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December 6, 2001: Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two children of men killed in the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon (news - web sites) helped light the national Christmas tree near the White House on Thursday as President Bush (news - web sites) celebrated a wartime ``pageant of peace.''

``Even in the midst of war we pray for peace on Earth and goodwill to men,'' Bush said behind a thick glass shield on the stage of the annual pageant on the White House Ellipse.

Faith Elseth, 6, and Leon Patterson, 5, whose military fathers were killed when a hijacked plane slammed into the Pentagon helped first lady Laura Bush push the button that lit the 40-foot tall Colorado blue spruce.

The children's eyes widened as the tree's 100,000 white and blue lights flicked on.

Bush appeared before a public audience in a reversal of earlier plans to make the event invitation-only amid heightened security following the Sept. 11 attacks and the subsequent U.S.-led war on terrorism.

As Bush has called for people to resume daily activities in the wake of the attacks, the White House has walked a fine line between beefing up security and trying to maintain some sense of presidential openness to the public.

Earlier in the day, the Secret Service arrested a knife-carrying man with two rifles, a handgun and a bulletproof vest in his pickup. The 26-year-old man was arrested in a small park not far from the Ellipse, but officials gave no indication the arrest was linked to the evening pageant.

The White House on Thursday also unveiled a ``virtual'' Internet tour of its Christmas decorations, following the cancellation of popular holiday tours for the public.

Entertainers at the 78th annual ``Christmas Pageant of Peace'' included movie and television actress Shirley Jones, country singer Travis Tritt, opera singer Frederica von Stade and jazz vocal quartet the Manhattan Transfer.

Broadway musical star Audra McDonald dedicated her rendition of ``I'll be Home for Christmas'' to U.S. soldiers overseas, and sang ``You'll Never Walk Alone'' for those who had lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks or military operations in the anti-terrorism war.

Bush recalled the Christmas pageant of 1941, three weeks after the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor, when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill appeared with President Franklin Roosevelt to light the tree.

``Now, once again, we celebrate Christmas in a time of testing with American troops far from home. This season finds our country with losses to mourn and great tasks to complete,'' Bush said.

Quoting the Christmas hymn ``O' Holy Night,'' he said, ``In his name all oppression shall cease.''

``America seeks peace and believes in justice,'' Bush said. ''We fight only when necessary. We fight so that oppression may cease.''
 

December 10, 2001: Yahoo! News

Whether they've been good this year or bad, you can be sure they all want something wonderful. As for what — that's for them to know and for you to find out.

Lucky you.

Let our gift guide get you off your tush and right into that Santa suit, with confidence. Aiming to please a saint? A know-it-all who has it all? Someone who gets you hot? Wanna show the world what a connoisseur you are — or just wanna save dough? We've got crystal balls and cherry trees. Would we steer you wrong?

What we've got today: Gifts for that certain special someone you love the most.

That rare Jefferson Airplane concert poster and those French cuff links: You know what they're worth. Does Cousin Cletis? Of course not. Do you care? No. Someday, some way, someone savvy will see 'em. And that someone will know what a discerning, cutting-edge and very cool Santa you are.

Think designer. Think understated elegance. Think way over their heads.

They'll just see a sparkly little vase or paperweight. They won't know how many Hollywood celebrities adore Austria's Swarovski crystal.

They'll just see a blow-dryer. The fact that it's an ionic-conditioning blow dryer that spews countless energizing ions as it dries can be your smug little secret. Get it at the Sharper Image.

They'll just see chocolate. Little will they realize that Edelweiss is a favorite with British royalty and the Beverly Hills elite, including Shirley Jones, who used to own the place.

They'll just smell coffee. But it'll be Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, arguably the rarest, tastiest and most precious in the world.

Also consider Dragon Well tea, Tiffany gifts packed in unmarked boxes, antique Steiff teddy bears and eiderdown pillows.

Next: Gifts to get laid. Stay tuned.
 

December 24, 2001: Yahoo News!

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Marty Ingels and Shirley Jones are spending more than $100,000 to keep developers at bay in a tiny mountain town east of Los Angeles.

The comedian and the actress outbid two developers last week on a half-acre commercial lot in downtown Fawnskin and plan to turn it into a public park.

``We are seeing the world buried by progress,'' Ingels said. ``They are going to try to figure out where they can put the 7-Elevens and hotels in downtown Fawnskin, and they will find they can't put them in anywhere.''

