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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2008 > March
March 2008
Oprah’s Big Give in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ABOVE: Cameron tries out collecting tolls on I-400.
ABC’s’ “Oprah’s Big Give” aired tonight and Atlanta provided a lovely visage.
The first challenge was for the five contestants to do “random acts of kindness” across the city. The opening scene featured professional driver Danica Patrick arriving in a race car on an overpass overlooking I-20 with downtown as the backdrop.
Cameron helps a random dude in Decatur to move his office into a moving truck. “This is fantastic,” said Horace Holton. “I think it’s just great what he’s doing.’
Brandi landed in Conyers. She picked a random guy at a pharmacy. Gary, an attorney, was working on a shelter for families and children. She did some hard labor than got Gary to contribute $1,000. She hears about someone needing her rent to be paid and Gary matches $1,000. “I love when giving starts a chain reaction,” she said.
Rachael went to Marietta and she randomly hit a house where she cleaned someone’s yard.
Stephen goes to Newnan. The “Redneck Gourmet” helps him do a barbecue/picnic for the Little League. “This town caught the ‘Big Give’ spirit,” Stephen said. He gives $1,000 to help pay for a batting cage.
Sheg went to a fire station in Smyrna and heard about a family with a daughter with Down’s Syndrome. By an unhappy coincidence, the daughter just passed away. He helped the traumatized mom out.
On the second day, Oprah gave each contestant a specific person to help.
Sevenanda, the Little Five Points natural food store, provided free food for beauty queen Brandi for a struggling food bank, Heaven’s Grocery Store Ministry. Stephen spent the day at Zoo Atlanta, then helped out at the Atlanta Union Mission and made one of the man’s day by simply talking to him abouthis problems. Cameron was assigned to a toll collector Beverly at I-400 whose daughters had miscarriages. He helped them out financially, then gave away his last $69 so a collector could give it to drivers to “pay it forward.” We know, we know, a nauseating term that gets used multiple times on the show.
Sheg helped out a family, the Murphys, who had 24 adopted kids (mostly special needs) plus four of their own. Rachael spent a day at the Palmetto Neighbohood Senior Center on Turner Ave. They sell quilts to help a kid named Eli who has spinal problems and Rachael contributes another $500 to him and $500 to the center. (Cue the heart-tugging music.)
The results portion feels rushed. Sheg is eliminated because he didn’t ask the Murphy family what they really needed and spent $500 on a big Hawaiian luau. The tension points of a “race” show typically includes lots of conflict but this episode is conflict free. In general, the judges at the end seem to hold back because it’s all kumbaya charitable stuff and it would be unseemly to go all Simon Cowell on the contestants. Overall, it lacks the overarching emotional “wow” factor of “Extreme Makeover” or the fascinating interplay on shows such as “Survivor” or “Amazing Race.” Instead, it ends up being a neutered hybrid.
ADDENDUM: On the ratings front, this fifth episode pulled in 11.4 million viewers, up from 10 million a week earlier. That’s a healthy sign. Signs of renewal are looking bright.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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T.I. focusing on next album
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rapper-actor T.I. dining with family at Ruth’s Chris Steak House at Centennial Park hours after he pled guilty to weapons charges — with MTV cameras rolling. (You know, he did tell the AJC a few years back that he enjoyed the broccoli au gratin there.) Anyway, apparently now that the Grammy winner has a year before he is sentenced to (an expected) 366 days behind bars, he can focus on the business of promoting his next album. (In between his 1,000-plus hours of community service, that is.)
T.I.’s longtime collaborator DJ Toomp told us he will be executive producer of the upcoming CD, titled “Paper Trail”. “And it’s coming along really well,” Toomp said. “People who’ve heard some of it are comparing it to [late rapper 2Pac’s] ‘Me Against The World’. ” Frank Ski of V-103’s “Frank and Wanda Morning Show” said that he’s in the studio working on music for T.I. as well. “I’ve been to visit him since he’s been on house arrest and I got a lot of good visions from him, and the place he is in his life now. I’m really excited,” Ski said. “People have been asking me when I was going to get back into producing, and this may be the time.” (As anyone who listens to his show regularly knows, his co-announcer Wanda Smith frequently jokes with him about his early ’90s hip-hop production, “Doo Doo Brown”).
Local A&R power Kawan “K.P.” Prather — who signed T.I. to his first major record label deal — also said he and production partner Malay have come up with some tracks for T.I. . “He’s been focused on doing something great,” Prather said.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Usher, Tyler Perry will help celebrate Angelou’s 80th
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On May 4, Atlanta will host a star-studded 80th birthday celebration for poet and author Maya Angelou. And Buzz has learned exclusively that the evening will also serve as the inaugural fund-raiser for a brand-new teen center to be named in Angelou’s honor at the Andrew and Walter Young YMCA on Campbellton Road.
“Maya Angelou is the embodiment of who she’s writing about in her poem ‘Phenomenal Woman,’ ” Andrew Young told Buzz. “It also pretty much describes what we’re shooting for with the new center as well. For a while now, we’ve wanted to create a teen center at the Y in a supervised environment. Sometimes in the black community, poverty is not necessarily economic but something based in self-esteem. I look at some of the rappers and hip-hop artists out there now who have money but still don’t have it together. It’s because no one taught them the importance of self-esteem. Hopefully, with this center, we can create change.”
In addition to the Y’s namesakes, the evening at Atlanta Symphony Hall will be hosted by Atlanta film director Tyler Perry and his “Madea’s Family Reunion” scene stealer Lynn Whitfield. Other confirmed celebs include “Rush Hour” star Chris Tucker, Tony-winning choreographer George Faison, pop star Usher, “Soul Food” actress Nicole Ari Parker, R&B and gospel singer Candi Staton, writer Pearl Cleage and MLK’s daughter Bernice King.
Speaking about Martin Luther King Jr., Atlanta’s former mayor is quick to point out that his old friend was a product of this city’s Butler Street YMCA.
“People forget what a great athlete Martin was,” Young recalls. “He could shoot a basketball with either hand.”
Young and his brother, meanwhile, spent many hours at their YMCA in New Orleans growing up.
Young says the pair played basketball, swam, boxed and even learned how to shoot pool at the center.
So, who was the better athlete?
Young, 76, playfully replied: “Walter’s my little brother. He couldn’t beat me in boxing, swimming or playing pool.” And Buzz swears we could almost detect a twinkle in the former U.N. ambassador’s eye through the phone line as he added: “You may want to call Walter for verification on that.”
On May 4, the birthday girl herself is also slated to give “a special performance” during her 80th soiree.
And since we know you were wondering, Oprah Winfrey’s attendance has not yet been confirmed by the evening’s organizers (Buzz’s hunch? If Winfrey doesn’t show up to help celebrate her mentor’s milestone in person, a sizable donation will.) Tickets range from $500 (including VIP reception admission) to $250 and $100. Sponsorships ranging from $100,000 to $5,000 also remain available for the evening.
Call the Woodruff Arts Center box office for tickets or more info: 404-733-5000 or woodruffcentertickets.org.
‘BIG GIVE’ IN ATL
Five reality show contestants got trapped in metro Atlanta’s legendary traffic last spring for the “Oprah’s Big Give” episode that airs at 9 p.m. Sunday.
Host Nate Berkus wouldn’t tell Buzz what the specific challenge was, but each person was given a map and a car, landing them in Conyers, Decatur, Marietta, Newnan and Smyrna. Race-car driver Danica Patrick helped out.
The remaining challengers include Brandi, chipper former pageant queen; Sheg, an earnest medical researcher; Cameron, a sharp 23-year-old self-made millionaire; Stephen, a bright tech guy; and Rachael, a tough-as-nails singer.
The show merges quick-paced “race” elements of “The Amazing Race” with the more maudlin moments of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
Given Oprah’s lofty standards, the show has been a mild disappointment in ratings, opening at nearly 16 million viewers the first week but falling to fewer than 10 million the past two Sundays. To survive another season, the show probably can’t afford to lose many more.
OVERSCENE
Atlanta Hawks starting forward Josh Smith quietly working out a new team contract with his manager while dining at Stats downtown. We hear that the two used the restaurant’s more private basement space so Smith could slip out to Hawks practice at the adjacent Philips Arena.
TRANSITIONS
Last week’s Gutter Twins concert at the Roxy in Buckhead was the last of its kind. As was previously reported by the AJC’s Maria Saporta, in 2006, Charlie Loudermilk bought the Buckhead block that includes the venue. The founder and CEO of Aaron Rents said at the time that he plans to renovate it into an upscale arts and theater complex.
“So yes, that’ll be the last show in the Roxy as we knew it,” said promoter Peter Conlon. “It’s my understanding that it’s going to be gutted and totally redone. It should be great.”
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Saturday: Host John McLaughlin (“The McLaughlin Group”) is 81. Comedian Eric Idle is 65. Singer Perry Farrell of Porno for Pyros and Jane’s Addiction is 49. Comedian Amy Sedaris is 47.
