Mel Gibson Update...it turns out that the master of the Thunderdome's humiliations have scarcely begun. It's been reported that on November 3, Law & Order will air a torn-from-the-headlines episode about a foul-mouthed, abusive movie star with a nasty religious prejudice who's pulled over for drunk driving, an arrest that unravels into a darker scandal. Playing the star will be...Chevy Chase, arguably the most hated man in Hollywood since Louis B. Mayer's funeral delighted thousands. Personally, I'd have held out for Woody Allen or maybe Jackie Mason, just to rub Gibson's nose in it, but there's no way I'm missing this.

In other entertainment news, The New York Times reports that "soon after Fidel Castro announced his mysterious illness in July, the Bush administration stepped up its anti-Castro television broadcasts to Cuba with a new $10 million system." There is some question as to whether this is a shining use of your tax dollars. TV Marti, as the American propaganda broadcast is called, is apparently not very popular with audiences on the island, and despite our government's best efforts, the programming--four hours a day, six days a week, much of it the work of Cuban exiles in Florida--is often buried in snowy reception. For those who do manage to tune in, they get to sample such unknown pleasures as "Office to the Chief", a sitcom "with Cuban exile actors playing dim-witted versions of Mr.Castro and his brother Raul...On a recent episode...an actor playing Raul Castro said he would mummify Fidel Castro when he died by wrapping him in the pages of a book by Karl Marx, then display him on Havana's seaside boulevard. The laugh track went wild." I find it disheartening that the Cubans are getting this stuff while those of us stranded here on the mainland who feel like watching something really, really goofy have to make do with the production numbers on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and a post-apocalyptic Skeet Ulrich. Is there no place in the land of its birth for "Office to the Chief"? You Tube, I'm looking at you.