Word: ersatz
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...Grand Hotel's reincarnation of Studio 54. The party is a scrum full of polyester-suited local TV buyers eyeing the go-go dancers and the stars of the Pearson shows. The entire party seems designed to be one of those occasional corrections of global history. This ersatz Studio 54 is filled with exactly the people who were always refused entry in the real Studio 54. John O'Hurley (Mr. Peterman from "Seinfeld") bravely emcees the stage presentation, touting his own show, "To Tell the Truth," and bringing on castmates such as Paula Poundstone and Louie Anderson...
...Will the ersatz Gingrichites take Jeb down with them if they go, or is he leading the leapfrogging of the courts? Should he sign the bill to name electors, he could be signing his political death warrant. His popularity has already slipped 5 points. Up for re-election in two years, he has a black community angered anew over voting-rights violations. Then there are the seniors, who became fair game for driving too slowly, eating too early, and because they couldn't read a ballot although they can manage a dozen bingo cards. There are the Jews, ridiculed...
...Life" As mysterious as it is revealing - a song about the past, but with no obvious musical antecedent; a tune without a real hook that's nonetheless unforgettable. George Martin's only solo on a Fabs tune, a perfect bit of ersatz classical piano to anchor it all in some imaginary yesteryear...
Unlike the original, the new, ersatz Shaft is addicted to curbside justice. He delights in breaking the nose of a handcuffed prisoner in full view of the police commander. He relishes the line "It's Giuliani time!" as he prepares for the film's final showdown--a reprise of a cruel reference to New York City's hard-line mayor that was famously and falsely attributed to the cop who tortured Abner Louima. If that isn't enough, contrast this Shaft's vulgar behavior toward a black woman in the film's only romantic sequence with the original Shaft...
Enter the View crew, a band of women you'd never mistake for a family, except for the ersatz ones we encounter at work; the signature opening Hot Topics segment could be a coffee-break bull session in a white-collar office. The show defies the received wisdom that female daytime-TV viewers are interested only in innocuous chat or in Springer-style scandal shows. "You may say the show's not that smart," says co-executive producer Bill Geddie. "But for daytime, we are absolutely the Library of Congress...