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Jun 25, 2008

Sometimes the whole is revealed as the pieces come together

Longtime PBS pledge guru Deepak Chopra is not pissed that Mike Myers' movie The Love Guru caricatures his subcontinent murmur, Chopra said Monday on PRI's Tavis Smiley Show. He's not cheesed off that Myers mimics his creation of self-help catch phrases such as "EGO, Edging God Out" (a real Chopraism) or "Ecumenical Intuitive Enlightenment Institute" or EIEIO (really Myers). On the contrary, Chopra says he's an advocate of laughter in his new book Why Is God Laughing? (foreword by Myers), and he's a longtime friend of Myers and an admirer of the movie's script, which he called "hilariously silly." The movie's silly, at least, according to critics: "Relentlessly juvenile," says Variety. "Developmentally stunted," says the Los Angeles Times. Current hasn't seen the movie, but Myers' droll promos on YouTube may be funnier.

Jim Lehrer returns to NewsHour tomorrow

Jim Lehrer will be back in the anchor seat tomorrow night after a nearly two-month absence following heart valve surgery. Lehrer will be anchoring the NewsHour part-time--two or three days a week--and moving toward a full time schedule. In August and September, he will report from the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

P.O.V.'s Traces of the Trade an honest discussion about race

Katrina Browne's P.O.V. documentary Traces of the Trade examines "what it might look like for whites to talk honestly with one another about racial history's implications for contemporary American lives and life chances," writes John L. Jackson, Jr., professor of communication and anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, in his Chronicle of Higher Education blog. The film, which follows Browne and her nine relatives as they travel to Ghana and Cuba to learn about their ancestors' slave-trading past, "helps to demonstrate why many of the dialogues we have about race and racism in America are not robust enough..." (See the film's website here.)

A new g.m. for WDAV, a retirement at KPBS

Benjamin Roe will succeed Kim Hodgson as general manager of classical music station WDAV-FM in Davidson, N.C. Roe, an award-winning producer and public media web strategist who directed NPR music initiatives from 1987-2007, led development of the blueprint for NPRMusic.org. Meanwhile, Doug Myrland, longtime g.m. of KPBS/TV-FM in San Diego, announced that he'll be retiring a year earlier than planned, according to the Union-Tribune. He'll remain at the station as a consultant through next year until his successor is hired.