The Thrilla on the Hilla
Yesterday we had verbal tussles with Hollywood types. Today we have scuffles with Washington types. Two famously assertive and hardheaded creatures of Capitol Hill butted horns Thursday: a TV cameraman and a congressman.
Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) was finding his seat at a meeting/photo op between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California reps when a CNN cameraman pushed him out of the way, Miller told the Los Angeles Daily News.
Pennsylvania authorities say there isn't enough evidence to prosecute Bill Cosby on a woman's claim he drugged and fondled her last year.
(Steve Kohls -- Brainerd Daily Dispatch Via AP)
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Witnesses told the paper that later in a hallway, the lawmaker pushed the cameraman and challenged him: "Do it again, push me again." Quoting a witness, the Daily News said that as the cameraman walked off, Miller said: "I'm not taking crap from a guy like that."
Miller's side of the story is this: "This guy grabs me by the shoulder and pushes me. What he did was rude and uncalled for. I was shocked."
We tried to get cameraman Ron Helm's version yesterday, but CNN spokeswoman Edie Emery said he was not talking. "It was an unfortunate misunderstanding," she said.
18 in Line for New Prize
After much ado, it's time to announce the 18 lucky writers who are the finalists for the first-ever Man Booker International Prize. The what, you ask? The Man Booker International Prize -- a new lifetime achievement award that will be given out every two years, making one lucky scribe $115,000 richer.
British author John Carey, chairman of the judging panel, noted at a presser in Georgetown yesterday: "For us, these are 18 authors who combine uniqueness and universality, and remind us irresistibly of the joy of reading."
So . . . drumroll, please. The nominees and their countries are: John Updike, Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick, United States; Ian McEwan, Doris Lessing and Muriel Spark, Great Britain; Saul Bellow and Margaret Atwood, Canada; Guenter Grass, Germany; Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombia; Ismail Kadare, Albania; Milan Kundera, Czechoslovakia; Stanislaw Lem, Poland; Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt; Tomas Eloy Martinez, Argentina; Kenzaburo Oe, Japan; Antonio Tabucchi, Italy; and Abraham B. Yehoshua, Israel.
The winner is to be announced in June.
No Charges for Cosby
The Cos must be feeling better today -- he's charge-free.
Authorities decided they didn't have enough evidence to prosecute a woman's claims that Bill Cosby fondled her at his mansion after giving her medication that made her woozy. Montgomery County (Pa.) District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said Thursday that the decision was made because of the woman's year-long delay in coming forward and her contact with Cosby in the past year. The prosecutor also said that detectives investigating other complaints that Cosby "behaved inappropriately" could find no instance "where anyone complained to law enforcement of conduct which would constitute a criminal offense."
The woman, a former Temple University employee who now lives in her native Ontario, told Canadian authorities last month that the incident occurred in January 2004. Cosby, 67, a Temple alumnus and booster, has denied the allegations.
Noted . . .
On MSNBC this week, TV yakker Bill Maher said: "We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that. I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. . . . I think religion is a neurological disorder." And while guest-hosting on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" yesterday, Kathie Lee Gifford, who's very open about her Christian faith, shot back: "Then I better see a doctor."
. . . and Quoted
"She can't win, and she's an incredibly polarizing figure -- and ambition is just not a good enough reason."
-- David Geffen, billionaire Hollywood mogul and friend of Bill Clinton, discussing Hillary Clinton's chances of taking over the White House in 2008 during a Q&A in New York on Thursday night, as reported by the New York Daily News.
-- Compiled by Anne Schroeder
from staff and wire reports
