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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Aug 20, 2013
August 20, 2013
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Anniversaries:
On this day in 1920, the first commercial radio station was licensed. Detroit's Station 8MK, now known as WWJ, began their daily broadcast with the program, "Tonight's Dinner." KDKA in Pittsburgh is often considered the world's first commercial radio station, but it wasn't officially licensed until October of that year.
Watercooler:
A British charity supporting victims of forced marriages has come up with a neat trick to stop them: put a spoon in your underwear!
No, really: by sticking a metal spoon in one's underwear, a woman trapped in a forced marriage heading overseas can supposedly alert airport security via metal detector. KARMA NIRVANA, a charity based in Derby, England, says that young people are the most at risk for being spirited away a la NATALIE HOLLOWAY.
The Britons aren't quite sure how many of their own are forced into marriage each year: estimates range from 15-hundred to five-thousand. In a country that size, that's rather alarming.
NATASHA RATTU, Karma Nirvana's spokeswoman, told Agence France Presse that "if they don't know exactly when it may happen or if it's going to happen, we advise them to put a spoon in their underwear. When they go through security, it will highlight this object in a private area and, if 16 or over, they will be taken to a safe space where they have that one last opportunity to disclose they're being forced to marry." (AB)Idle gossip & unconfirmed rumors:
Is BRITNEY SPEARS still holding a torch for KEVIN FEDERINE? Sources tell the National Enquirer the pop tart "screamed uncontrollably," then "collapsed in tears" after hearing the backup dancer and sometime rapper tied the knot with VICTORIA PRINCE early this month. Word is BS was nursing a secret fantasy that they'd eventually reunite and raise their two sons together, despite the fact that Kevin has a two-year-old daughter with his new bride. To add insult to injury, the little guys even call their stepmother "Mommy." (Lee)
Gossip Central:
BILL and GIULIANA RANCIC went all out for son DUKE's first birthday. Pics in this weeks In Touch magazine show the trio at Triunfo Creek Vineyards that was transformed into "Duke's Ranch" complete with train and pony rides and even a bucking bull for the grownups to try! (Myers)
On, off and way-off Broadway:
And, in the end, THE BEATLES Concert Experience, "Let It Be," will close on Broadway September 1st. Playbill.com says the show was doing OK, but summer sales were starting to dwindle, so it was decided to take the show on the road instead of hoping that the holidays would fill the St. James Theater. For the 2014/2015 season, "Let It Be" will tour North America, the UK, Moscow, Japan, Monaco and Germany. "Let It Be" opened July 24th and was supposed to run through December 29th. (Marino)
Riding on the smaller, special bus:
Why fork over big bucks for theme park tickets when you can make your own rides out of construction equipment?
A video has gone viral featuring a group of Russian men turning a heavy digger into a thrill ride. Then men are seen sitting in the digger's giant steel scoop while being spun around, swung from side to side, and dipped into a pond --without safety restraints. Luckily, nobody was hurt or killed on the makeshift attraction. (Still) -
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