The husband and wife actually live about 100 miles away in the Encino area of Los Angeles but own a 15-acre estate less than a half-mile from the center of Fawnskin.

Some of the town's 360 residents said they appreciate the couple's effort.

``We are flabbergasted,'' said Barbara Ortiz, who owns the North Shore Cafe with her husband. ``They just didn't want to have any more development in this area.''

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HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Beau Bridges is joining the cast of ``The Agency,'' as producers aim to add a dose of internal political intrigue to the rookie CBS spy drama.

He will play the newly appointed head of the CIA (news - web sites). His character will appear in mid-January, joining the agency following the ouster of incumbent Alex Pierce. Ronny Cox, who has played Pierce since ``The Agency'' bowed this fall, is leaving the series.

In addition, Daniel Benzali (``Murder One'') has signed on to appear in at least four episodes of ``The Agency'' starting later this month, reprising the role of the shadowy agent he played in the show's third episode.

``Agency'' executive producer Shaun Cassidy said the shakeup at his fictional CIA is intended to give writers a new character who can help viewers better understand the inner workings of the spy agency.

``Ronny's a fantastic actor, but we found ourselves backed into a corner with his character,'' Cassidy said. ``He was the ultimate insider in a room filled with insiders, so it became a challenge for anyone to ask a question about what was going on.''

While Cox's character was a CIA vet, Bridges will play ``a real man of the streets, a war hero who ran for Congress,'' Cassidy said. ``He'll come in and operate much like Eliot Ness, shaking things up. He'll ask the questions (viewers) might ask if they were in the room.''

Cox will bow out of ``The Agency'' in an episode slated to air Dec. 20. For several weeks, Benzali's character will serve as interim head of the CIA; Bridges will come on board in mid-January.

It's expected the cloak-and-dagger character played by Benzali will clash with Bridges' sunshine-oriented CIA topper. ``There'll be a great internal power struggle between these two very fine actors,'' Cassidy said.

``The Agency'' will continue to feature plotlines ripped from the headlines.

Its original pilot, which revolved around a terror plot by Osama bin Laden, was postponed in the wake of Sept. 11. This week's episode deals with suicide bombers in Israel.

But Cassidy wants ``to balance the show with both internal and external challenges. We don't want to just do the ticking clock, bomb threat of the week,'' he said.

Bridges' last major series role was in the 1998 ABC comedy/drama ``Maximum Bob.'' He has won three Emmy Awards for TV movie work: ``Without Warning: The James Brady Story'' (1991), ''The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom'' (1993) and ``The Second Civil War'' (1997).

Bazzel Baz - a.k.a. "Baz" - is a former Marine and CIA officer who currently serves as writer-technical advisor for the CBS drama The Agency. He graduated from The Citadel in 1978 and served in the United States Marine Corps with his final tour of duty as a counter-terrorism officer before being recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency. During his tenure with the Agency he worked in field intelligence collection operations throughout the Far East, Middle East, Northern Europe, Central and South America, the Mediterranean and Africa. With a resume like that, you'd expect this guy to look like Sergeant Rock, but he looks a little more like Lorenzo Lamas in the TV series Renegade-in fact, he was hired as a PA on the Richard Dean Anderson TV show Legend when a producer saw him riding his motorcycle in L.A. After Legend he was hired as a writer and technical advisor on Soldier of Fortune, which is where we pick up the Bazzel Baz story.

13th Street: I've only seen a few episodes of Soldier of Fortune but it seemed a little fanciful or comic bookish at times. Did you try to keep a lid on that element while you worked for the show?

Baz: The producers had done a lot of research as far as PMCs, private military companies, soldiers of fortune, whatever you want to call it, and that first season was accurate to a T. Where it took its turn into the fantasy world is when Dennis Rodman was brought on board, and that was a time where myself and other people actually left the show. I don't remember exactly what the politics were but we felt it was taking a turn for the worse and as we can see it did not last very much longer.

13th Street: For The Agency, were you involved with the development of the show and what kind of point of view as a former CIA operative did you bring to the show?

