Christopher Hitchens gets the '60 Minutes' treatment, and survives

Christopher Hitchens was subjected to a voluntary 60 Minutes profile on Sunday night, one of the news magazine’s patented, buttery, isn’t-he-amazing? segments. It was to Hitchens’ credit that, even with a body wracked by cancer, he still ran rings around interviewer Steve Kroft and managed to be nearly as lovable as the considerably hairier polar bears that followed him on the show.

Kroft took viewers on a brief tour of the Hitchens legend: champeen Oxford debater; daredevil journalist and take-no-prisoners essayist; full-service attacker of Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, and Mother Theresa; Washington, D.C. bon vivant; radical-turned-George-Bush-Iraq-War supporter; aggressive atheist; legendary swiller of liquor and still smoke-smoke-smokin’ those cigarettes; recipient of a dire diagnosis of esophageal cancer.

If it sounds as though I’m making light of Hitchens’ life and causes, it’s only intended as a salute to the great man himself, who makes light of everything: He applies a witty glow to all of his public statements and his writing, even when he’s being deadly serious and ferociously combative.

The world will be a poorer place should Hitchens die from cancer; all the more reason, if this60 Minutes piece was your introduction to him, to seek out and enjoy his work right now. I would recommend Letters to a Young Contrarian, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Hitch-22: A Memoir, and his introduction to the Penguin paperback edition of P.G. Wodehouse’s The Mating Season as starters.

PBS airs the live performance of Les Miserables 25th concert anniversary

PBS airs the live performance of Les Miserables 25th concert anniversary this evening at 7 p.m. EST. Tonight's PBS broadcast is the US premiere of the October 3, 2010 London concert performed at the O2 Theatre.
In the O2 performance, all three cast members from three different London productions come together to perform in one show at the same time. Viewers will watch more than 300 "Les Miserables" performers on stage including Nick Jonas of the Jonas brothers. For nine months, Nick played the part of "Gavroche" in one of the "Les Mis" productions.
PBS execs say the show gives everyone front row seats to great arts and culture programming and a chance to see presentations of some of the greatest music of all time. A DVD of the performance was released February 22.
It's ironic "Les Miz" airs against new episodes of ABC's 'Desperate Housewives', a surreal drama where many of the characters' pasts are constantly catching up with them. The "Desperate Housewives" season seems extra long because every other week ABC has been hosting special events. Last week The Oscars interrupted the show.
When viewers last tuned in, Wisteria Lane housewife Gabbby Solis and husband Carlos visited her small and rural Texas hometown to reconcile demons from her past.
Housewife Bree's young boyfriend, played by Megan Fox's husband, Keith has to reconcile his past with a homeless ex-girlfriend who moved away to Florida with the young son he has just discovered. Bree paid the girlfriend to take her son and go away, but then had a change of heart.
All eyes are preparing for the season premiere of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice." Although there are many stars on the show tonight, the spats between "Real Housewives of Atlanta" personality NeNe Leakes and former talk show host and attorney Star Jones' are expected to draw huge attention.
"Celebrity Apprentice" will draw a huge audience from Bravo's cable crowd who tune in faithfully and in large numbers to view NeNe and the cast of Atlanta on Bravo during the regular season. Leakes' appearance is expected to draw many "Real Housewives of Atlanta" fans as the ATL wives' season ended a couple of weeks ago.
Star Jones was content to ignore Leakes and not the let the rumors of the fighting between her and Leakes take over. But Jones couldn't resist temptation and responded via Twitter about the ugliness some time ago.
Apparently, the bad words and bad blood between the two began off the camera when Nene called Star a fallen star. Star, reportedly made comments about Leakes's failing marriage which in turn left Star open for criticism about her celebrated marriage with a known bisexual.
Star said she tires of comments about Al's sexuality and her divorce that happened a long time ago.
"Celebrity Apprentice" ends at 11 EST, "Desperate Housewives" ends at 10 p.m. the same time "Les Miserables" ends its four hour show on PBS. 'Brothers and Sisters" airs at 10 p.m on ABC, still in competition with 'Celebrity Apprentice" and Donald Trump's two hour premiere.
After a full day of NBA basketball on network television, the arts and entertainment choices tonight are plenty, but PBS's performance of "Les Miserable" is a best bet and best pick.
It's also a great time for PBS to air the colorful and spectacular live London' performance of "Les Miz" because PBS is still urging the GOP not to cut the network's funding.

