Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

Filling a need:

California's major utility company, Pacific Gas & Electric, installed those so-called smart meters in customers' homes. They're supposed to be more high-tech and more accurate and customers had to agree to having them installed. (The company gave you a $20 rebate if you agreed).
   Now, company officials say as many as 23-thousand customers with those smart meters received incorrect bills. Yup, the customers were charged more than they should've paid. (Maiman)

Sucking up:

Birthday boy ROBERT PATTINSON is full of surprises. The "Twilight" studmuffin shocked a fan when he showed up at her front door! COLLEEN WEBSTER tells Star magazine that she wrote a letter to OPRAH WINFREY when the queen of talk asked fans to write about how the vampire series affected their life. The Big O sent the white-hot honey to break the good news and the teenager headed off to Chicago to tape an episode on May 5th. (Lee)

Pushing up daisies:

You probably don't know DORIS EATON TRAVIS, and likely never saw her when she was on Broadway.
   Daily Variety magazine says Doris was the last surviving Ziegfeld girl when she passed away May 11 in Commerce, MI, at age 106. At 14, Doris was the youngest girl in the famous Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 when her sister --who was an assistant to the director-- brought her to a casting call. She was in the Follies for three years, then went on to work on Broadway and after WWII, with ARTHUR MURRAY. She even taught current Broadway actress SUTTON FOSTER 'the Black Bottom' for a role in the mid-90s... when she was in her late 80s!

Random notes:

A singer discovered by gossip hound PEREZ HILTON will make his national debut on next week's "American Idol." Billboard.com says TRAVIS GARLAND was part of a boy band called NOT LIKE THEM which was signed to Interscope but never released an album. Perez says he has a close relationship with "Idol" creator SIMON FULLER and that's how Travis landed this unprecedented opportunity. Perez allegedly has more than 10 acts in various stages of development, including some deals with major labels. (Marino)

Sheer stupidity:

A company in Finland has announced they plan to start offering luxury vacations for teddy bears next winter.
   Reuters has the story on Teddy Tours Lapland --the firm that charges between 140 and 215-bucks to pamper your teddy during the holidays.
   A typical winter vacation for your bear would include a trip around town on a snowmobile and a visit with SANTA and his reindeer. The teddy bear's human owners are not allowed on the trip. But, the stuffed toy will return home with a videotape of his experiences to be enjoyed by the entire family.
   So, with Christmas only 7-months away, you'd better start making plans now.
   FYI: Their website is http://www.teddytourslapland.com (Still)

Space and 'Star Wars' technology:

There could be a problem with your cable service later this month. A broken communications satellite threatens to interfere with another satellite that serves U-S cable companies.
   According to the UK Press Association, we can expect signal interference to begin around May 23rd. Communications company Intelsat thinks its satellite's systems were knocked out by a solar storm. They lost control of the Galaxy 15 satellite April 5th.
   There's no word which cable T-V channels or providers could be affected or how long the interference could last. (Page)