Sunday: Actor Warren Beatty is 71. Musician Eric Clapton is 63. Actor Robbie Coltrane (“Harry Potter”) is 58. Singer Celine Dion is 40. Singer Norah Jones is 29.
Contributing: Rodney Ho, Sonia Murray and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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‘GWTW’ fan gets romantic prize in city
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Frankly, spring break didn’t go exactly as planned this week for Laura Meehan, a Lake Zurich, Ill., sixth-grade math teacher. For one thing, she left the house with boyfriend Craig Podolski on Tuesday thinking she was headed to a lake house vacation.
Instead, the 26-year-old avid “Gone With the Wind” reader ended up in Atlanta in front of the movie set doorway to Tara, accepting an engagement ring from the 28-year-old English teacher.
“When he told me we had a stop to make in Atlanta, I was perplexed, but I went with it,” Meehan told Buzz on Thursday. “When we got to Atlanta, he asked the cab driver to take us to the Margaret Mitchell House. I thought that was the surprise.”
As a MMH tour guide sneakily snuck the rest of a tour group away from the couple, Podolski dropped to one knee. “He was cool as a cucumber,” Meehan told us. “He knew I would say ‘Yes’ so he wasn’t nervous!”
As it turns out, the premeditated proposal wasn’t his first “GWTW”-related surprise for Meehan.
In 2006, Podolski celebrated his first Christmas with Meehan by presenting her with a pricey “first edition, eighth printing” of the legendary novel.
“I knew then that he was serious about me,” recalls Meehan. “It was an incredibly thoughtful gift to give me at that stage of our relationship. I won’t read that copy because I’m afraid I’ll damage it, but I’ll occasionally take the wrapping off it so I can look at it. I’ve just always loved the character of Scarlett O’Hara. She’s a strong woman who protected her family.”
In order to catch a 3:50 p.m. flight back to Chicago, the couple didn’t even have time to properly peruse the tourist attraction’s gift shop.
Well, there’s always the honeymoon.
HILARITY ON ‘HEADLINE NEWS?’
With the likes of Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace on its airwaves, CNN Headline News is not known for comedy — at least deliberate comedy. But that’s going to change April 5 at 7 p.m. when the network launches the weekly “Not Just Another Cable News Show,” which is kind of like VH1’s “Best Week Ever.” Mining archived and recent video clips, the show will use various commentators to make snarky comments about said video. The first night’s topic: “Political blunders.” There will be no host. Fox News last year tried a “Daily Show” for conservatives, “The 1/2 Hour News Hour,” but it only lasted a few months.
ACCELERATING ALBUM RELEASE
R.E.M.’s new album, “Accelerate,” won’t be released until Tuesday, but if you happen to be in Athens on Monday, you can get a sneak preview.
A listening party is taking place at the Melting Pot (295 E. Dougherty St.) and doors open at 6 p.m. with the album preview beginning at 8:15 p.m. The event is also a benefit for Community Connection of Northeast Georgia & Family Connection / Communities in Schools.
Though the band won’t make it to the event, there will be a live auction of an R.E.M.-signed Gretsch guitar and a concert package to the band’s June 21 concert at Lakewood Amphitheatre. The package includes six tickets, a VIP table, transportation to the concert from Athens from Touch of Elegance Limousine Service and a VIP parking pass. There also will be other R.E.M. items in the live auction and in a silent auction.
Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 on the day of show. Get them through www.athensmusic.net, www.meltingpointathens.com or call 706-254-6909.
Closer to Atlanta, all this week, Dave FM listeners can win passes into a private “Accelerate” listening party at Smith’s Olde Bar on Monday night.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actress Dianne Wiest is 60. Country singer Reba McEntire is 53. Country singer Rodney Atkins is 39. Actor Vince Vaughn is 38. Actress Julia Stiles is 27.
OVERSCENE
Kathy Bates
“Misery” actress Kathy Bates enjoying a leisurely dinner of Chef Joey Riley’s jumbo lump crab cakes, a Caesar salad and lemon sorbet at the Buckhead Diner. We’re told the Oscar winner happily posed with the staff for a photo. We hear Bates is in town shooting director Tyler Perry’s latest “The Family That Prays.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Cheese?
In a can?!”
Insider trading convict “All My Children” vixen Erica Kane (played by Susan Lucci) who’s currently on the lam, handcuffed to a bank robber and shopping at convenience stores as part of the Martha Stewart-inspired soap plot.
Contributing: Shane Harrison, Rodney Ho and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Atlanta Storytelling Festival begins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A well-run storytelling festival can be a wonderful event, so all good wishes to the Atlanta Storytelling Festival, which makes its debut Thursday night and runs through Sunday in Avondale Estates. The festival will feature more than 30 area performers who will show how telling stories can be elevated to a performance art.
The weekend will be divided into six 90-minute programs for adults, with themes like Love, Generations and Crossing Boundaries, and four 45-minute programs for children.
Among the tellers: Christy Foelsch, Barry Stewart Mann, Wayne Smith (pictured), Audrey Galex and many more.
Performances will be held at the Academy Theater, 119 Center St., Avondale Estates, which is tucked behind the movie theater. Tickets are $15 per program, $75 for the whole shebang. Details from 404 297-0904 and at www.myspace.com/ atlantastorytellingfest.
LIBRARY AID
The Food Network’s Alton Brown is coming to Cobb County on Saturday to help the Cobb Library Foundation raise money. Brown’s latest book is “Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run,” about his motorcycle trip along the Mississippi River looking for great American road food. He’ll be at Walker School, 700 Cobb Parkway, Marietta, talking and signing the book, but fire regulations won’t let him cook anything. There’s a VIP reception at 11 a.m. ($125) and the regular appearance at 12:30 p.m. ($35). Tickets are nearly sold out, says the foundation’s Donna Espy. You can buy them online at www.cobbcat.org or call 770-528-2196.
MUNCH FOR CAMERA
Free popcorn, and maybe you get on TV. What’s not to like? If you’re around Marietta Square at 1 p.m. today, swing by Murphy’s Popcorn. “ABC World News” will be there taping a piece for the news, and they want folks wandering around, munching, and holding up “Hey Mom” signs. (OK, not so much the last one.) The story is about a new lending company called Lending Club that got owner Tim Murphy started.
ONE TOUGH CHEF
Celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme was setting up his cooking tent on the practice range at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans golf event when he felt a sting in his right arm. Prudhomme shook his shirt sleeve and a .22 caliber bullet fell to the ground, a spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies believe Prudhomme was hit by a falling bullet, probably shot about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday from somewhere within a 1-mile radius of the golf course, said Col. John Fortunato. The celebrated chef didn’t require medical attention. Witnesses said the bullet cut Prudhomme’s skin on his arm and put a hole in his white chef’s coat. But Prudhomme continued cooking until he left the course about 3:30 p.m. Now that’s a manly chef.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actor Austin Pendleton is 68. Actor Michael York is 66. Keyboardist Tony Banks of Genesis is 58. Saxophonist Dave Koz is 45. Director Quentin Tarantino is 45. Singer Mariah Carey is 38. Actress Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Juliet on “Lost,” is 38, although it’s possible that Ben told her to say that, or she’s just running some scam on Jack, so we can’t know for sure if she’s telling the truth. Singer Fergie of Black Eyed Peas is 33.
THIS DATE IN HISTORY
Viagra turns 10 today
Ten years ago today, March 27, 1998, the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Viagra. Buzz says you can just make your own joke; we’re moving on.
Contributing: Bob Longino, news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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13-year-old actor rakes in the business
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Actors twice his age would kill for Acworth teen Justin Martin’s current career trajectory. Buzz readers will recall Martin recently earned praise for his performance in the Kenny Leon-directed ABC TV adaptation of “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Poor thing. Now, Martin has landed a role in “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” the latest sequel to the ultra popular Disney franchise.
Martin, 13, has been cast as one of three new sophomore students for “High School Musical 3,” which will begin filming soon in Utah for theatrical release in October.
Other new cast members include Matt Prokop and Jemma McKenzie-Brown. Returning stars include Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Ortega.
Martin, who found his calling as an actor at age 7 when he appeared in a play in a Decatur church, earlier portrayed Young Simba on Broadway in “The Lion King.”
But the “High School” role has the potential to launch Martin into the tween stratosphere, especially since Efron, Hudgens, Bleu and crew have made no secret about wanting to move on after the second sequel wraps. And well, Disney (being Disney) will likely want to keep the franchise going as long as the Mouse House is making plenty of cheese from the franchise.
BRYAN-MICHAEL COX STAYING BUSY
Buzz got Atlanta’s Grammy-winning songwriter Bryan-Michael Cox on the phone to talk about the online talent search he and Colgate-Palmolive launched this week, but first we opted to chat him up about:
Mariah Carey: “L.A. [Island Def Jam Music Group Chairman Antonio “L.A.” Reid] just paged me and told me I’m going to have the second single on her album.” Cox also had a hand in her monster ballad “We Belong Together.” “I’m also working on Usher’s new record, Mya’s new single, Trey Songz, Monica. Brandy’s been in and out of Atlanta, and we’ve been working with her. I just reunited with the twins in Jagged Edge, so we’ll be doing something. Q Parker [from Atlanta R&B quartet 112] and my group, Dirty Rose, as well.”
