TVSquad

After a New York court dismissed most of the claims in Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against his former employer, CBS, he was told he could resubmit the suit. So Rather, never one to back down from a fight, did just that. He filed an amended suit that now claims that he met with other broadcast and cable networks, but didn't get offered jobs by them because, as the suit claims, he had "too much baggage" after the Bush / National Guard incident that eventually led to his departure from CBS.

CBS's lawyers are pretty confident that the suit will be dismissed a second time, but all Rather wants to do is get to the bottom of what happened with the story about the president's Guard record, which he still stands behind.

"I've never lost sight of the fact that this is a long, hard, expensive road and the odds are against," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I knew that going in. I've known that every hour I've been in it. I'm in this alone. I bear the whole, total expense, which comes out of my pocket.

Lil' Bush debuts on Comedy Central tomorrow night, June 13, at 10:30 p.m. This is an early review.

I've mentioned before that, outside of South Park and the occasional rerun of Duckman and The Critic at 4:00 a.m., Comedy Central hasn't offered much in the way of animated programs. No offense to fans of Drawn Together, but I've always found it cloying and grating. Freak Show, which I cut a bit more slack because it was made by comedic folks I admired, was still not as good as it should have been.

Imagine what would happen if, in this highly tense and prickly time in the country's history, the president was assassinated. That's what the UK's Channel 4 will examine in a new movie called Death of a President. The movie, shot in documentary format, will be a fictionalized account of the investigation following the assassination of George W. Bush, who will be shown being killed by a sniper in Chicago. Digital mock-ups will allow the movie producers to show a realistic-looking picture of the incident.

The purpose of the movie is to show what the implications such an event would have in a world where we can't take shampoo on an airplane. The investigation in the movie will focus on a Syrian-born man, who may or may not be the person who did the deed. The movie will be shown on Channel 4's digital channel and will also be shown at the Toronto Film Festival.

Of course, showing a real president, especially one as controversial as Bush, getting assassinated is a risky move. Not sure if any US outlet is going to have the fortitude to show this movie over here.

Yesterday, President Bush signed into law a bill that increases FCC indecency fines tenfold, from $32,500 to $325,000 per violation. The sponsors of the bill, as well as the members of the Parents Televison Council, pushed for the higher penalties so they can make more of an impact on the networks. "For some broadcasters, this amount is meaningless," said Bush at the signing ceremony.

The law states that broadcast networks cannot air any obscene material and no indecent material from 6 to 10 PM. The problem is, the definition of "indecent" is still up in the air, and the mechanism for the FCC to intiate indeceny investigations is coming under fire for its inequites (as in: 4,000 PTC members with Internet access and a form letter can trigger an investigation). The push for higher fines was sparked, of course, by Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl.

Oh, Janet. What have you gotten us into here? All this hoo-ha over a misshapen, nipple-ring-clad breast. And, to be honest with you, considering what's happened since, that looky-loo you gave us so wasn't worth it.