Over this holiday long weekend Valspar/Lowe's co-op ads have been appearing more often during primetime TV. This batch seems to have all the right brush strokes in highlighting value. The subliminal message seems to be that painting is a good idea and costs peanuts.
A legal question of the death penalty for childhood rape which didn't involve murder made it not only to the U.S. Supreme Court but also "Boston Legal." Alan Shore made an impassioned plea before the U.S. Supreme Court that his client who was convicted of raping a child but not murder should not be sentenced to death.
Both the actual and TV version of this issue attracted plenty of attention. Today the Supremes ruled for the man on death row in Louisiana Patrick Kennedy. As AP writer Mark Sherman reports, "In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment."
The world of TV must be more brutal on aging women than I assumed. Otherwise smart attorney/TV presence Greta would never have taken the risk to have all that seeming work done. She lives in Manhattan and lunches plenty. So she had heard those anecdotes of cosmetic surgery gone very wrong. Yet, she went there.
The result looks to me as a disaster - just a few more procedures away from CatWoman. Yes, Greta's insightful analysis and peppy delivery are still there. Greta isn't. Her face made her disappear. To boost ratings, the network might run a contest: Find Greta.
Even before Ty Pennington told millions of viewers that lead could "seep through 20 layers of paint," I have had and continue to have what they call "serious concerns" about Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." [See what the NPCA says about the lead in the Silva house in Rhode Island Download ExtremeMakeoverHomeEditionLetter.doc].
For one thing, as other geezers will recall, it reminded me of that killer of human dignity "Queen for a Day." That TV show in the 1950s seemed to award prizes like a much-need washer-and-dryer to the mother who gave the biggest sob story and emoted the most. Actually, next to these contestants, the folks trying to get on "Let's Make a Deal" appeared like buttoned-down British royalty.
In short, I despised and still despise how the recipients of the home makeover seem to have to wear themselves acting surprised beyond their wildest dream, grateful beyond all human bounds, and desperate enough to perform this kind of demeaning ritual on a weekly basis.
Shouldn't we ask: How much coaching goes on before the airing? Are the prospects for the makeover screened for their theatrical potential before they are selected? I would welcome these issues explored on an investigation program such as "60 Mintues."
Then there are those product placements and sponsors. To me that seems exploitative of people's real problems to use the show as an opportunity for these kinds of promotions. Why can't the donations be handled anonymously and credit taken in terms of an IRS write-off.
As a poor kid with asthma in downtown Jersey City I attended one of those "fresh air" camps. We never knew who the sponsor was. I got two weeks in the New Jersey countryside without being made to feel like a charity case - which of course I was. An anti-"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" website might be launched to organize a global boycott of those products and services.
Third, why does Ty Pennington scream out like a game-show host? That tells ya something, doesn't it. For shame "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
Just ask. That's the invitation - along with a 20% discount - Sherwin-Williams extends its retail customers in its new TV ad.
Of all its recent commercials this offer of complimentary interior-decorating advice might get the biggest sales payoff, at least from insecure folks like myself. Any paint company which tells me to just ask won't have to tell me twice. Deciding on what color or combination colors of paint, what texture, and what quality has been enough to keep me from painting anything for almost a decade.
My fear? Suppose I make a mistake. It's out there for everyone to see.
Last Sunday, May 4th, the populist TV program "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" featured the Silva Family in Warwick, Rhode Island. The Silvas, whose two children are autistic, open their home and hearts to foster children.
Unfortunately, this inspirational episode communicated inaccurate information about lead paint and its abatement. That misrepresentation on how to deal with lead paint could cause severe health hazards. Given the large audience for this show, countless children could now be in danger of being exposed to lead paint hazards which didn't exist before that Sunday show.
Because of the threat to children throughout the U.S.. President of the National Paint and Coatings Association J. Andrew Doyle has contacted "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" Executive Producer Denise Cramsey. Doyle starts out his three-page letter, those "misconceptions conveyed during the show were so glaring that they surely warrant a broadcast and web site correction prior to airing your next episode, so as to avert putting millions of viewers at risk." [Here is a copy of that letter Download ExtremeMakeoverHomeEditionLetter.doc].
Among the errors Doyle points to are these whoppers:
Lead paint watchers, both supporting the defendants Sherwin-Williams, Millennium Holdings, and NL Industries, and the plaintiff which is the state of RI, can share their point of view with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" by contacting:
Denise Cramsey, Executive Producer, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Lock & Key Productions, 1149 N. Grower St. #100, Hollywood, CA 90038.
It could also be useful to contact the sponsors of that particular episode and those companies having product placements.
A weighty issue to all trial attorneys is the plot lines of the myriad CSI TV series. That's because potential jury members watch them and expect real courtroom activity to mimic what happens on the shows.
A fave is "CSI: Miami." Monday night there was a seismic shift. Alexx the medical examiner quit the CSI unit. It's doubly significant because, at least as I interpret it, she quit because Horatio seemed to be an absolutist about the law. Alexx's son Brian got caught up in trouble. He was caught between keeping his word to a buddy and facing prison for a murder and an attempted murder.