His growing TV exposure :”Yeah, being on ‘Making the Band’ [working with the group Day 26, in stores this week] was a good look for me, too. I also did that show ‘VH1 Man Band,’ which was just greenlit for a second season. We did that in Orlando the first time around, but what I’m trying to propose to VH1 is that the Atlanta community is involved this time around. I’m also developing ‘The Studio — Exposed.’ It’s something we did on YouTube that Viacom is interested in, about how we make music. And how what happens around us, in the studio, influences that.”
The talent search: “Doing something online is just a natural progression for the music industry,” he said of the “MaxFresh Video Music Competition.” “People forget that [Atlanta rapper] Soulja Boy was discovered that way.”
Interested artists can upload video auditions at www.myspace.com/colgatemaxfresh through April 14. Prizes include an original song written and produced by Cox. And Cox himself has offered some tips, exclusively for the Atlanta Music Scene blog on ajc.com.
‘AMERICA’S NEXT TOP STALKER’?
A man charged with stalking Tyra Banks has been ordered to stay away from the host of “America’s Next Top Model” or face going to jail.
Brady Green, according to a criminal complaint, has followed Banks from coast to coast since January, sent her letters and flowers, and tried to telephone her. Last week he was issued a court order requiring him to leave her alone.
Green, of Dublin in Middle Georgia, was arrested when he showed up several times March 18 at the Manhattan building where “The Tyra Banks Show” is taped and asked to speak to her, a misdemeanor complaint filed in Criminal Court says.
The complaint says building custodian Edward Troiano told police Green also had appeared at Banks’ Los Angeles studio “on multiple occasions” and asked to speak to her. He said Green had sent her letters and flowers there and had tried to reach her there by phone at least five times, the complaint says.
Banks, 34, told police that Green’s actions had caused her to fear that she was in danger.
Police charged Green, 37, with stalking, criminal trespass and harassment.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actor Leonard Nimoy is 77. Actor Alan Arkin is 74. Actor James Caan is 68. Singer Diana Ross is 64. Singer Steven Tyler (right) of Aerosmith is 60. Actress Jennifer Grey is 48. Actor Michael Imperioli (“The Sopranos”) is 42. Country singer Kenny Chesney is 40. Actor T.R. Knight (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 35. Actress Keira Knightley (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) is 23. Rapper J-Kwon is 22.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Uh, terrorists, can you please hurry up and kill us all?
Seriously.”
Gawker.com reader posting a review after watching Monday night’s season premiere of the brain cell snuffing-yet-addictive MTV docusoap “The Hills.”
Contributing: Sonia Murray, Alan Smithee and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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James Beard nods announced
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta may have lost a few of its greatest chefs to the Big Apple recently, but the 2008 James Beard Award nominations are no evidence. Announced Monday, the awards are considered the “Oscars” of the food world.
Courting the idea of the new Southern food movement, the awards have given our area three nominees for best chef Southeast: Hugh Acheson (pictured) of Five & Ten in Athens (The AJC’s 2007 restaurant of the year); Arnaud Berthelier of the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead; and Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene. Charleston, S.C., rounds out the list, with Mike Lata of Fig and Robert Stehling of Hominy Grill boasting nominations as well.
It is the first nomination for Hopkins. Berthelier and Acheson repeat their nominations from the same category last year. Acheson and Hopkins have helped define the Southern food movement in modern-day dining rooms, elevating seasonal ingredients and slow cooking into a fine dining experience. Berthelier is noted for his technical prowess and exciting flavor profiles.
“It’s all good,” said Acheson by phone from Athens; he was cooking at the Beard House in New York last Saturday night with colleagues Joe Truex and Mihoko Obunai from Atlanta’s Repast restaurant. “It’s always fun to be around all these incredible chefs at the awards dinner,” said Acheson, “but at the end of the day, life goes on. I’m just happy to see the maturation of the Southern food movement get some recognition.”
“It’s awesome,” exclaimed Hopkins. “It’s such an honor to be included. But now I know I’ve got to be even better. Being nominated changes things — it makes me feel such a part of something bigger.”
The awards will be announced at a ceremony in New York on June 8.
OVERSCENE
Between performing sold-out shows at the Fox Theatre, comic and actor Chris Rock “dressed in all black with matching hat” catching a matinee of the Lionsgate film “The Bank Job” at AMC Phipps Plaza in Buckhead.
Members of the Allman Brothers Band, including Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks and his wife, singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi, along with 10 other band members, agents and friends dining in the private board room of the Lobster Bar in Buckhead. Greg Allman was under the weather and did not join the group. We hear the band is in town rehearsing for a 15-night set of shows at the Beacon Theater in New York, starting May 5.
The Piedmont Park rockers feasted on signature bone-in ribeyes and filets, king crab and oysters on the half shell.
Oscar winner and G-CAPP founder Jane Fonda celebrating Easter with dinner at Trois. Eatery reps dish that Fonda enjoyed the salad a la mode and striped bass, along with the Trois signature Cocktail infused with green tea and mint.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Movie critic Gene Shalit is 76. Singer Aretha Franklin is 66. Musician Elton John is 61. Actress Brenda Strong (“Desperate Housewives”) is 48. Actress Marcia Cross (“Desperate Housewives”) is 46. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is 43.
COUPLING
Former 99X midday guy Steve Craig married former radio promotions director Kara Jensen over the weekend. Ex-99Xer Sean Demery — Craig’s best friend for 30 years — served as best man. Pals Big Mike Geier and Tongo Hiti provided the entertainment, and many of Craig’s former co-workers turned up for the nups. Before setting out for a Caribbean honeymoon, the couple enjoyed “flaming rum drinks” at Trader Vic’s downtown.
Contributing: Meridith Ford, Bob Longino and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Dupri’s turn to get real on Peachtree TV
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Peachtree TV reality show “Jermaine Dupri Presents: Brutha” makes its bow locally tonight, but it already has national attention. Turner Entertainment consultant Ryan Glover says negotiations are under way with an unnamed network to make the show a series, with a possible debut in the third quarter of this year. If so, it would make the second Peachtree TV success in a row for Glover, who was involved in the November hit “Dallas Austin’s Drumroll: SWD.”
“For over a decade, Atlanta has been known as the music mecca,” said Glover. “I believe so strongly in the creatives that are here — from Dallas Austin to JD [Dupri] to Bryan Barber to OutKast to Lil Jon — that not only should they have the opportunity to share their blessings as creatives through music, but also through TV and film.”
“Brutha,” about singing brothers from California who come to Atlanta in search of a record deal, airs at 8 p.m. See a photo gallery of one of the group’s recent rehearsals, and a Video.
Tonight on Peachtree TV, Jermaine Dupri presents an R&B act called Brutha (from left): Anthony Harrell (lead singer), Jacob Harrell, Grady Harrell, Jared Overton and Pop Harrell. (Photo: Hyosub Shin / AJC)
Atlanta’s ‘Deltalina’ taking flight
Before YouTube, redheaded, blue-eyed, high-cheekboned Katherine Lee was just another beautiful flight attendant who worked for the nation’s third-largest airline.
Next month, up to 80 million Delta Air Lines passengers worldwide will know her as the face of Delta’s newest safety video, in which Lee walks fliers through government-mandated safety instructions with a smile and a playful wag of the finger.
The safety video generated such a buzz after being posted on the Atlanta-based airline’s corporate blog and on the video Web site YouTube that admirers dubbed the 33-year-old Atlanta woman “Deltalina,” a combination of the airline’s name and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who they say she resembles.
Halfway through the 41/2-minute video, Lee unexpectedly and playfully wags a long finger at the camera while instructing that “Smoking … is not allowed, on any Delta flight.”
The video, made on a Boeing 757, was completed in mid-January after two 16-hour workdays in Atlanta. Employees last fall auditioned for the role. The airline whittled down a list of 82 flight attendants and selected 10, including Lee. The lead flight attendant wasn’t selected until immediately before the filming.
Lee, a 10 1/2-year employee who now trains other flight attendants at the airline’s Atlanta headquarters, was selected in part because she already was comfortable being in front of other people, Babb said.
But can “Deltalina” (who’s single, by the way) come to terms with her new fame?
“I was on vacation … and when we landed in Munich, one of the passengers comments was, ‘Aren’t you that girl in the safety video?’ ” Lee said. “It’s been kind of interesting. With students I’m teaching, I feel like a rock star. I wanted to do this since the first day I became a flight attendant. Ten-and-a-half years later, I finally made it.”