Star Jones and Niki Taylor win big on ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’

The new season of The Celebrity Apprentice premiered tonight and the big winners were Star Jones and teammate Niki Taylor, who both raised money for their respective charities. Star Jones was the biggest winner, earning $174,000 for the American Heart Association. As a reward for being voted MVP for her team, supermodel Niki Taylor was given $35,000 for her chosen charity, the American Red Cross. On the other end of the spectrum, David Cassidy was the biggest loser of the night when he became the first celebrity to hear those dreaded words from Donald Trump, “You’re fired!”
Here were some other highlights from tonight’s premiere episode of The Celebrity Apprentice:
Star Jones was the project leader for ASAP, with Richard Hatch heading up Backbone.
Funniest moment of the night: Gary Busey dressed as evangelist Pizza Profit.
Biggest surprise of the night: The women’s team had to forfeit a donation of $35,000 because they couldn’t deliver their pizzas on time.
Hardest workers: Niki Taylor, John Rich, and Jose Canseco.
Flew under the radar: Mark McGrath, Meatloaf, Hope Dworaczyk, La Toya Jackson
Biggest disappointments: David Cassidy and Dionne Warwick
Most outspoken: NeNe Leakes, Lisa Remini, Lil Jon, and Richard Hatch
Most refreshing: Marlee Matlin
The challenge: Both teams were tasked with setting up shop at a pizza joint. The team that raised the most dough would win the challenge. Backbone raised $55,000, while ASAP brought in an impressive $174,000. The Women’s team crushed the men’s team and sailed through the first round as the clear victors.
The boardroom: Richard Hatch was very outspoken in the boardroom, especially after Jose Canseco brought up the incident where Hatch shoved David Cassidy. After listening to the arguments, Donald Trump asked Hatch whom he wanted in the final boardroom with him. Hatch picked Canseco and Cassidy. The incident was brought up again and David Cassidy kept leaning on Jose for support and affirmation. Although Trump said that he is not a fan of Richard Hatch, he thought David Cassidy did not give his all and that he leaned too much on pal Canseco. “David, you’re fired!” Casualty number one was on his way out via taxi.
The next new episode of The Celebrity Apprentice airs at 9/8c on Sunday, March 13th. The upcoming challenge involves writing a book for kids and then performing it. In an interesting twist, one project manager fails to unite his or her team. Be sure to tune in to see all the antics of the new season of The Celebrity Apprentice.

