Thaksin, bad...Legolas, good

So our cable is back on, and Thai television is back to normal programming.

I was watching CNN (int'l, don't know if domestic CNN is spending so much time on the coup) and noticed one small change in programming. News stories about what's going on in Thailand is fine, no problems there, with one exception.

Anytime footage of Thaksin is shown, there is about 3 seconds of footage, which is then replaced by photos of Scarlett Johannson, Tom Cruise, Christina Aguilera, Cameron Diaz, the guy who played Legolas in the Lord of the Rings (can't remember his name), and other celebrities.

Anyway, it seems there is someone sitting with a button watching the news and every time Thaksin comes on he has to push that button. He's just not quite fast enough, so we see a glimpse of the ousted PM before the collage of stars comes on.

Even funnier, a story on the embattled Hungarian PM was just briefly interrupted by a lovely photo of Tom Cruise, which makes me think that the guy with the button heard 'Prime Minister,' 'political crisis,' and/or 'demonstration' or something and thought 'oh crap, I'm letting it on the air' and jumped on the button. I imagine there is a seperate guy with a separate button for each of CNN, BBC, CNBC and Bloomberg. Nice work if you can get it.

But who am I to talk? My job responsibilities include watching people clean carpets.