The Envelope.com: A 'Daily' dose

NEW YORK -- Had the Academy Awards people asked, Jon Stewart would have told them how many films he's seen this year in a theater: 'One,' says the host of this year's Oscars broadcast. That would be 'The 40 Year-Old Virgin,' written by and starring Steve Carell, a veteran faux newsman from Stewart's own faux news show, 'The Daily Show.' 'Tremendous film,' declares Stewart. 'The acting. The cinematography,' and how it failed to garner major category nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences %u2014 well, he'll take that up with them when he gets out there. Stewart has only the lamest excuses for having gone to the movies once in the last year %u2014 something about having to put on that TV show almost every night while having one little kid at home and another on the way, now just arrived, in fact, the whole Trying to Be a Good Daddy defense. Stewart's own film career ('I like to think of it as an oeuvre,' he says) runs the gamut from 'Big Daddy' to 'Death to Smoochy.' Like one longtime host of the Oscars, Bob Hope %u2014 the first to host it for television %u2014 he does not have a gold statuette to use as a paperweight. He is bummed too that the academy did not nominate 'Grizzly Man' for best documentary, because of the high-concept commentary he might have wrung from Werner Herzog's existential rumination on the bear lover eventually eaten in the wilds. Stewart explains, 'I very much wanted to do a bit where the bear from 'Grizzly Man' and one of the penguins from 'March of the Penguins' came out to present best documentary. Only the bear would come out and I would go over and go, 'YOU PROMISED ME! YOU PROMISED ME! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID IT! WHAT ARE WE GONNA TELL HIS WIFE?'"

Lollapalooza

Grant Park 300 S. Columbus Drive Three-day event in Grant Park (from Hutchinson Field to the Petrillo Music Shell) features more than 130 bands performing on eight stages. More information TBA. Aug. 4: Aug. 5: Aug. 6: Price: www.lollapalooza.com ********************************************************** Chili Peppers' Flea spills beans to MTV a month before official word The Red Hot Chili Peppers are on tap to headline Lollapalooza in Grant Park this summer, it was disclosed Tuesday. Chili Peppers bassist Flea told MTV News that the multimillion-selling Southern California funk-punk quartet had agreed in principle to play the three-day festival, which returns to the Chicago lakefront for the second year in a row Aug. 4-6. The concert would follow up the the band's first studio release in four years, the 25-track double album "Stadium Arcadium," due out May 9. It would also mark their first Lollapalooza appearance since 1992, when they first became arena stars. The festival's executive producer, Charlie Jones of Texas-based Capital Sports & Entertainment and Charles Attal Presents, said Flea's announcement wasn't authorized, but he didn't deny its authenticity. "If it came from anybody else, I might get upset," he said of the flamboyant Flea. "But you can't." Asked if the Chili Peppers would headline more than one night, he replied, "We're saving that [information] for later." A lineup expected to include as many as 130 artists performing on eight stages spanning Hutchinson and Butler Fields in Grant Park is to be announced next month, Jones said.

Bush's Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists - New York Times

One of the perquisites of being president is the ability to have the author of a book you enjoyed pop into the White House for a chat. Over the years, a number of writers have visited President Bush, including Natan Sharansky, Bernard Lewis and John Lewis Gaddis. And while the meetings are usually private, they rarely ruffle feathers.Now, one has.In his new book about Mr. Bush, 'Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush,' Fred Barnes recalls a visit to the White House last year by Michael Crichton, whose 2004 best-selling novel, 'State of Fear,' suggests that global warming is an unproven theory and an overstated threat.Mr. Barnes, who describes Mr. Bush as 'a dissenter on the theory of global warming,' writes that the president 'avidly read' the novel and met the author after Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, arranged it. He says Mr. Bush and his guest 'talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement.''The visit was not made public for fear of outraging environmentalists all the more,' he adds.And so it has, fueling a common perception among environmental groups that Mr. Crichton's dismissal of global warming, coupled with his popularity as a novelist and screenwriter, has undermined efforts to pass legislation intended to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas that leading scientists say causes climate change.Mr. Crichton, whose views in 'State of Fear' helped him win the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' annual journalism award this month, has been a leading doubter of global warming and last September appeared before a Senate committee to argue that the supporting science was mixed, at best."