Howard Stern

The massive Howard Stern media blitz is over, leaving in its wake remnant thoughts about what New Yorker writer David Remnick cleverly calls "over-the-counter counterculture," or the mainstreaming of edginess. Does a pop phenomenon -- Howard Stern, alternative rock, Courtney Love, the nodding-out-on-heroin look, "independent" movie-making -- remain edgy once it has been mass-packaged and presold? And if a healthy, lip-jobbed Courtney Love is making Oscar presentations, and Howard Stern has topped the box-office list, who will become the new rebels?

Now it can be told: Appearing on David Letterman's show turned out to be a pre-season warmup for Ravens defensive tackle Tony Siragusa. WMAR has reached a deal to broadcast the larger-than-most-life-forms player's radio show on TV this fall late Saturday nights. The show, a lively - sometimes bawdy - sports talk show - was described by station executives as a coup allowing them to trade on the success of the Ravens and the popularity of the player widely known as "Goose." "Everybody knows that Goose is one of the hottest football properties out there," said Drew Berry, general manager for WMAR (Channel 2)

Yesterday's Howard Stern Look-Alike-Contest at Camden Yards begged a few questions:Who wants to look like Howard Stern anyway?Is this Louis XIV-retro look something women find appealing?Do men aspire to his Sun King ... uhhhh ... intriguing looks?To what lengths would a man go to look like this?And, for that matter, when a man wants to look like the world's most overexposed shock jock, does he don a leather jacket and shades -- or mascara and spike heels? Stern did, after all, top 1995's "Worst Dressed Women" list after numerous appearances in drag.

Oh, well, who needed Gorazde, anyway?The giant "mn" sign is down from the NationsBank tower and will be replaced by a flickering "Password?"Vote for Howard Stern for governor of New York! Anything to get him off radio.

The line of people waiting to see Robin Quivers on a sunny Saturday afternoon, almost 1,000 people strong, is one long visual introduction to the demographics of "The Howard Stern Show." Want to know who listens to the world's most famous shock jock? Here they are, mostly young, mostly white, men and women who love the self-appointed King of All Media and, by extension, his queen. They made his radio show No. 1, his book No. 1, and put Quivers' new book on best-seller lists the week it was released.

The judge ruled that the president was only boorish and offensive. Which, thank God, is still legal in America or Howard Stern wouldn't be getting a TV show.Ms. Jones claimed in her lawsuit that her career did not advance. But, hey, Vernon can't get everyone a job at Revlon.The judge said that not only was Ms. Jones' career not adversely affected, but she is driving a Mercedes and has several hundred thousand in the bank, despite being married to an unemployed actor.Pub Date: 4/09/98

It's Day 2 of Vegas bootcamp for the 100+ hopefuls on 'America's Got Talent.' Yesterday's round of auditions was, for the most part, disappointing and the judges were simply brutal. Howard Stern actually said he was embarrassed at having advanced some of the acts to Las Vegas. Yikes. As explained last night, the contestants were broken up into groups upon arriving in Vegas: the judges' favorites, the standbys and those automatically moving on to the next round in New York. Yesterday, some of the favorites performed and that continues tonight.

CBS may be riding high on its third consecutive season as the most-watched network and enjoying a summer of success, but its executives have a cloud hanging over their heads: more than a half-million dollars' worth of fallout from Janet Jackson's Super Bowl flash. Earlier this month, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell proposed fining each of the 19 TV stations directly owned and operated by CBS $27,500 for airing the two-second breast-baring incident. On Sunday, addressing a gathering of television critics in California, Leslie Moonves, co-president of Viacom Inc. who oversees CBS, said he is leaning toward fighting the FCC in court if the network's local stations are fined.

A year into his new gig at Sirius Satellite Radio, Howard Stern has a lot more money, a fiancee and what he says is far greater peace of mind. What he doesn't have, according to trade magazine Talkers, is his former stature as the most important talk radio host in America. Talkers' annual "Heavy Hundred" list drops Stern from the No. 1 spot last year to No. 12. "He's still doing very well," says Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers. "But this list is about what's hot - and you just don't hear about Stern the way you did before he went to satellite.

The search for America's next greatest talent continues in New York.  First up is The Flyte Cru, who I guess you could call basketball stunts-men. They use trampolines to do all sorts of somersaults as they shoot hoops. Their act is pretty entertaining, but I feel like I've seen it before, so I'm not very impressed. Judge Howie Mandel thinks the same thing and gives them a “no.” New judge Howard Stern has been surprisingly kind this season; he continues that streak and says he wants to see Flyte Cru move on to next round.