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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Apr 28, 2011
April 28, 2011
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Getting up to speed:
The Royal Wedding cranks up at 10 am tomorrow morning, London time. Do you care?
If you do, that means you'll have to get up at 5 am (Eastern) to watch it, which means by the time sensible Americans get up tomorrow, it'll be over.
A million people are expected to line the streets of London. They started camping out earlier this week.
All the cool people say they're planning to ignore it, which means no one in the media is cool. They've had their countdowns all week.
Editor's note: Such a comfort to know we have people in America caring more about a celebrity wedding in England than who wins "American Idol" and what the royals are doing than the Disaster that is America.
--The good news: We Americans can rest assured that whatever OUR government spends money on, at least we don't spend it on royal weddings. (Maiman)Phoner:
What's with this fascination with celebrity weddings? Maybe we're not as hyped up over this Royal wedding like we were the last one, but why do we ever care when someone famous gets married?
I know why, and here's the problem: It affects young American women, especially impressionable American young women of marriageable age. Why?
Things like the Royal Wedding, or garish celebrity weddings where they spare no expense --they plant a dangerous idea in an American woman's head: Perfection. It plants the idea that a wedding must be perfect, like, everyone telling the bride groom's mother what they're wearing so no one turns up wearing something lime green with a matching flowery hat.
And let's not even get into obsessing over the wedding dress. (Apparently, bride-to-be KATE MIDDLETON designed the dress herself, which just adds more pressure to women.)
Don't you wish that just once there would be a royal wedding where the couple sits at the kitchen table, draws up a budget, and decides that because things are tight, we'll set an example and get the dress from Macy's using a Groupon. Could there be just one ordinary thing about this wedding? (Maiman)A royal wedding history note from KAREN HERMAN at Media Post:
Almost 30 years ago, on July 29, 1981, 750 million people worldwide tuned in to watch PRINCE CHARLES and LADY DIANA tie the knot --mostly through quaint old live television. Chances are, you didn't have cable yet --MTV, the cable station that brought cable subscriptions to a new level with their "I want my MTV" campaign, would debut just three days after the Royal Wedding. (Kaye)Mother's Day spending up, slightly:
Brand Keys' Mothers Day spending survey forecasts a five percent spending increase for dear old Ma this year over last. Gift-givers polled intend to spend an average of $148 this year. Men --following a long-time pattern-- intend to spend more than women, reporting an anticipated average outlay of $176, while women expect to spend an average of $120. (Kaye)
London tabloids:
Ever feel lonely while getting ready for the day? Fear not --JUSTIN BIEBER is here to put a spark in your morning routine. The British tabloid the London Sun reports "the Bieb's" marketing machine has thought up another fabulous idea --toothbrushes that play his songs! Apparently the hits "Somebody To Love" and "Love Me" will be featured on the products and fans can also buy floss and travel kits beginning this July. (Lee)
Likely story:
The Florida woman accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill her husband came up with an unusual defense strategy.
ABC News says 30-year-old DALIA DIPPOLITO is accused of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. Cops say she hired an undercover officer posing as a hit man to kill her husband back in 2009. But, Dippolito's defense team says the whole thing was a big hoax and that her husband was in on the scam. Defense attorneys argue the couple was committing the hoax to get a reality show.
A spokesman for the prosecution says, "I've seen a lot of wild and crazy defenses in my day and this is certainly one of the wildest and one of the craziest." (Still) -
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