Two articles of possible interest over on Backstage.com, which is a service for actors looking for work. This article is about opportunities for performers at science-fiction conventions, including the chance to make money by being painted blue. And this article is about the "bevertainers" that are being installed at the Rio Hotel in Vegas. The premise here is that instead of just bringing you a watery drink while you're throwing money into the slots, the waitress will wear a skimpy outfit and perform a song and dance.

My old friend Garfield may be getting his own line of slot machines in Las Vegas. Guess I'll have to get in line behind Bill Bennett to play them.

We often recommend Spinsanity, which is about as close as the Internet comes to a non-partisan Truth Squad. They're so good about cutting through the murk and lies that partisans of both sides generally ignore them, lest they spoil the game and force everyone to abide by the unspun facts. Here's their latest posting which points out how even Bush's own economic advisers are contradicting many of the administration's claims.

I really like Comic Book Resources, a nifty site full of comic book news and discussion. It includes a few of my favorite columns and columnists, and loads of fun things to read and enjoy.

That said, I'm not going back to that site until they get rid of an extremely annoying ad for something — I'm not sure what — involving Wolverine that turns up on your screen while you're en route from one page to another. I don't know what the product is because the ad grates so that I have to kill it as quickly as I can. Will somebody please let me know when that thing is gone so I can go back to visiting the site?

My buddy Leonard Maltin has posted some interesting thoughts about being quoted, as he sometimes is, in ads for movies.

I really like the way Jerry Bingham draws. When he was drawing things like Batman graphic novels for DC, he was one of those too-rare artists who seemed like he learned illustration from the real world and then tried to apply it to comics, instead of the other way around. He now does a lot of different things, as you can see over on his website.

Okay, here's the other thing I did Friday: Went down to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center to see a production of Smokey Joe's Cafe. As I've written here a number of times, some of the best theater in Southern California comes out of a company called the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities. Each year, they have a 4-show subscription that gives folks down there — and those of us wise enough to make the short trek — a chance to see four musicals of surprising professionalism. The shows are all in for short runs (around 21 performances) but the company is usually able to secure sets and costumes from major productions, as well as the services of actors who've appeared before in them. Their production a couple years ago of Peter Pan was basically the Cathy Rigby production, which played Broadway and toured, with Cathy Rigby's understudy instead of Cathy Rigby. Their mounting of Smokey Joe's Cafe (which closes Sunday) features singers who've played the show elsewhere including — in the case of DeLee Lively — in the original Broadway company.

Smokey Joe's Cafe is not a play. It's a revue of songs written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, plus a few other collaborators. Leiber and Stoller had their hands in more hit rock-'n'-roll singles than you could imagine, and you sit there for much of an evening going, "They wrote that, too?" The numbers have been arranged and staged to give the members of the troupe — nine, in this case — a lot to play with, and some of the renditions are outstanding. I usually get bored by musicals that lack a storyline, but this one is just so infectious, it sucks you in and drags you along. If you've never seen it, the final performance of the Broadway company — it ran 2037 performances in New York — was well-preserved on video. Here — I'll give you a link to order it from Amazon. No, don't thank me…

For years, I've been a huge cheerleader on the web for the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities, urging Angelenos to drive the modest distance to their very comfortable auditorium. I'm afraid I'm not able to cheerlead much at the moment, though. The rest of their 2003 season consists of Forever Plaid and The Music Man. The latter will probably be fine, and I'm eager to see who they'll get to play Harold Hill — a fact that will probably remain unknown until the production opens and get reviewed. (They seem to have a strict "don't advertise the cast" policy. I called up once to ask who was starring in the current production and they reacted like I was Geraldo, looking to broadcast troop locations again.) But Forever Plaid, though a wonderful show, has been seen way too often, and is way too small for their huge stage. When we all subscribed, the third show of the season was supposed to be Funny Girl, but the rumor is that they went too far overbudget on their splendid season opener, which was Ragtime, and had to skimp somewhere. So that's disappointing, and so is their entire announced 2004 season: Swing, Jekyll & Hyde, Ain't Misbehavin', and Neil Goldberg's Cirque. That's three musicals, only one of which has a plot, plus a travelling circus, and none of these interest me. If they interest you, visit their website. You might get the seats I'm releasing by not reupping my subscription.

Progress is being made in the drive to save the old Hanna-Barbera building at 3400 Cahuenga. Here's an article on the current status. And here are two letters — one from Joe Barbera — urging the City Council to preserve the place.

Of possible interest is this letter which ran yesterday in the Wall Street Journal…

In his column regarding Charlie Douglass and his Laff Box, Michael Judge said canned laughter had littered such fine television programming as I Love Lucy, The Tonight Show and Seinfeld for the past half-century.

As one who spent 30 years of that half-century with The Tonight Show, I can assure Mr. Judge that what the home audience saw and heard was exactly what the live studio audience saw and heard. We never used canned laughter or "sweetened" the audience reaction in any way — ever.

I don't mean to sound peevish, but I wouldn't want people's memories of The Tonight Show to be dimmed because they believed the laughter they heard wasn't genuine, but that we faked it. We didn't!

Johnny Carson
Malibu, CA

Hey, it's only a letter…but even this much of Johnny is nice to have.

I did two fun things on Friday. I'll tell you about one now and one later. The one for now was a luncheon in honor of Carl Reiner. It was a function of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters, a group that salutes folks who've been in TV and/or radio for a few decades. Speaking about their friend and comrade Reiner were Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie, Aaron Ruben, Louis Nye, Nanette Fabray, Dick Martin, Howard Morris, Sid Caesar and Hal Kanter, and I guess it won't surprise anyone when I say that all of them were wonderfully entertaining.