Winning couple gets $87,000
Eric Gray and Keyana Carlisle’s upcoming wedding will get a little extra happily ever after today. More than a little, really. Make that $87,000 worth of happy, awarded to the Union City couple by Bridal Guide magazine’s America’s Favorite Couple contest. They’ll be gifted with gowns, tuxedos, jewelry, housewares, an eight-night honeymoon, rehearsal dinner and reception at Tavern on the Green, among other goods.
Online voters chose the couple as their favorite over two other pairs of finalists. Gray, 30, and Carlisle, 27, both were diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease as teens; they met in 2000 in the ultra-romantic setting of a dialysis clinic. (They campaigned for the contest win even while continuing dialysis six days per week.)
Just after their first date, Gray broke his hip and Carlisle helped him through it. Then Carlisle lost her memory in 2003, after she landed in the hospital and an infected IV caused her temperature to spike. They rebuilt the relationship and Gray proposed before a crowd in Centennial Olympic Park in 2006.
And when’s that happily ever after down the aisle? They’ve waited long enough, and in Gray’s words, “Keyana’s going crazy.” Contest rules say they’ve got one year to use their prizes — they’re aiming for a late summer or fall wedding.
TV-style fun coming to ATL
Inspired by “The Amazing Race,” but without the globe trotting or million-dollar prize, a scaled-back and localized version of the game is coming to Atlanta on Saturday.
Called “The Great Urban Race,” teams of two will use MARTA and other public transit to navigate city streets and complete challenges.
The Web site for the game, also being held in about 20 other cities across the country this year, doesn’t tip off any specific clues, but offers some sample tasks: assemble a 84-piece jigsaw puzzle of the United States or take a photo of someone playing a guitar.
Already, 150 teams of two have signed up, according to Joe Reynolds, race director, who said this is the race’s second year, but first time in Atlanta.
Registration is at 11 a.m. and the race is set to begin at noon. Each couple will get an envelope with 12 clues.
Reynolds said he will expect the winning couple to return with the missions accomplished in about two hours.
The cost is $59 per person before the race or $70 per person on game day and covers drinks and snacks and other game-related costs. Winner gets $300 and free entry into the Las Vegas championship game.
The race begins and ends at the Front Page News at 1104 Crescent Ave. in Midtown.
For more information, go to greaturbanrace.com.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS Singer Nick Lowe is 59. Comedian Louie Anderson is 55. Actor Robert Carradine is 54. Actress Kelly LeBrock is 48. TV personality Star Jones is 46. Actress Annabella Sciorra is 44. Actress Lara Flynn Boyle is 38. Actress Alyson Hannigan (“How I Met Your Mother,” “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”) is 34.
Contributing: Jamie Gumbrecht, Helena Oliviero, Sonia Murray and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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4th novel by Anne Rice’s son could be mainstream hit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For his fourth novel, “Blind Fall,” New York Times best-selling author Christopher Rice did research on hand-to-hand combat, explored the geography of California and exchanged e-mails with U.S. soldiers in Iraq as he created “Lightning” Mike Bowers, the gay Marine captain at the center of the story.
Anne Rice’s little boy, now 30, also employed some more imaginative modes of research to craft his latest high-octane thriller.
“I dated several,” Rice told us between nibbles on a cinnamon roll while in town this week for a signing at Outwrite. “For whatever reason, I was popular with gay Marines. But through that, I discovered that soldiers are far less closeted than I thought. Some are even out to others and to their superiors.”
While building a loyal following among gay readers over the past eight years, with “Blind Fall,” Rice may have written a mainstream hit. For the first time, Rice’s protagonist, John Houck, is a no-nonsense battle-scarred heterosexual Marine who finds himself thrown together with his former commander’s boyfriend in order to solve his murder.
“It was a bit like an acting exercise,” Rice explained. “Marines are trained to fight to the death for the man standing next to them. There’s really no political agenda for a lot of these guys. I was intrigued by that.”
The author had mixed feelings about an upcoming signing stop in his old hometown of New Orleans. He and his mother moved to California before Hurricane Katrina, after the death of his father, poet Stan Rice. The author’s anger at the problems still plaguing New Orleans clearly eats at him.
“I went back after Katrina and drove around,” Rice recalled softly. “I saw the destroyed houses that my friends had lived in. There’s no sugarcoating it. It’s rough to take.”
Rice says its been rougher still to watch pundits such as Ann Coulter verbally trash the city.
“It’s just unbelievably coldhearted,” he said. “New Orleans is one of the greatest ports in the world. And here they were, [urinating] on an American city when we need to be assisting. It’s not something beyond our scope.”
‘RWANDA RISES’ ON SUNDAY
This Sunday, as folks celebrate Easter, it’s perhaps fitting that Atlantans will get a fascinating, uplifting look at Rwanda’s resurrection via the first episode of the syndicated documentary series “Andrew Young Presents” on WSB-TV at 5 p.m. In the premiere, “Rwanda Rising,” the former United Nations ambassador, Atlanta mayor and civil rights icon travels to the African country as he hosts a special dedicated to Rwanda’s amazing recovery from genocide in 1994 that left 1 million dead in 100 days.
Young and producer/director C.B. Hackworth thoughtfully provided Buzz with an advance look.
As former President Bill Clinton describes the transformation in an interview with Young: “These people realized the only way to recover is to let go.”
Young also interviewed music icon Quincy Jones, who reveals to his old friend that he is developing “a major motion picture” dedicated to Rwanda.
Amazingly, the Hutu, who once set out to exterminate fellow countrymen the Tutsi, now work with the Tutsi to help produce a popular specialty coffee grown in Rwanda, a growth industry that now nets $5 million a year.
As Young observes: “A humble coffee bush is bringing healing, prosperity and unity. … If they can do it, maybe anyone can do it.”
The series will continue as a series of specials later this spring.
HIGH FIVE
Television
The Top OnDemand programs for the week of March 10-16 as determined by Comcast customers in metro Atlanta:
1. “The Wire” Episode 60, “-30-,” HBO
2. “Family Guy” Episode “Breaking Out is Hard to Do,” TBS
3. “Dora the Explorer” Episode “Dora and Diego to the Rescue!” Nickelodeon
4. “Yahhh!” Soulja Boy music video, Music Choice
5. “South Park” Episode “Marjorine” Comedy Central
Source: Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’m not a mean person, but I have a capacity for it. I have the biting comment formed somewhere in the back of my head — like it’s in captivity. People treat you better. People are on time.”
—“30 Rock” creator Tina Fey in the April Reader’s Digest.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Today: Actor Karl Malden is 96. Composer Stephen Sondheim is 78. Actor William Shatner is 77. News anchor Wolf Blitzer is 60. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is 60. Sportscaster Bob Costas is 56. Actress Reese Witherspoon is 32.
Sunday: Singer Chaka Khan is 55. Actress Marin Hinkle (“Two-and-A-Half Men”) is 42. Singer-keyboardist Damon Albarn of Blur is 40.
Contributing: News services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Room with a (tornado) view for UGA climatologists
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some people would say that acquiring — and then losing — tickets to one of the great basketball games in the history of the University of Georgia would ruin the average weekend.
But John (right) and Pam Knox, both climatologists at UGA, got a great consolation prize: front-row seats for Friday’s tornado. At 9:30 on Friday the two weather freaks stood at the south-facing windows of their 14th-floor rooms at the Four Seasons in Midtown as the EF 2 tornado rolled through downtown, just a mile or so to the south. As a vantage point, it was “perfect” said John. And the show? “That was once in a lifetime. I have never seen a tornado path lit up by power line breaks before. I’ve seen it in videos, but I’ve never seen it in real life.” As successive power lines snapped downtown, sending bolts of greenish light upward into the storm, the Knoxes watched the twister’s progress from west to east. “People who go storm-chasing out in Oklahoma and Kansas don’t see as much in two weeks as we did in 10 minutes,” he said.
John and his brother, David Knox, had planned to attend a Saturday game, along with Pam and John’s 11-year-old son, Evan. Those plans were scuttled after the storm damaged the Georgia Dome. But Friday’s entertainment more than made up for the loss, he said.
RAPPING WITH GUV
Where’s the last place you’d expect to hear Atlanta rapper-actor T.I.’s “What You Know?” Try the basement of the governor’s mansion Wednesday night. As state senators and high-powered attorneys partook of muscadine spritzers and green curry mussels, T.I., the convicted felon currently under house arrest for allegedly purchasing machine guns, was rhyming out of the speakers at the home of Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Then again, he did invite Georgia’s numerous Grammy nominees and winners over for spritzers, shrimp cocktail, lobster bisque shooters and the like — and T.I. is a two-time Grammy winner.
“It’s a great evening to not only recognize the creativity but also the economic impetus that the music industry and the creative industry in Atlanta and throughout Georgia contribute to the state. And you know, music has the ability to bring us all together and that’s exactly what it’s done tonight.”
