TV News Alert

Tune your TIVOs to Cinemax this coming Tuesday for the premiere of Uncle Saddam, a sometimes tongue-in-cheek examination of the world's reigning despot by the daring documentarian Joel Soler. The documentary is reviewed in Rufus Jones' typically gut-busting way. Among the goodies: "...But from here, things take a bizarre turn. Saddam is a fanatic about cleanliness, which he regards as no laughing matter, even if we do, since, we are told, "Saddam likes to be greeted with a kiss near the armpit"(indeed, we see footage of a steady stream of black-bereted minions with copycat mustaches puckering up to plant one between Saddam's armpit and areola). The Butcher of Baghdad, it turns out, has all sorts of ideas about personal hygiene. Sitting behind a desk in a wide-brimmed hat and flashy suit that make him look like a Newark pimp, he holds forth: "It's not appropriate for someone to attend a gathering or to be with his children with his body odor trailing behind emitting a sweet or stinky smell mixed with perspiration. It's preferable to bathe twice a day, but at least once a day. And when the male bathes once a day, the female should bathe twice a day, [the] female is more delicate, and the smell of a woman is more noticeable than the male."