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Forward Thinking

An entirely subjective look at the week ahead

By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published June 20, 2005

MR. AND MRS. WHO?

In the weirdest PR flourish since Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah's sofa, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie appear in a photo spread titled "Domestic Bliss" in the July issue of W, on newsstands Friday. The Mr. & Mrs. Smith stars, who have been protesting too much about their rumored relationship, give all the dish a wicked twist by posing as an excruciatingly hip married couple, complete with five kids, in a dead-perfect vintage house circa 1963 the year Pitt was born. Panting for a preview? Go to www.style.com/

The board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting meets today and Tuesday to name a new chief executive, on the heels of congressional plans to cut its federal funding 25 percent next year and down to zero in two years. (CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson has been too busy accusing PBS and NPR of liberal bias to do much to defend their funds.) The chief exec candidates are Patricia de Stacy Harrington, former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and Ken Ferree, a senior FCC official under Michael Powell, who told the New York Times he almost never watches PBS or listens to NPR. Gee, nice to see some unbiased candidates.

Anime fans impatient for Howl's Moving Castle to come to town will find a feast Friday through Sunday at MetroCon at the Tampa Convention Center. The bay area's third anime convention will feature appearances by celebrity voice actors, an Asian pop karaoke contest, a Ninja in the Night midnight club dance and, of course, costume contests. MetroCon CEO Roy Harms says about 3,500 people are expected to attend. For information and tickets, go to www.animemetro.com/metroconventions/control.cfm

Sunday marks the 31st anniversary of the introduction of the bar code. The first one appeared on a pack of Wrigley's gum that ran through a cash register in Troy, Ohio; now the little black lines and numbers keep track of everything. And we do mean everything: Researchers at Cornell University are developing DNA-based "nanobarcodes" that could be used to mark genes.

Fans of the sitcom Family Ties (1982-89) might not believe it, but Alex P. Keaton would be in his 40s by now. The actors who played his parents, Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter, both turn 58 on Tuesday. And Tracy Pollan, who played Alex's girlfriend Ellen for a couple of seasons and married Michael J. Fox for real in 1988, will be 45 on Wednesday.

- COLETTE BANCROFT, Times staff writer, 727 893-8435 or bancroft@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 17, 2005, 13:02:04]