked the leads for the “Fifty Shades of Grey” movie. The rumors were WAY off. They picked Charlie Hunnam from “Sons of Anarchy” to play Christian Grey. (Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith’s daughter Dakota Johnson will play Anastasia. Dakota played Kate in the sitcom “Ben and Kate”, which was on Fox for one season last fall.)
LAMAR ODOM was busted early Friday morning for DUI in the Los Angeles area. He failed several field sobriety tests, but there’s no word WHAT he was under the influence of. He refused all chemical tests, so his license was suspended for a year. KHLOE KARDASHIAN later Tweeted, quote, “As much as I wish I were made of steel . . . I’m not. I’m pretty damn close to it though hehe.”
There are some MILEY CYRUS quotes flying around that are supposedly from a new interview. But they’re NOT legit. Supposedly she said, quote, “I have so many [effing] issues,. I am so [effed] up . . . everyone does dumb stuff when they are messed up.”
But Miley’s rep says, quote, “She only did one interview since ‘VMAs’ and that’s not it. She sat down with MTV for her upcoming [documentary]. We haven’t released that interview yet. Someone did some creative editing of an old interview.”
It was a tight race at the box office between “The Butler” and the ONE DIRECTION concert movie “This Is Us”, but “The Butler” just eked out the win, $20 million to $18 million.
Meanwhile, a Spanish-language limited release called “Instructions Not Included” was a surprise hit with $10 million in 5th place . . . but the ETHAN HAWKE-SELENA GOMEZ action movie “Getaway” was a dud with just $5.5 million in 9th place.
Fox hasn’t confirmed anything yet, but it sounds like “American Idol” has decided on HARRY CONNICK JR. as the third judge for next season . . . joining KEITH URBAN and JENNIFER LOPEZ. It’s unclear when the official announcement is coming, but RYAN SEACREST hints that it’ll be SOON.
Q Country Closeup
LEANN RIMES came down with a case of vertigo and had to pull out of two weekend shows. The bandsJagertown and Asphalt Cowboy filled in for her on Friday in Sheridan, Wyoming. On Saturday it was TRAVIS TRITT taking her place in Laramie, Wyoming. She’s definitely on the mend though, because she Tweeted that she has NOT canceled her European tour, which kicks off September 10th.
MIRANDA LAMBERT ducked into a Nashville studio last week to start recording that “fun” new album she talked about back in June. On Saturday she Tweeted, “Got a great start on a record this week! @BlakeShelton this calls for a drink!” No word when that’ll be out.
The Backside of the News
Fox News analyst Tucker Carlson fell asleep on live TV the other day during the show “Fox & Friends.” Apparently he had hosted a late night show on Fox, and was pretty tired doing the show, which tapes in the morning. His co-hosts AND the filming crew sat there laughing at him. When he woke up a few seconds later, they told him that he dozed off on live TV
Randoms
Last October, a high school football player in Worden, Montana named Koni Dole broke his right leg. And after several surgeries, doctors had to AMPUTATE the lower half of it because of an infection. But Koni refused to let that stop him, and vowed to play football for Montana State University someday . . . which doctors told him was obviously a long shot. But after just three months of rehab, he was already back on his school’s wrestling team. And this past spring, he ran TRACK using a prosthetic. But his goal was still to play football again. Well, less than a year after the injury, he made that happen this past Friday, recording a sack and running for TWO TOUCHDOWNS in his team’s first game of the season. And they went on to win, 45-to-nothing. Here’s Koni talking about why he decided to come back and play football.
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