Among the governor’s guests were fellow lawmakers (state Sen. Jeff Mullins); power attorneys (Joel Katz); at least one Georgia Music Hall of Fame honoree (Dr. Bobbie Bailey); a lone former Falcon/recording studio owner (Bob Whitfield); and, of course, numerous Grammy winners (Earl Klugh, Freddy Cole, Q of 112, DJ Toomp), nominees (Karen Peck and New River) and fellow artists (Diana DeGarmo) who couldn’t pass up a tour of the people’s mansion. Or perhaps, pecan phyllo cups.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Singer Solomon Burke is 68. Actor Timothy Dalton is 62. Singer Eddie Money is 59. Actor Gary Oldman is 50. Actor Matthew Broderick is 46. Actress-comedian Rosie O’Donnell is 46. Guitarist Andrew Copeland of Sister Hazel is 40.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Even though they were an audience that we know likes us, still, they have blogs, and if there were only two good songs and nine crap songs, the world would know, and it would have been over.”
R.E.M.’s Peter Buck
Contributing: Bo Emerson, Sonia Murray and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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J-Lo’s newborn twins in People magazine
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
People magazine has exclusive photographs of Emme and Max, the newborn twins of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. Click here to see the People cover online.
The proud parents and their new arrivals were photographed at home in New York. The babies, a girl and a boy, were born Feb. 22.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Late singer gets ‘Idol’ dedication
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When “American Idol” contestant and former Buckhead nightspot singer Michael Johns dedicated his performance of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” Tuesday night, many in the close-knit Atlanta music community got a lump in their throats.
Johns announced on air he had selected the song as a tribute to late Garrison Field frontman Jon Allmett, who was just 36 and a newlywed when he died unexpectedly last August. Allmett, a native of England, and the Australian Johns frequently hung together at clubs like C.J.’s Landing during their years singing in Atlanta clubs (Garrison Fields’ 1998 debut disc “Open” was a particular favorite here at Buzz Central).
Friends and fans said Wednesday that the song Johns selected was much loved by the late Garrison Field singer, whose band was often described as “Beatlesque.”
On Wednesday, Q100 “Bert Show” Entertainment Buzz correspondent Jen Hobby shared an e-mail with us from a friend of Allmett’s who announced that the longtime musical director of Camp Twin Lakes also will have a music room and recording studio dedicated in his name this summer at the camp enjoyed by metro Atlanta special-needs kids.
The singer’s page at Myspace.com/jonallmett remains up and operating with benefit updates and touching tributes posted by family and friends (Johns, incidentally, is Allmett’s No. 2 “friend” on the page).
Collective Soul guitarist Dean Roland, his business partner Paul Broft and their hipster nightlife Web site investors also were praising Johns on Wednesday. During his taped interview segment on “A.I.” Tuesday night, Johns sported a SneakySunday.com T-shirt, giving a plug on the No. 1-rated TV show for the Atlanta-based Web site poised to go national in 90-plus cities on April 1.
The Web site is designed to help nightcrawlers with crucial clubbing, dining and other hospitality-oriented decisions on nights other than the traditional Friday and Saturday.
Or as Buzz likes to refer to it: Work.
COTTON MILL CLEANUP
Thanks to his frequently updated Myspace.com page, we’ve been able to keep up with our old pal Brandon Sutton since last weekend’s tornado touched down. Until Friday night, the “retired” nightclub DJ turned interactive marketing rep resided at the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts in Cabbagetown. Thankfully, Sutton’s space in H Building did not take a direct hit. Still, on Wednesday, Sutton was surveying the damage to the Lofts and those omnipresent blue tarps on the roofs in his ‘hood from a downtown hotel room where he’s now living.
“The whole property’s been evacuated until further notice,” Sutton told us. “We’ve been allowed in for 30 minutes each day to carry out things we need, but IDs are being checked at the door and the property has been secured.” Even while frightening pictures of the disaster area are posted on his Myspace.com page, Sutton is retaining a sense of humor. On Wednesday, his Myspace status read: “Brandon is getting spoiled by room service.”
On Saturday at 10 a.m., Sutton, his neighbors and those who want to help clean up the decimated area and aid those whose lives have been upended by the storm will meet at the Cotton Mill Lofts rear gate on Carroll Street, which is unaffected.
CHANGING CHANNELS
Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the tough-love relationships expert last heard in Atlanta on WGST-AM in 2004, is set to come back into town, presumably at WCFO-AM (1160), currently a business talk station.
Nationally, Dr. Laura still draws millions of listeners but she remains highly polarizing. Some find her schtik annoying, if not insulting. Recently, for instance, she seemed to be excoriating Eliot Spitzer’s wife more than the former New York governor himself for his taste for prostitutes. Dr. Laura was hugely popular on WSB-AM (750) in the 1990s but when she came over to WGST, her ratings dropped in half and by 2004, she was gone.
Meanwhile, over at WGCL, TV reporter/anchor Cari Champion told Buzz she is leaving the station for a yet unspecified new broadcast job outside the Atlanta market. She made headlines in November for possibly uttering a profanity on air by accident and getting fired. She later fought back publicly, hiring an attorney and explaining to the press she said “mothersucka,” not the curse word management thought she had. WGCL hired Champion back in January, but her return was obviously short-lived.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Producer Carl Reiner is 86. Actor Hal Linden is 77. Singer Jerry Reed is 71. Director Spike Lee is 51. Actress Holly Hunter is 50. Singer Chester Bennington of Linkin Park is 32.
SICK BAY
CNN’s Anderson Cooper was back at work Wednesday after minor surgery two days earlier to remove a cancerous mole from underneath his left eye.
There was no indication the skin cancer had spread, spokeswoman Shimrit Sheetrit said.
Cooper, 40, blogged about his procedure Wednesday as he was following Barack Obama for a special edition of Cooper’s nightly news show.
Contributing: Rodney Ho and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Fuzzy’s food, hugs return in summer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For fans of Fuzzy’s Place, the now-shuttered 30-year-old North Druid Hills Road watering hole, summer can’t come fast enough this year. That’s when a new incarnation of the live blues and Cajun cookery mainstay is set to open at 1860 Corporate Blvd., around the corner from the old location. The original joint closed last year after the untimely death of namesake and owner Fuzzy Cawthon.
The as-yet-unnamed new place (it won’t be called Fuzzy’s for various legal reasons) located across the street from the legendary Pink Pony will be run by former Fuzzy’s general manager and bartender Keirsten Alexander and veteran Fuzzy’s bartenders Jerry Rooks and Montie Henderson, along with most of the old kitchen and wait staff. And best of all, the family of late Cajun chef Joe Dale has given the new venture its blessing to use the old recipes on its new menu. And yes, house acts like Java Monkey, the Mike Veal Band and Francine Reed are expected back as well.
“I’ve already received about 100 e-mails from old Fuzzy’s regulars who are thrilled about the news,” Alexander told Buzz. “The customers are what I’ve really missed. When you came into Fuzzy’s, you got lots of hugs. That’s just how we were. I miss giving out those hugs.”
Alexander says old regulars are also offering to help with deals on everything from concrete pouring to tile work to wholesale TV sales in order to get the new location, a former Denny’s, up and running.
“Sometimes, I’ll get stumped reading the names in the e-mails,” explains the manager/mixologist. “But as soon as they tell me what they drink: ‘It’s Tom, I drink Heineken on Tuesdays,’ I know immediately who it is. I never forget a drink.”
Alexander and company aren’t forgetting the legacy of Cawthon in the new venture either, despite the absence of his name.
“This is all so reflective of Fuzzy and his uncanny knack for bringing people together for a good time. It’s nice to know we have so many wonderful customers out there.”
Look for the new concept to debut in early June. Until then, Fuzzy’s customers can reach the new management via e-mail at keirstenalexander@comcast.net.
NAVIGATING TO AGAVE PARKING
The folks at Agave, the much-beloved neighborhood eatery in Cabbagetown, checked in Tuesday to let customers know they survived the tornado that touched down at the nearby Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts on Friday night. “We’re still standing!” read the e-mail sent to Buzz Central.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with those in the surrounding community who have sustained losses and damages. Please come out and support us and our community after the big storm.”
Given that Boulevard is currently blocked off because of the devastation, temporary new directions are required. Agave is advising customers “to enter at the corner of Memorial Drive and Boulevard into the parking lot of Blessens Tire Co. Please look for our valets, who will provide complimentary parking.”
For more info: 404-588-0006.
RUNAWAY BRIDE’S EX TIES KNOT IN DULUTH
John Mason, 35, the ex-fiancé of runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, was married to Shelley Martin, 34, last Saturday in a quiet ceremony at his parents’ home in Duluth, People magazine reports on its Web site People.com. In April 2005, Mason’s wedding to Wilbanks was called off after she disappeared just before the wedding. The incident gained notoriety nationwide, and it turned out the errant bride faked her own kidnapping.
