Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

That Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest:

This year (like last year) the contest will be broadcast in a one-hour special on ESPN, beginning at noon, (EDT).
   Winners receive the traditional mustard-yellow championship belt, competitive eating's greatest prize, like golf's green jacket for the Masters winner or football's Vince Lombardi Trophy and a $20-thousand cash prize. Last year, JOEY CHESTNUT of San Jose, CA, held onto his title for the third straight time by beating six-time champ TAKERU KOBAYASHI of Nagano, Japan, eating a record-setting (and stomach turning) 68 Nathan's Famous hot dogs and buns in the 10-minute regulation match.
   Kobayashi will likely not be eating this year. RICHARD SHEA, the president of Major League Eating, says Takeru is in the middle of a contract dispute and is currently not scheduled to compete as of today, but things could change as late as Sunday morning.
   One more thing --Major League Eating says vuvuzelas will be strictly prohibited at the Nathan's Famous competition. Shea says "We refuse to let vuvuzela use damage the competitive eating aesthetic... We will not let the sanctity of our game be disrupted by an annoying, bee-like hum."
   In addition to the finals, Nathan's holds several hot dog eating competitions in the weeks and months before the big event, and qualifiers are also invited to participate. Among the crop of eaters this year are PAT "Deep Dish" BERTOLETTI, TIM "Eater X" JANUS, SONYA "The Black Widow" THOMAS, JULIET LEE, "Shredder" GOLDSTEIN and BOB "Notorious B.O.B." SHOUDT.

Don't drink and drive:

There are more fatal traffic accidents during the Fourth of July weekend than any other weekend of the year. More than 400 Americans are expected to die on the highways over the holiday weekend.
   July fourth is typically the worst day of the year for traffic fatalities. Although data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows July fourth is the deadliest day to travel, six of the 10 days with the most deaths were also holidays or near holidays. July 2 and July 3 are also in the top 10 worst days to travel.
   Also, more motorcyclists are killed on July fourth than any other day.
   As you might have guessed, with the weekend barbeques and drinking, 41 percent of the deaths on July fourth involved people with high blood alcohol concentrations, as did 51 percent of the deaths on January first.

Top-10 days for traffic accidents:

10. Sep 02
9. Jul 02
8. Aug 12
7. Aug 4
6. Aug 06
5. Jan 01
4. Aug 03
3. Dec 23
2. Jul 03
1. Jul 04

Reality Round-Up:

Last month, FOX had all but decided to do a reality show based on finding a new cast member for their hit show, "Glee." But they scrapped plans for the show.
   However, even though the network dumped the idea, the Oxygen cable network has picked up the show and will do it next season. How is that possible?
      Turns out Oxygen purchased the re-run rights to "Glee," and that includes the rights to do that reality show. So, Variety says when the re-runs air next year on the network, they'll package it with the reality show, whose winner will be on season three of the series.

Stars and their movies:

The vampire flick "Eclipse" continues to do incredible business at the box office. During Wednesday --the first full day of release at theatres across the U-S-- the film racked up $68.5 million, good enough for another box office record. It already set a record for midnight movies, with more than $30 million. And industry observers believe the huge number of locations to see the movie --4,468 locations-- will help the flick to set more records this weekend.
   The only competition for "Eclipse" this weekend will be M-NIGHT SHAYMALAN's 3-D flick, "The Last Airbender" which is out in 3,169 theatres, of which 1,606 are 3-D.