Baz: I was not involved with the development; Michael Beckner who wrote Spy Games created that show and I was sitting in a coffee shop and a friend of mine, Barb Macintosh who writes for David E. Kelley, called me up and said there was a show called The Agency and they were looking for a technical advisor, so I called them and had an interview with Shawn Cassidy and Beckner and Ed Zuckerman and they hired me on the spot. I asked them for a writing position but they were staffed and as in most things to be a part of a great team and a really good show you're willing to take a step back in order to gain a few steps later in the process. I offered my contributions as a technical advisor and they've also bought a story from me.

13th Street: The Agency is actually filmed at least partially at Langley and it has the approval of the CIA to do that, right?

Baz: That's correct.

13th Street: So given that, what kind of input do they have and how do you mediate between the way they would like to be portrayed and how an entertaining TV show needs to be made?

Baz: In light of everything that's happening in the world right now the decisions were made to portray the CIA in this show as real as possible. What everybody on the show understands is that there are probably certain things we could never show because the CIA is a real place and there's some real classified stuff there and if you expose certain things you're going to endanger the lives of a lot of people, particularly with ongoing operations.  What we've tried to do is push the stories as close to the edge of true espionage as possible without endangering our national security, because we're the only show out there that is true to form about what the CIA is like. So we're realistic about putting a show out there that could cripple our security.

13th Street: There seems to be more of a CSI-like approach to The Agency in that it focuses more on a very technical and intellectual approach to espionage than just being an action shoot-em-up.
Baz: It's true espionage. It's not law enforcement, it's not NYPD Blue. As you may be aware, the CIA does not have a law to abide by when it's out in the world. In the spy world it's pretty cut and dried-you get caught spying in someone else's country, no one bails you out. You're either going to get executed or you're going to get thrown in jail, and we who are part of that network understand that. At the same time as the stories on the show develop you will see more action and shoot-em-up stuff. We're staying in line with what's going on in the real world and as you know in real life the President has lifted the ban on assassinations since we were attacked, so we could see that portrayed in our show as well. It will all depend on what CBS wants and what the producers want to do. That's a little bit beyond my decision.

13th Street: There's also a lot of internal conflict in the show, like one guy finding out he's being bugged because he happens to be dating a foreign national. Does the CIA go along with having that kind of conflict portrayed on the show?

Baz: The Agency has no say-so with this show. That's the nice thing about being in Hollywood and it's a nice freedom for myself as a technical advisor. I think the nation, the President, Congress and the Agency trusts me enough to know that I'm not out to get them. That would be like getting my own country. My loyalties lie with this country. It's typical of any organization to have internal conflict, though, and the effectiveness of the organization is not on what's happening between the people as much as it is about the mission getting done. Hopefully what we depict on the show is that we put our personal things aside to get the mission accomplished, and their may be conflict between people but we work for the good of the country and settle our differences somewhere else later.

13th Street: Have their been instances where you've had to tell them not to do something, where your experience has told you they're portraying something incorrectly?
Baz: I think because espionage is so new to a lot of people we have a tendency to fall back on what we think we know which is more law enforcement or FBI, and a lot of times we'll sit down and I can give some insight into how we operate so it doesn't become about them being a bunch of cops. Because it's not about investigating crime scenes, it's about collecting intelligence and acting on the intelligence we collect; that's what the real CIA is all about. But the people behind the show do a tremendous amount of research and they're not afraid to come to me for advice and ask what would really happen. For instance, Paul Michael Glaser is one of our directors and he's very good for taking me into the field and letting me eye the scene and asking me how things would happen. What they choose to do with my advice is up to them.

13th Street: The Agency was also delayed in its debut because of the September 11th terrorist attacks. How did that play out in the roll-out of the show?

Baz: Ironically, our first piece was going to be on Bin Laden blowing up Harrod's Department Store, and that was changed and then we had another piece we had written on anthrax, and all of these things had been written way before September 11-it was just a weird coincidence. They were both shot and we had to modify the Bin Laden episode and the anthrax one has been postponed and has not yet aired. I don't know why; that's a CBS decision and they know what's best.

13th Street: Since then the war in Afghanistan has actually gone a little better than I think people anticipated, so have you seen the pendulum swing back the other way where there's not as much scrutiny on those kinds of issues?

Baz: I think we understand that America has been desensitized. You can't hide from it and trying to hide from it would just cheapen the show. We have to try to shoot a show that has to portray what's really happening out there in the world. And with Spy Games just out, that's a pretty true depiction of what the Agency is really like, and you have millions of people seeing that and for us to not portray our characters in that same light could hurt us. I think people are getting an idea what espionage is really like and people know that we're in Afghanistan and they know that it's not like James Bond, it's not fun like that-you're not running around in an Astin Martin solving crimes.