Dani Johnson To Appear on Good Morning America

Dani Johnson will be appearing on "Good Morning America", Thursday, March 3, 2011, Dani will share her experience as ABC's Secret Millionaire and the impact it had on her life as she spent an entire week in one of the country's poorest areas assisting three different organizations in their service to the needy in the community.
This appearance comes on the heels of Dani's recent interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", where she appeared with sisters, Ellen and Helen, of "The Love Kitchen" who Dani served with on the Secret Millionaire premiere episode.
"Secret Millionaire", a one-hour alternative series, follows Dani as spends a week in one of the country's poorest areas and ultimately gifts deserving members of the community with generous donations of her own money. While there, Dani survived on welfare level wages, volunteered her time and searched her heart to determine how much of her own fortune to gift the community heroes she met. Dani Johnson's appearance on "Secret Millionaire" airs Sunday, March 6, 2011.
Raised on welfare, pregnant at 17, homeless at 21, and a millionaire at 23 - now multi-millionaire entrepreneur, best selling author, internationally sought after speaker, and radio talk show host. Dani Johnson knows what it takes to overcome adversity and succeed in life. As a Business, Finance and Relationship Expert, her unique strategies have literally transformed the lives of thousands, empowering and equipping them with the knowledge and skill to achieve the impossible.
Through her dynamic training programs many of her clients, from executives to stay-at-home moms, have become debt free, received promotions and salary increases, raised sales and profits, improved relationships and gone on to earn six and seven figure incomes.
Dani regularly consults, mentors, and coaches people from all walks of life and career paths, regardless of position or status, on career advancement, personal achievement, business growth, leadership development, marketing and profit strategies, relationships, time management, wealth attainment and spiritual issues. Her passion is helping people break through barriers that stop them from experiencing true freedom emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and financially.
Dani is President and founder of DaniJohnson.com, a personal achievement and corporate training company. Dani and her husband Hans are also the founders of King's Ransom Foundation, a non-profit charity dedicated to serving people in need worldwide. Dani and Hans believe strongly in the need for successful people to give back to local communities and charitable organizations that are working to take care of orphans, widows, and those who are hurting by providing them with food, clothes, shelter and education so they can experience a new start on life. Dani is passionately dedicated to her husband Hans, 5 children, 3 grandchildren, and her relationship with God.
Dani recently returned from India where she spent two weeks speaking to hundreds of thousands teaching her success principles as well as volunteering at several charities she supports overseas.

Survivor’s Richard Hatch ON Celebrity Apprentice

Richard Hatch is part of the cast of the new season of Celebrity Apprentice and we can see Richard working his Survivor mojo on Donald Trump starting tonight at 9PM on NBC. Hatch is playing Celebrity Apprentice for Grassroots Soccer a charity set up by fellow Survivor winner Ethan Zohn which uses soccer to help educate the children of Africa about HIV.
Richard Hatch was the winner of the first Season of Survivor.  While most of the players relied on their physical abilities to get by, Hatch created the social game and worked to control votes. He is also considered to be one of Survivor’s original villains. After winning Survivor Hatch became famous for a short period of time and appeared on a variety of game shows and reality shows. His life took a turn for the worst in 2005 when the US Attorney’s Office charged him with filing false tax returns. They claimed he failed to declare the million dollars he won on Survivor as well as an additional $321,000 he earned from appearances. In 2006 he was sentenced to 51 months in prison plus three years of supervised release. He served part of his sentence in prison and part in house arrest. He is currently on probation and recently was back in court on a charge that he violated the terms of his release. Will this play a role in his Celebrity Apprentice run?
Richard Hatch could be a good player on Celebrity Apprentice but how will Donald Trump react to a “criminal.” He has led a varied life and knows how to manipulate and motivate people. We can all tune in tonight to see if Hatch can put his Survivor and prison experiences to work in the boardroom.

Katie Cassidy and Daisy Betts Go to Georgetown

Alright, drama junkies, we've got news from TV Line that a new pilot is in development. The ABC hour long drama is called Georgetown and will center around “the young people behind the power brokers of Washington, DC.” Think of it as Gossip Girl meets The West Wing.
The lead role is a character by the name of Andrew Pierce, portrayed by Lone Star actor James Wolk. It is a good thing that this young man is returning to television following Lone Star‘s cancellation. Pierce is described as “an effortlessly charming and brilliant Yale graduate and the youngest Presidential speech writer on record.”
Katie Cassidy has also won a role. She’ll be “Nikki, a smart and quick-witted junior staffer in the White House Communications Office with connections to the First Lady.” Here at BSC, we know Katie from multi-episode arcs on Gossip Girl, the Melrose Place reboot, Harper’s Island, and Supernatural. She also played a role on the big screen for Liam Neeson’s Taken and A Nightmare on Elm Street, also a reboot.
Persons Unknown actress Daisy Betts will also join the pair on the cast. She will play “Samantha, an idealistic young staffer for the Democratic President” who has a former romantic connection with Pierce. Betts was often riveting, in my humble opinion, on season one of Persons Unknown, a sci fi thriller you can now enjoy on Netflix.