Newhart celebrates 50 years in show business

Los Angeles — “Fifty years!” Bob Newhart marveled. “It’s like where the hell did the time go?”

The 81-year-old comedian was ruminating recently as he relaxed between concert dates on a 14-city tour celebrating his golden anniversary in show business.

“I’ll tell you how the world has changed,” he said in the living room of his secluded Bel-Air home. “We were all called the sick comics. Time magazine did an article on all of us: Lenny Bruce, myself, Shelley Berman and Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Lenny was knocking over all kinds of sacred topics, and we all were called ‘sick.’ I was making people sick because I made fun of a president — Abe Lincoln. Compared to today, it’s hard to believe.”

Newhart’s very first gig was at a night club in Houston. His act went north — but downhill — from there.

“I was in Windsor, Canada, and I died every night,” Newhart recalled. “Not a snicker, not a laugh. I almost went back to accounting (his previous endeavor). I told myself, ‘That’s it.’ Then I played Winnipeg, and it was fine. But there isn’t a standup comedian who hasn’t had just one but a bunch of bad performances.”

Two weeks after his debut in Houston, he recorded “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart.” “It then went crazy and went beyond anyone’s expectations, especially mine.”

Facebook not enough to bring White to Oscars

Los Angeles — Facebook fans brought Betty White to “Saturday Night Live,” and now they’ve got their eyes on the Oscars.

A page on the social networking website, called Official Page for Getting Betty White to Host the Academy Awards, has collected more than 56,000 fans.

One commenter wrote that “Betty White would be one of the best hosts ever!!!!!”

But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says it isn’t ready to let Facebook make casting decisions for film’s biggest night.

Spokeswoman Leslie Unger says the academy plans to continue with its protocol of allowing the producers to select the host that will best serve the show they’re trying to put together.

Larry King to interview Mick Jagger

Los Angeles — Mick Jagger is going to be jamming with Larry King next week.

CNN said Wednesday that King will interview the Rolling Stones singer about his career, the re-release of the Stones’ album “Exile on Main Street” and the new documentary, “Stones in Exile.”

The “Larry King Live” interview with Jagger will air 8 p.m. CDT Tuesday.

Funniest relationship on TV? Colbert & House

New York — The funniest relationship on TV might be the clandestine, cross-network affair between “The Colbert Report” and “House.”

If you look carefully, you can spot a small, framed photograph of Hugh Laurie, the star of Fox’s “House,” on the set of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” “House” has reciprocated the gesture with a photo of Colbert that sits on Dr. Gregory House’s desk.

On Monday’s “Report,” Stephen Colbert said House’s photo sits on his shelf because he’s a huge fan of the TV doctor.

“House and I have a lot in common,” Colbert, in mock pundit character, said on the show. “We both refuse to play by the rules, never consider the consequences of our actions, and are horribly abusive to our staffs.

“In the end, we’re both always right.”

The shelf behind Colbert’s C-shaped desk contains a collection of odd objects that he has found reason to keep by some twist of the show’s bizarre comedic meanderings. The House photo currently rests, Colbert noted, “in a place of honor next to my coin purse made from a bull scrotum.”

Mogul buys back Power Rangers from Disney

Los Angeles — Media mogul Haim Saban is buying back the fist-pumping, multicolored superheroes known as the Power Rangers from the Walt Disney Co., hoping to launch the enduring franchise into a higher orbit.

The Egyptian-born billionaire made his fortune by licensing the Power Rangers from Japan back in the 1990s. He sold his half of the Fox Family Channel, which included the Power Rangers, to Disney in a deal worth $5.2 billion in 2001. His portion came to about $1.5 billion.

Now, he’s taking the team of morphing teenagers back.

And he’s got a distribution deal to show new and old episodes on Viacom Inc.’s Nickelodeon and Nicktoons cable channels. There are also plans to bring a Power Rangers movie back to theaters for the first time in more than a decade.

“We believe that we could bring a lot more energy and a lot more excitement to the Power Rangers franchise,” said Elie Dekel, the president of Saban Brands, a unit formed last week with $500 million in new capital. “We still felt there was room for the brand to be reignited and to once again grow.”

Funeral for Lena Horne to be in NYC church

New York — Lena Horne’s funeral is to be at a Roman Catholic church in New York City.

Celebrities, relatives and friends will gather Friday morning at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan to remember Horne. The singer and actress died Sunday at age 92.

A Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel spokesman says Horne’s casket will leave the funeral home just before the 10 a.m. church service.