13th Street: You also have a book available online on dealing with terrorism.

Baz: I was a counter terrorism instructor in 1985 for the US Marine Corps, and I was traveling and speaking on terrorism. I learned that people are paranoid because they are not educated and it's the same thing with terrorism and when we had the Sept. 11 thing happen we had people at high levels of government saying we should keep an eye out for certain things, and people in the American public were asking 'well, what should we look out for?' Unfortunately, there are never going to be enough CIA, enough FBI to protect everything in the United States. As terrorism develops, particularly with the sleepers, we may not see the big buildings blowing up-we may see car bombs in the streets, we may see hostage situations, kidnappings, things that terrorists also do.

It's every American's responsibility to do something about that and the way they learn to do something is through education. So from 1985 up to now we published a book called Terrorism Survival Handbook, which is 21 pages of tips of what to do to prepare yourself and your loved ones for what will happen here in America. I would love to back off and say it's not going to happen, but I think now we are in tune with the rest of the world and there are so many luxuries that we have here in America that it's easy to forget-even now people are putting Sept. 11 aside and saying it didn't happen to me and you can go back to relaxing.

We have to wake up and understand that it's a war and right now we're focused on Afghanistan and we're forgetting the sleepers we have here. They are here and we have intelligence that shows that, and it's not up to our government, it's up to everyone. If you go to the airport and security sucks you've got to make a scene about it. This book is something I would have everyone read, and when you study it it makes you aware of what can happen and what you can do to prevent those things from happening. Before Sept. 11 you can go through an airport and someone would leave a bag behind and nobody would think anything of it. Now you have to really notice things like that.

You feel a lot safer knowing what to look for and what you can do about it. You should study anything you can about countering terrorism. It's that black dog/white dog thing-if you have a black dog that represents all the bad things in the world and a white dog that represents all the good things in the world and you throw them in a pit to fight, you know who wins? The one you feed the most. If we fail to feed that side of our nature, we're never going to know what to do. But if we take a look and educate ourselves we will know what to do.

You can purchase Bazzel Baz's Terrorism Survival Handbook at Terrorismsurvivalhandbook.com

By The Associated Press

Prime-time ratings compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Dec. 24-30. Top 20 listings include the week's ranking, with rating for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses.

An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation. The rating is the percentage of the nation's estimated 105.5 million TV homes. Each ratings point represents 1,055,000 households.

1. (3) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 12.0, 12.7 million homes.
2. (8) "Survivor: Africa," CBS, 10.8, 11.4 million homes.
3. (1) "Friends," NBC, 10.2, 10.7 million homes.
4. (5) "Law & Order," NBC, 9.2, 9.7 million homes.
5. (13) "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," NBC, 9.0, 9.5 million homes.
6. (X) "NFL Monday Night Football: Baltimore at Tampa Bay," ABC, 8.6, 9.1 million homes.
7. (26) "60 Minutes II," CBS, 7.8, 8.2 million homes.
8. (6) "The West Wing," NBC, 7.6, 8.0 million homes.
9. (12) "Will & Grace," NBC, 7.4, 7.8 million homes.
10. (27) "CBS Sunday Movie: Eraser," CBS, 7.3, 7.7 million homes.
10. (35) "Primetime Thursday," ABC, 7.3, 7.7 million homes.
12. (2) "E.R.," NBC, 7.2, 7.6 million homes.
13. (47) "The Agency," CBS, 7.0, 7.4 million homes.
13. (39) "Who Wants to be a Millionaire-Thursday," ABC, 7.0, 7.3 million homes.
15. (16) "Inside Schwartz," NBC, 6.9, 7.2 million homes.
16. (X) "24th Annual Kennedy Center Honors," CBS, 6.8, 7.2 million homes.
17. (65) "America's Funniest Home Videos," ABC, 6.6, 7.0 million homes.
17. (29) "Dateline NBC-Friday," NBC, 6.6, 7.0 million homes.
17. (18) "Just Shoot Me," NBC, 6.6, 7.0 million homes.
17. (29) "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," NBC, 6.6, 7.0 million homes.

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