VAN HALEN: ARENA BACK ON SCHEDULE
Since Live Nation media mistress Holli Mattison has firmly assured us that Ashton Kutcher isn’t her new boss, we will dutifully pass along the latest update that’s come into Buzz Central regarding the soap opera known as the Van Halen tour. The on again/off again, postponed/rescheduled, postponed again tango is back on again, now set for Sunday, May 11 at the Gwinnett Arena. In recent weeks, dates were scrapped as leader Eddie Van Halen, a cancer and substance abuse survivor, underwent medical tests. The band’s camp has been mum on exactly what’s ailing the 1970s guitar god. Now, let’s all just pray that David Lee Roth doesn’t Liza Minnelli a hip …
A STRAY DOVE
Oops, we missed one. When we recently reported all the impressive local artists up for Dove Awards this year, we unintentionally left one out. Woodstock singer-songwriter Seth Condrey is nominated for Spanish Language Album of the Year. The 39th annual GMA Dove Awards are due to be handed out April 23 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actor Patrick McGoohan is 80. Actress Ursula Andress is 72. Singer Ruth Pointer of the Pointer Sisters is 62. Actress Glenn Close is 61. Actor Bruce Willis is 53.
OVERSCENE
NBA legend and sports broadcaster Charles Barkley quietly having a drink and watching a game at the bar at Taurus before being joined by guests for dinner.
Contributing: News services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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No twister of fate stops Ted’s Montana Grill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For veteran Atlanta restaurateur George McKerrow Jr., the weekend’s twister-tainted dose of Mother Nature downtown was faintly reminiscent of Snow Jam ‘82. Longtime Atlantans will recall the former Longhorn Steakhouse proprietor catered to customers at his Peachtree Street restaurant that January as folks abandoned their cars in drifting snow and headed in for beef and brews.
Now, as co-owner of Ted’s Montana Grill on Luckie Street downtown, McKerrow worked throughout the weekend with his staff and managed to keep the doors open for the thousands of out-of-towners here for conventions, college hoops and a home show. But it wasn’t easy, considering many of the building’s windows blew out, and 166 diners had to be hustled into the kitchen Friday night as the storm struck.
“My upstairs office looks like it was hit by shrapnel,” McKerrow told Buzz on Monday. Business partner Ted Turner’s top floor penthouse likewise lost some windows but suffered “no significant damage and it’s now buttoned up and secured.” Turner, who’s out of the country, rang McKerrow throughout the weekend for updates.
“Ted was all excited that we were able to stay open and serve our out-of-town guests,” McKerrow said. “He told me, ‘I just knew you’d do it, George.’ “
McKerrow conceded that task wasn’t easy. Cleaning crews worked throughout the night to scrub away dirt and mud and sweep up glass throughout the restaurant. New custom windows are expected by the end of the week.
An entire stained glass window from The Tabernacle next door also landed in Ted’s parking lot.
“It’s amazing that no one was killed or seriously injured,” McKerrow said. “We were extremely fortunate.”
While McKerrow noticed some parallels between this past weekend’s twister in downtown and 1982’s historic snowstorm, he added: “This weekend was much more of a crisis than the snowstorm. And the snow lasted longer. What was surprising about Friday night was how fast it was all over. At the end of the day, our staff felt great being able to provide a safe place to eat. As you can imagine, there was more than a little anxiety down here.”
A USUAL TUESDAY FOR THRIVE
Sure, a little chaos swirled around his business all weekend. And on Monday, commuters sat in traffic out front on the parts of Marietta Street that were actually open, but Thrive restaurant and nightclub general manager A.D. Allushi says the hipster eatery’s weekly Sushi Rock event will happen as usual tonight at 101 Marietta St. The popular free sushi and $4 cocktail party featuring DJ Scott Cannon is set for 8 p.m. And while Allushi probably has gotten 14 seconds of sleep since the tornado hit Friday, we’re betting he’ll be in residence tonight to assist customers, all while immaculately dressed in something fashion forward. In comparison, Buzz officially ceased hiding in a fetal position under our bed about 3 p.m. Monday.
SOLO SIR ELTON FOR SENATOR CLINTON
While technically he can’t vote for her, part-time Atlantan Sir Elton John will help Democrat Hillary Clinton raise cash for her presidential campaign with a solo concert next month at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
“I’m not a politician but I believe in the work that Hillary Clinton does,” the British musician said in a statement released by the Clinton campaign on Monday.
Tickets for the “Elton and Hillary: One Night Only” performance on April 9 go on sale Wednesday. Prices start at $125 for mezzanine seats, $250 for seats near the orchestra.
Last October, Clinton held a star-studded fund-raiser to celebrate her 60th birthday. Comedian Billy Crystal and rockers Elvis Costello and the Wallflowers headlined the event at New York’s historic Beacon Theater, which raked in more than $1.5 million for Clinton’s presidential bid.
MCCARTNEY EX GLAD TO GET $48 MILLION
Money may not buy her love, but Paul McCartney’s ex sure has a lot more of it now. One of Britain’s bitterest divorces reached a settlement Monday when Heather Mills was awarded $48.6 million.
Mills declared herself “very, very, very pleased” with a payout that amounted to about $34,000 for each day of her four-year marriage.
A Family Court judge awarded Mills a lump sum of $33 million, plus the assets she currently holds, worth $15.6 million. Mills had sought almost $250 million, according to a summary of the ruling; McCartney had offered $31.6 million.
TOP FLICK PICKS
Television
On March 31, Atlanta boxer Evander Holyfield turns guest programmer as he discusses his fave flicks with Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne. The evening on TCM will kick off at 8 p.m. Among the films Holyfield selected:
1. “The Shootist,” 1976
2. “True Grit,” 1969
3. “Cooley High,” 1975
4. “The Terminator,” 1984
Courtesy: TCM
STORK REPORT
It’s a girl!
Oscar winner Halle Berry gave birth to a daughter Sunday and “is doing great,” publicist Meredith O’Sullivan tells People.com.
The father is 32-year-old model Gabriel Aubry. The two met while shooting a Versace ad in Los Angeles two years ago.
Berry, 41, told Oprah Winfrey on her show last year that playing a mother in her latest movie, “Things We Lost in the Fire,” helped convince her that motherhood was for her.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actor Peter Graves is 82. Composer John Kander (“Chicago”) is 81. Author John Updike is 76. Country singer Charley Pride is 70. Actor Kevin Dobson (“Knots Landing”) is 65. Actor Brad Dourif (“Lord of the Rings”) is 58. Singer Irene Cara is 49. Singer Vanessa Williams is 45. Rapper-actress Queen Latifah is 38. Comedian Dane Cook (“Employee of the Month”) is 36. Singer Adam Levine of Maroon 5 is 29.
Contributing: News services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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3/16: Raise a pint to Fadó’s return
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ABOVE: British IT consultant Tim Elms hangs out at the new Fadó Saturday night. PHOTO CREDITS: Rodney Ho/Staff
Breathe easy, Guinness lovers. Fadó is back —Â just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. The Irish pub and restaurant opened last Tuesday in its new location in Buckhead, a block from its original home.
“It’s been baptism by fire,” said Seth Ninger, one of the managers.
Buzz checked in Saturday and the place was comfortably busy. With three stories (including a patio), higher ceilings and better floor layout, the place felt more spacious and less cramped than the original. Fadó 1.0 opened in 1996 and shut down a few months ago just before the once party-poppin’ Buckhead Village was razed.
“It’s bittersweet,” said CEO Kieran McGill. “But I think we’ve retained the charm of the old place.” Many original fixtures and most of the staff were brought over from the old Fadó.
Marketing manager John Piccirillo said based on early surveys, patrons prefer the new spot five-to-one over the old one.
Buzzed celebrants Saturday agreed.
“It’s nicer,” said Molly Christian, 33, an Atlanta school teacher. “I like the patio and the fireplace. It feels like a ski lodge up here.”
ABOVE: Bert Weiss of Q100 (who will be at Fado live on St. Patty’s Day from 5 to 7) is sandwiched by fans Katie Davis (left), Leslie Mathis and Molly Christian. Leslie’s boyfriend Brad Shepherd makes faces behind the glass.
“Each floor is like its own party, and the patio is going to be awesome this summer,” said Q100 morning host Bert Weiss.
Alison Carnes (above), a TV editor, wore a “Trust me, I’m Irish” shirt but admits she has Scottish roots. She hung out at Fado Saturday for more than 10 hours and had only one complaint: no bathrooms on the patio. “You had to go downstairs, then wait in line to get back up,” she said.
ABOVE: Dave Hartman (left), a 29-year-old senior tax analyst, and Brad Shepherd, 30, a database tools sales specialist from Vinings, on the new Fado patio.
ABOVE: Party harty for these group of friends. (L-R) Amanda Smith, Carla Plaza, Josh Jones, Gabby G., and Angela Gomez.
They didn’t make him a supermodel Atlanta’s Casey Skinner got voted off last week from Bravo’s “Make Me a Supermodel” after an insanely inconsistent performance, finishing in sixth. Some weeks, he was at the top of his game, including a surprisingly hot photo shoot with his bud Perry Ullman (a favorite to win it all) and an encounter with a snake in a water tank.
