Comedian Jon Stewart took the guest’s seat Fridayon Egypt’s top satirical TV show, modeled after his own program The Daily Show . Stewart was takento the set wearing a black hood and introduced by host Bassem Youssef as a captured foreign spy. Stewart, wearing a scruffy beard, spoke briefly in Arabic as the studio audience gave him a raucous welcome. “Please sit down, I am a simple man who does not like to be fussed over,” he said in Arabic to laughter. Youssef, host of the show Al-Bernameg and one of Egypt’s most popular TV presenters, has been questioned by prosecutors on accusations of blasphemy and insulting the president. Stewart defended his counterpart and friend in one of his monologues after Youssef was interrogated earlier this year. Stewart, who is on break from anchoring the Comedy Central fake newscast, is in the Middle East making his first movie. He expressed admiration for Youssef in Friday’s episode, which was recorded last week during a visit to Cairo. “Satire is a settled law. If your regime is not strong enough to handle a joke, then you have no regime,” Stewart said.
Filmmaker George Lucas on Thursday unveiledbronze statues of two of his most movie popular characters, Indiana Jones and Yoda, at the new Imagination Parkin his hometown of San Anselmo, Calif. About 500 people cheered as they got their first look at the statues depicting the hero of the Indiana Jones movie series, which stands about 6 feet 3 inches tall, as well as the 2 ½-foot full-size replica of the Jedi sage from the Star Wars franchise. Lucas donated the land for the 8,700-square-foot nearly completed downtown park in Marin County, razed a building at his expense and paid for the bronze statues created by Berkeley sculptor Lawrence Noble.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 06/23/2013