Van Dyke spoke with great sincerity about how he'd be nothing without Reiner, and urged Carl to write another great part for himself he was wrong for. Rose Marie told the moving story of how she was hired to play Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Louis Nye told a long story about a Spanish proctologist that had nothing to do with Reiner but no one cared because it was so funny. Sid Caesar delivered his entire speech in double-talk French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. And so on. Carl hugged everyone after they spoke, then got up at the end to rebut things they said. I hope I'm half as sharp and funny when I'm 81. (Hell, I'd settle for one-quarter as charming right now.) A fair amount of time was spent plugging Carl's new book, My Anecdotal Life, which is not exactly an autobiography; more like a collection of funny things that happened to him.

He signed copies for everyone who bought one and as I purchased mine and told him it was way too short, he said everyone was telling him that, and he was going to run home and start on the sequel. If you'd like to purchase a copy of this one, you can click here and be whisked to Amazon where they'll take your money and send me a tiny commission. It's probably not as much fun as listening to these people talk but it's close.

The networks are now announcing their Fall line-ups. Here's a chart showing you how the schedule looks to be shaping up.

A lot of Americans were thrilled by the tale of PFC Jessica Lynch and the daring rescue that freed her from Iraqi captivity. But stories in foreign newspapers like this one and this one are now saying the story was bogus.

I don't know if they're right or not. But I'll bet you the American press will be very hesitant to puncture or even question the story. A lot of people really don't want to hear anything but the John Wayne version of the war just fought.

When it comes to comics, there's the Right Way, the Wrong Way, and the Ordway! I have no idea what that means but it seems to be the slogan over at Jerry Ordway's Website. Jerry is one of the most talented illustrators in our business today and, damn him, a pretty good writer, too. That bothers me because I enjoyed our few collaborations and it's dispiriting to know he doesn't need me. He's currently drawing Wonder Woman and doing a fine job of it. As you'd expect.

My pal Andy Ihnatko raises an interesting point. I'll meet you on the other side of it to give my response…

The suit brings up an issue that I've been pondering for much of my life: was it OK for animation studios to swipe/steal/homage/tribute comedians by creating cartoon characters that incorporated their famous mannerisms? I've no doubt that Jerry Colonna (for instance) was flattered when a character used his vocal mannerisms and bits of his signature "look." If anything, it served to underscore his fame and popularity, and gives the man a little immortality. But in a broader sense, Phil Silvers spent years developing and perfecting his signature character; was it OK for Hanna-Barbera to just help themselves to it? Why would they have based a character on Bilko's mannerisms, unless the company considered them commercially valuable?

Obviously, this is more of a philosophical question. The Winters case is more about the nitty-gritty technical issues. But I try to put myself in that situation. I'd be flattered if someone put me in a DC comic but I don't know how I'd feel if this "Andrei Ivanetko" started to appear as a major regular character. I'd probably be fine with it (so long as Andrei wasn't depicted murdering babies or attending alternative-dance performances) but then again, my standard of living doesn't rely on my maintaining a marketable and uniquely-identifiable public image.

My response: I think there's a line that is sometimes crossed. And while we might argue where it is, I think most would agree that it isn't crossed with a one-shot throwaway, or when it's done often and the person depicted doesn't object. Jerry Colonna wasn't portrayed in that many Warner Brothers cartoons, and I'm sure they'd have stopped if he'd indicated any displeasure. Some of the stars who did animated cameos in WB cartoons were also under contract to Warner Brothers, so that was a little different situation.

A lot of people thought The Flintstones crossed the line in aping The Honeymooners, and I believe many who worked on or around the show thought that. In at least one interview, Jackie Gleason said something like, "Yeah, we thought of suing but why bother?" I don't think the several H-B characters inspired by Phil Silvers crossed the line. The voice Daws Butler did for some of them was interesting in that it reminds you of Silvers but if you heard them back-to-back, you'd see they were quite different. It was almost like he was doing what Phil Silvers should have sounded like. Same thing with the voice Daws did for Snagglepuss, which was based loosely on Bert Lahr. Lahr actually took legal action…though not when the cartoons came out. He sued when Snagglepuss became the spokes-lion for Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies. Lahr was then making the best money of his life doing commercials for Lay's Potato Chips, and he understandably saw the cereal commercials as a way of getting a Bert Lahr voiceover and implied endorsement without paying Bert Lahr. The parties involved settled out of court, and Daws got a credit out of the deal. On the rest of the commercials that were made, they superimposed "Snagglepuss voice by Daws Butler" on the screen briefly in order to tell the world that it wasn't Bert Lahr they were hearing.

If the Lahr case had gone to trial, the key issue would probably have been to what extent his name and reputation were being exploited. If he could have convinced a jury that kids were rushing to buy Cocoa Krispies because they thought Bert Lahr had endorsed them, he might have had a good case. As I understand it, the Winters boys are claiming not so much defamation as exploitation of their images; like someone had put out a piece of Winters Brothers merchandise without making a deal with them. The assertion sounds shaky to me. Then again, so did O.J.'s alibi.

Ultimately, I do think parody (and its less justifiable companion, "homage") are sometimes employed as a means of ripping-off someone's name or property. But I think the folks who least have the right to complain when they are depicted are comedians. One of Phil Silvers' first professional acts was imitating Maurice Chevalier. I'll bet you Jerry Colonna did someone else at some point. Those guys knew the drill.

Johnny and Edgar Winter are Texas rock musicians. A few years ago, a DC comic book depicted two characters who looked not unlike them in what everyone took as a parody…everyone except the Winter brothers, that is. The history of their lawsuit — which could have one of those famous "chilling effects" on Free Expression — is recounted here.