“At first, I freaked out,” he told Buzz. “But he turned out to be a sweet snake.”
Other times, the show’s youngest competitor just seemed lost. A director the week before he was voted off disliked his work and kicked him off two different scenes.
“I’d get cocky, then they’d put me in my place,” he said.
He feels he could ultimately do runway work and catalogs. After taking a month break, he plans to move to New York, where modeling opportunities are far greater than in Atlanta.
The ‘Battle’ goes on for theater-goers
“Peachtree Battle” is a staple of Atlanta theater, a durable crowd-pleasing farce that has lasted six-plus years, most of it at Ansley Park Playhouse. And it has landed its most well-known cast member yet.
Atlantan Vanessa Olivarez — who finished 12th on “American Idol” in 2003 and should have gone furthe r— recently nabbed the role of Candler Habersham in the play.
Buzz, which hasn’t seen “Battle” in years, caught the sold-out show Saturday. Olivarez, who performed in “Hairspray” back in 2004 in Toronto, blended well with the other actors, injecting her trademark Bette Midler-style moxie to the character.
“It’s fun being in a house this intimate,” she told Buzz of the 140-seat playhouse.
And Olivarez, last seen as the lead singer of local country band South 70 until she was booted last year over those pesky “creative differences,” managed to switch in and out of nine different dresses without a single wardrobe malfunction.
The play itself has held up well, with some of the same jokes from 2001 getting equally buoyant laughs today, including a line uttered by the lead mother character, “If race relations are so great, why isn’t there a MARTA station in Marietta?”
But co-writer John Gibson continues to insert current events into the play. At one point, big-haired drunken grandma Azalea (played by Karen Beyer) walks into the room counting cash, saying, “$1,000, $2,000, $3,000.” She’s asked where she got it from, and she said, casually, “The governor of New York.” At another point, she asks her family members to sign a petition to permit Sunday liquor sales.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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ATL publicist, partner get caught up in ‘Regis’ show
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta publicist Caren West (pictured at right) and her business partner Chad Shearer got a little interactive on Thursday’s episode of “Live With Regis and Kelly” during a business trip to New York. It seems that West is pals with one of the producers for CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
Because Coop was filling for Reege Thursday, West and Shearer got hooked up with seats to the live broadcast. Shearer also unexpectedly got hooked up with a Sasquatch costume and the chance to gyrate on live TV as the show wound down its popular “Yeti Trivia A Sno-Go” contest. An audience member gets to play dress up and dance you see, while a TV viewer has a chance to win fabulous winter-time getaways.
Anyone who tuned in Thursday saw Shearer shaking his groove thang and blowing kisses to the hosts. Alas, even though Shearer was the final Sasquatch (the final live broadcast of the contest was Thursday), he didn’t get to keep the costume.
Reported West to Buzz via BlackBerry: “But Kelly and Anderson were super impressed with his dancing skills. And I may have a hernia from laughing so hard.”
SIRIUS GETS SERIOUS WITH ‘CLIENT 9’
As you might expect, following the call girl scandal swirling around soon-to-be-ex-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Buzz Central’s e-mail “in box” has been filled with fascinating interview opportunities this week.
Somehow, we were able to sidestep quickie Q&As with the various reformed ladies of the evening now peddling memoirs and the gentlemen with fanciful names who used to employ them.
However, we feel compelled to tell you about the most creative product to arise from the scandal thus far — on Friday, Sirius Satellite Radio announced the creation of “Client 9 Radio” on Sirius channel 126, “that will explore the breaking news, facts, fallout, psychology and implications of the scandal.”
Now airing through midnight Monday, the channel will offer tantalizing programming such as “The Judith Regan Show” which will interview Rachel Marsden (described as “the ex-girlfriend of the Wikipedia founder who sold his stuff on eBay after he broke up with her via his Web site”), “Sirius Left” host Alex Bennett will speak with Dennis Hof, the owner of Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Nevada about prostitutes and politicians and “The Playboy Radio Morning Show” will “talk to high-priced prostitutes about the scandal.”
Wow. And yes, we did just crack open the industrial size gallon of Purell. …
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Today: Singer Mike Love of the Beach Boys is 67. Singer-keyboardist Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone is 65. Rock guitarist and film composer Ry Cooder is 61. Singer Dee Snider of Twisted Sister is 53. Singer Bret Michaels of Poison is 45. Singer Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray is 40. Bassist Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 is 36. Actress Eva Longoria Parker (“Desperate Housewives”) is 33. Rapper will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas is 33. Rapper Young Buck is 27.
Sunday: Actor-comedian Jerry Lewis (above) is 82. Game show host Chuck Woolery is 67. Actor Victor Garber (“Eli Stone”) is 59. Actor Erik Estrada is 59. Guitarist-singer Nancy Wilson of Heart is 54.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s my story. It’s what I would watch whenever I got suspended from school. And I got suspended a lot!”
Rapper and singer Snoop Dogg during an interview broadcast on “The View” Friday on why he’s making a cameo on an upcoming episode of the ABC Daytime soap “One Life to Live.” The Snoop-centric episodes air May 8 and 9.
ON MY TIVO
“Project Runway’s” Tim Gunn:
“TV is my therapy. I watch Bravo and Food Network. I love ‘Top Chef.’ And ‘The Real Housewives of New York City’ is a total trainwreck! It makes the ‘Orange County’ women look like they’re living in a nunnery! I’m fascinated by ‘Make Me a Supermodel.’ It’s more about the modeling industry than ‘America’s Next Top Model.’ On Food Network, I’m into Alton Brown’s ‘Good Eats.’ I just love him because he’s so educational. I watch ‘Barefoot Contessa,’ Bobby Flay and what’s that woman from Savannah? [Buzz—sigh— told him that would be Paula Deen.] She’s so real world. That’s what people eat!”
Contributing: Sonia Murray and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Fans turn out for ‘Project’ guru Gunn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tim Gunn, Bravo’s “Project Runway” pop culture phenom, spent hours this week greeting his local fans at the Perimeter Mall Macy’s. Gunn was in town on behalf of Liz Claiborne, hosting a practical fashion show with tips on how women can accessorize different pieces of clothing. He then spent two hours meeting with devoted fans.
“It’s like waiting for Santa,” said “Project Runway” acolyte Janet Patterson, who waited in line for more than an hour.
Last week’s ratings-grabbing season finale featured fierce 21-year-old Christian Siriano winning the competition.
Of this season’s fashion-focused, relatively drama-free zone, Gunn observed: “I was really thrilled that these designers were so absorbed in their work that they weren’t thinking about catfighting. They had a sincere respect for each other. With impunity, this was the best season of ‘Project Runway’ in terms of quality and point of view.”
About Siriano, who early on veered between confidence and arrogance, Gunn admitted: “I would alternately want to give him a big hug and smack him.”
At first, he said he was worried about Siriano’s relative youth and inexperience. But in the end, he deemed him a “prodigy.” Last summer, he recommended that Siriano get a business plan together and not wait until he won. “He’s very far along now,” Gunn said. “He’s already talked to 7 on Six for Bryant Park this fall. That’s music to my ears.”
Gunn said he still loves Atlantan Mychael Knight, a finalist from Season 3. “He’s been diligent about moving forward,” Gunn said. “I know he’s been presented with a lot of opportunities. I’m not sure he’s zeroed in on what he wants. I will say as much as I love the fact he’s stayed in Atlanta, there is so much more available for him in New York. And I miss him. I wish he’d come to New York. He’s committed to being here.”
OVERSCENE
Former U.N. ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and 10 guests celebrating his 76th birthday at Morton’s downtown. The group enjoyed Morton’s broiled sea scallops wrapped in bacon, crab cakes, jumbo lump crabmeat cocktail and Shrimp Alexander. We hear the birthday boy dined on Morton’s single-cut filet and lobster tail combo. The group also enjoyed Heavenly Pomegranate Mortinis and Morton’s champagne cocktails. The evening was topped off with Morton’s signature hot chocolate cake.
The Inc. record label head and “Gotti’s Way” star Irv Gotti having drinks with friends at Stats downtown before heading to the Atlanta Hawks-Houston Rockets basketball game at Philips Arena.
DITCHING BROOKHAVEN FOR BALI
We’ve always wondered how Brookhaven philanthropists Sally Dorsey and Herb Miller can ditch Atlanta for months at a time to jet off to their home in Bali. After gawking through the six-page photo spread of Dorsey and Miller’s gorgeous getaway in the second anniversary March issue of The Atlantan, Buzz now wonders why they ever return to our steel-plate-strewn city at all.
In the story written by Atlanta writer and publicist Amanda Lester Trevelino with photography by Rio Helmi, readers are treated to an in-depth tour of the couple’s lavish 6,000-square-foot home “steps from the Indian Ocean, tucked between rice fields.” The property boasts a saltwater pool and pavilion, tropical gardens, two Hindu temples, a guest house and terraces and verandas galore.
Of the property’s traditional design, Dorsey explains in the piece: “We wanted to be part of Bali. Not Atlanta comes to Bali.”