Alexx was understandably beside herself. Horatio conducted the interrogation of Brian as business as usual. Alexx cut that short, saying, "We're getting a lawyer." Eventually Brian was cleared. But the shock over how black and white law enforcement folks can be about their work didn't end for Alexx. Calling Horatio by his last name, she quit. She warmly said good-bye to everyone else.
Will potential jurors agree with Alexx that the law is not an absolute and that law enforcement should mix the milk of human understanding with the relentless pursuit of criminals? It will be interesting if his rigidity about the law does in Horatio in later episodes.
Both the legal and the character parts of "Boston Legal" are pure farce. But many of us old fans still keep tuning in. And that's to try to get a handle on or at least some more clues about the enigmatic Denny-Alan relationship. Tonight we were rewarded.
Denny came out, in his own ham-handed way. He passed on marriage to a smart, warm female cattle rancher. She needs to live in Montana. He isn't able to leave Alan. Surprisingly, that's the total pull force. It isn't the vestiges of the job or the lawyer he used to be before Mad Cow. It isn't the coolness of urban Boston. It's the balcony and Alan, every night.
In this episode the two men do discuss their love for one another. It seems to go back to the kind of friendships males had in ancient Greece. In a sense those friendships, even if they involved same sex and hetero sex, were based in an almost Platonic affinity and respect for one another. Perhaps that's what Denny and Alan are trying to figure out that they already have.
The court room issues, which often are interesting in their topicality, would have been riveting had they not been depicted via slapstick.
One was the safety of the beef food chain. That's right up plaintiff attorney Bill Marler's alley. I wonder how Marler rates the safety of cloned beef. Marler Clark Law Firm's specialty is food-borne diseases. On tonight's episode Judge Poppycock had no ruling.
The other was the DNC rules governing the SuperDelegates. I hadn't been aware of this but according to the DNC, that delegate can vote conscience over what the state's constituency voted in the primary. Shirley, who launched this suit against the DNC, at Alan's suggestion, lost. This too could have been useful during this confusing Campaign08 but it defaulted into a depicting staid Shirley atypically as a windmill charger.
The coming attractions for two weeks from now seems to veer into "Kristen" territory. Unfortunately, the writers and producers will probably not do justice to the legal matters involved.
Okay, the part of tonight's episode on "Boston Legal" in which Alan chastises the U.S. Supreme Court Justices was absurd. But the program made some important points via Alan's arguments before the High Court about how politicized our legal system has become.
The plot line mirrored loosely a real case going to the Supremes. The real case is about a Louisiana man is on death row for raping a child. The child was his stepdaughter, if I remember correctly. He won the right to appeal this sentence. The "Boston Legal" version adds the wrinkle of diminished capacity. The man, who claims he is innocent of the rape, has a 70 IQ.
There was more at issue than just the death penalty. Alan also hammered the differences of sentencing in various states and that the trial court seemed to overlook the man's low IQ. The politicization of American justice, though, was what really hit home.
I keep wondering: Could the Rhode Island lead paint public nuisance litigation have gone from trial one to trial two to a possible trial three in a state other than RI?
I bring this up because I grew up in an area very much like RI. We were afraid of the law throughout Jersey City, New Jersey circa 1950s and early 1960s. Part of that was because the iconic mayor Frank Hague said he was the law. That statement by Hague has been taken out of context but it captures the spirit of the times. I left Haguesville hating all that. When I started blogging at the end of October 2005 about the RI political and legal scene, I came to concede that in Haguesville the buses ran on time, everyone who wanted to work could, and the public high school [Synder] I attended was excellent.
But that was half a century ago. No area, no legal system, no rhetoric should be politicized. We should have become too savvy for that. Yet, it might still exist in RI.
Tonight on "Boston Legal," Alan pleaded to the Justices of the High Court for justice. I ask the same of the Justices of the RI SC.
Unlike most damaged drunks, fictional attorney in Providence, Rhode Island Elizabeth Canterbury has us, including her employees, rooting for her. Why? That's what I wondered about after Friday night's episode. Thanks to her employees' sticking by her and her estranged husband's advice, she gets off the hook for a jury-tampering charge. Usually people with this profile wear us out, turn on us, or never repay the good deed. And we flee. Eventually, they are isolated.
Maybe Canterbury continues to receive caring and support because she accepts her own part in her misery and doesn't blame others. That's refreshing. Most often the damaged are skilled at rationalizing why they are in the disaster they are. In addition, she doesn't hurt others, with the exception of her husband Matt. The usual MO is that hurt people hurt others. Third, there's hope around Canterbury. We sense that if only she can find a way out of this dark emotional hole she's in, like all the rest of us she can get a hang of navigating life, with all its pain.
As a character, Canterbury is as fascinating as that other tormented legal soul Alan Shore from "Boston Legal." If ratings start to sag for either show, the producers might create some episodes putting them together.
