Who will host the show?

The Philly Enquirer asks who will host the Academy Awards next year. Nobody seems to know. I always like it when Billy Crystal and Steve Martin host the show. They are some of my favorite comedians.

• Rock, who presided over one of the brisker shows in recent memory. The rookie had some funny bits, but never came close to being as dirty as was feared or as bawdy as his standup act. A daring choice, though, by the notoriously staid academy.

• Billy Crystal, eight-time host known for his opening song-and-dance number poking fun at the top nominees. Last appeared in 2004 after a three-year absence. His populist sense of humor is a proven winner with viewers.

• Mike Myers. Shrek and Oscar, why not? The former Saturday Night Live comic knows how to work live TV.

• Ellen DeGeneres, daytime talk-show host whose twice-delayed hosting gig at the 2001 Emmy Awards earned major kudos. Her monologue was hilarious and she maintained a perfect balance between respect and irreverence two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

• Robin Williams, last seen taking this year's Oscar stage with tape over his mouth to protest censoring of some of his gags. His manic energy is legendary, but could he keep it up for three-plus hours?

• David Letterman, hosted in 1995 and was never invited back. Critics assailed him, but hey, maybe his "Oprah, Uma" chants weren't that bad. Give Dave credit: he drew 81 million viewers - at the time the most in 12 years - and the show was a hit with younger men.

• Jay Leno, late-night talk-show host with minimal movie cache. Leno would have to step up the barbs and ditch his ripped-from-the-nightly-news humor.

• Steve Martin, who hosted in 2001 and again in 2003. His smug, self-involved persona is perfect for the Hollywood crowd.

• Whoopi Goldberg, four-time host whose jokes fell flat and came off as nasty without being clever in 1994. Her '99 gig wasn't much of an improvement. Her most recent stint in 2002 resulted in the worst ratings in Oscar history. Hmm, maybe not.

• Conan O'Brien, late-night smart aleck who honed his hosting skills presiding over the 2002 Emmys. He could draw the college crowd.

The Ventura County Star talks with Shawn Christian of Summerland.

There’s a real family aspect on Summerland. The cast includes Christian’s stepdaughter, Taylor Cole, who plays surfing instructor Erika Spaulding. Bradin fell for Erika in the first season.

Christian said he enjoys his role as a real-life parent and brings his experiences to his character. "Kids remind you how simple life can be," he said.

Christian noted that viewers have followed him to Summerland from As The World Turns.

"Soap fans are very loyal fans," he said.

The 29-year-old Grand Rapids, Mich., native said the fantasy aspects of acting lured him to the profession: "the idea that I can go to work and make-believe."

The profession also led him to the love of his life. He met his wife, Deborah Quinn, the mother of their son and Summerland actress Cole, during auditions for a showerhead ad. They were married in 1996.

I don't watch soap operas and I'm a fand of Summerland.

So it seems that the lads from England are open to the idea of a Jewish Prime Minister. At least it's better than the possibility of King Camilla Bowles Parker...

Michael Howard, the Jewish refugee from a Communist dictatorship, is the leader of the Conservative Party and would become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, should the Tories win the general election. Today, several polls show the Conservative Party with a slight edge over the Labour Party and a Conservative victory is very possible.[...]

As a Jew, Howard come go a long way toward helping to both reassure Israel and reach out to Lebanese Christians and modern Moslems in forming an “alliance of peace and of democracy” in the Middle East. The construction of democracies which stretch from Cairo to Kabul is a dream which may become a reality. Howard understands just how good this would be for the world.

Michael Howard could also speak directly to American Jews in a way that few other people in the world could. While it is quite true that western democracies have elected Jewish prime ministers, a long time ago, in Europe or converted Jewish Christians like Disraeli, Howard would be the first Jew chosen by an overwhelmingly non-Jewish electorate to lead them in a long time.

The fact that he is the leader of the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom should help befuddled Jews in America, raised to believe that the Republican Party, not the Democrat Party, was the party of the Ku Klux Klan, to see more clearly their values and their interests. Putting Jewish political support more "in play" could be just as devastating to Leftists in America as putting the black vote "in play."

It is impossible to overstate, also, the importance of a Conservative Party victory - and election of a Jewish Prime Minister in that nation - while the world remembers still Pope John Paul II, who is as revered by millions of Jews around the world as he is by hundreds of millions of Catholics. Perhaps no Christian in modern history has done more to comfort and to allay Jewish fears of Christianity that Pope John Paul II.

As American Jews like Norm Coleman, Joe Lieberman and Ed Koch speak with increasing openness about the morality of what we are doing in the war against terrorism and on the lunacy of contemporary Leftism, the measured, clear, crisp English voice of a Conservative Prime Minister who is a practicing Jew and the sweet memory of another man who suffered, like his Jewish countrymen, under both Nazis and Communists in Poland, may open a wonderful door to a world governed increasingly by Judeo-Christian values.

I endorse Michael Howard for Prime Minister. There is a first time for everything.

A great article on Jon Stewart and The Daily Show.

Lewis Black pens a book. I'll check it out...eventually.

Lewis Black, the angrier-than-thou stand-up comic known for his rants on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, always wanted to write a book. After all, Black earned an MFA at Yale, and spent years trying to get his plays produced. But it took Black's biting riffs on politics, celebrity, and the absurdity of everyday life to score him a book deal.

It's an interview article.

KAPT is safe...for the time being.

Also, I will be home this weekend so posts will be light--if any at all.