One other interesting factoid: a trip to Bali served as the couple’s fifth date when they were courting 12 years ago. In contrast, it’s virtually impossible to get Buzz to travel to Brookhaven for a fifth date. …
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actor Michael Caine is 75. Composer-conductor Quincy Jones is 75. Comedian Billy Crystal is 60. Atlanta singer Kristian Bush of Sugarland is 38. Actor Chris Klein is 29. Singer-keyboardist Taylor Hanson of Hanson is 25.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“No, I’ve never done that. I don’t really listen to my music. But we love R. Kelly.”
Part-time Atlantan Janet Jackson in the new issue of People (out today), discussing why she and beau, Atlanta producer/author Jermaine Dupri don’t listen to her “baby-making” slow jams during their, er, intimate moments.
Contributing: Rodney Ho and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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A Runaway Bride play without the bride
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When Jennifer Wilbanks went missing in Duluth three years ago on the eve of her wedding, the story shot to the top of the CNN/Fox News radar. Was she kidnapped? Murdered?
In the end, we all know how it played out. She pretended to be kidnapped, then came the truth: she simply had cold feet. And she became a butt of Jay Leno jokes, dubbed forever more as the “Runaway Bride.”
And the story quickly faded away, tucked away into our memories as a mildly amusing trinket of that time. She and her fiance John Mason (since separated) cashed in, pocketing $500,000 for a possible book/movie deal that never materialized. The problem: the story in retrospect lacked the depth and resonance to work as either a book or a movie.
Or as a play.
Shelly Howard, theater director for the Red Clay Theatre in Duluth, justified the Runaway Bride play to the opening audience of about 60 people Thursday night. “I’ve been asked, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And I cannot be convinced that this is anything but a celebration of a missing person gone good. This is someone who didn’t end up in a body bag.”
In an odd way, that “missing person” was more or less missing from the play. The writers, Beverly Cantwell and Deborah Childs, chose not to even name Wilbanks or have a single actress portray her in any tangible way. There were visual cues to her hiding her face with a blanket and holding a teddy bear when she was in Albuquerque. There were references to a Greyhound bus station, shots of actresses using a pay phone and a scene where they pick up garbage as “community service.”: But John Mason, her fiance, was nowhere to be found. Wilbanks’ bug-eyed look is never mentioned. And her made-up story about being kidnapped by a Hispanic man and white woman didn’t make the cut.
Rather, they tried to focus the story around a bunch of well-meaning, unnamed Duluth residents. Those said residents spent the play reacting to the disappearance, helping hand out flyers in the audience for the missing Wilbanks and expressing outrage after they find out they were duped. But since the supposed main character of Wilbanks is a bit of a ghost, the entire play felt unfettered and ultimately padded, even at 65 minutes. And in terms of parody, this was of the mildest variety.
“It was a good satire and handled in a light manner,” said Nancy Ragan, a Duluth resident who called herself a “resident onlooker” during the search for Wilbanks in April 2005.
Even the media, which is ripe for parody given the overboard coverage at the time, was treated with kid gloves. (Quite literally, a couple of the broadcast journalists were played by kids.)
There were a few inside jokes for Duluthians. They got a few chuckles for referencing the common line, “Nobody knows Duluth like Duluthians.” And when the fictional mayor spoke to the press, the train would go by and drown her out.
Deborah Childs, who directed the play as well, fashioned a few amusing moments. The opening scene featuring a wedding planner demanding things get bigger and bigger was well choreographed. She has some cops do an army chant and a dance in which they “sound off” between “kidnapped” and “cold feet.” The town works together and sings the Ben E. King classic “Stand By Me.” And writers gave funny lines to Barbara Bruce and Dean Fowler, who played a believable, old-time Duluthian couple.
And though Wilbanks’ name is never uttered (in fact, bleeped out during a fake newscast), Smyrna hometown gal Julia Roberts is namechecked twice. And yes, she was the fictional “Runaway Bride” in a film that preceded the real thing.
The play “The Runaway Story of the Runaway Bride: Re-live the chaos” will run through April 20, Thursdays to Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. 3116 Main Street, Duluth, 770-622-1777, www.redclaytheatrearts.com.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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2 Buckheads — and they’re not the same
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“American Idol” producers might want to make a minor tweak on air the next time they refer to contestant Michael Johns’ former hometown. For weeks, the No. 1-rated TV show in the country has described Johns as hailing from Buckhead, Ga., when, in fact, the singer is well-known for his memorable performances at CJs Landing and the Tin Roof Cantina in the Buckhead community of Atlanta.
You see, Buckhead, Ga., also actually exists, about 68 miles east of Atlanta, near Madison in Morgan County. Population, according to the 2000 census: 205 people.
“It’s actually quite a common mistake,” Madison-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce economic development director Bob Hughes told Buzz on Wednesday.
“My daughter lives [in Atlanta] and recently told folks that her father owned 15 acres and horses in Buckhead. They asked her, ‘Is that off Northside or Habersham?’ They thought she was some kind of an heiress. A lot of folks just don’t know where the real Buckhead is located.”
Adding to the confusion: the current issue of TV Guide features the top 12 “A.I.” contestants on its cover. Inside, it also refers to Johns’ old residence as “Buckhead, Georgia.”
It was all enough to cause Buckhead Coalition president and former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell to return our call requesting comment Wednesday all the way from a yacht in the British Virgin Islands where he’s vacationing.
“We greatly underestimated the power of our marketing efforts if a major television network is identifying us as a city,” Massell told us. Technically, “Idol” should be identifying Johns’ former place of residence as Atlanta, Ga., or as Massell helpfully points out “The community of Buckhead.”
Fox rep Alex Gillespie did not immediately return our call and e-mail about the issue.
Still, Buckhead, Ga., may end up extending an invitation to Johns to relocate to their quaint community, post-“Idol.”
Said Hughes: “Well, if he wins, shoot yeah!”
BLAIS & BURGERS
Chef Richard Blais, who will be one of the contestants on Bravo’s fourth season of “Top Chef,” has struck a deal with businessman and investor Barry Mills to design the menu and serve as executive chef for an upscale hamburger restaurant, tentatively called Flip.
Blais was most recently chef at Element in Midtown. His restaurant, Blais, was a critical smash but left diners cold. It closed in 2004. He later enjoyed a short-but-successful stint at One Midtown Kitchen, then left for a consulting job in Florida before returning to our city last year.
Located on the West Side near the Atlanta Waterworks, Blais’ burger palace plans to offer ground meats of all sorts, not just beef. And Blais says he intends to spend a lot of time and effort creating the “best veggie burger in the world.”
“We’ll be offering house-made sodas like root beer, and I’m looking to make side dishes a focal point, like maybe house-made tater tots,” Blais said by phone.
And what of foie gras milkshakes, his most infamous and critically acclaimed dish?
“Oh yeah,” Blais said, “they’ll be there.”
Blais will continue consulting at Elevation in Kennesaw, as well as other projects for his consulting company, Trail-blais.
The opening of Flip is planned for later this summer.
HUNTSVILLE, ALA., ATTRACTS ‘HORTON’
Hey, Decatur: Hang your heads in shame over your plates of green eggs and ham this morning, Horton didn’t hear you. Twentieth Century Fox announced Wednesday that Huntsville, Ala., won last weekend’s ” ‘Horton Hears a Who’ Hometown Challenge” where locals in different cities gathered en masse to yell “We are here!” According to the fancy sound equipment used to measure such squalls, the Alabama city was the loudest. Huntsville scores a private screening and a story in USA Today. We, um, hear that even Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer turned up at last weekend’s shouting contest.
ON HOLD AGAIN
After Eddie Van Halen underwent tests “for an unspecified medical condition,” Van Halen has again postponed its tour until April 19. Translation: next week’s rescheduled show at Gwinnett Arena has been scrapped for a second time. We’re told that the dates were postponed so Eddie Van Halen, “who is currently under doctors’ care, can continue medical tests to define a course of treatment.” Over the years, Van Halen has battled both cancer and substance abuse.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 69. Actor William H. Macy is 58. Bassist Adam Clayton of U2 is 48. Jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard is 46. Rapper Common is 36. Actor Danny Masterson (“That ’70s Show”) is 32.
SICK BAY
“Saturday Night Live” has replaced a flu-ridden Janet Jackson (right) with another diva: Mariah Carey (far right).
Carey, 37, will fill in for the part-time Atlantan on this week’s edition, NBC announced Wednesday.
Jackson, 41, was scheduled to perform live Saturday night in support of her latest album, “Discipline.” Jackson publicist Patti Webster confirms she dropped out because of illness and “needs some time to get better.”
Contributing: Meridith Ford and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Boortz’s ‘Fair Tax’ no match for ‘Eat Pray Love’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WSB staple and syndicated radio yakker Neal Boortz is getting a bit bloodied on The New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list so far with his latest, “Fair Tax: The Truth, Answering the Critics” (Harper, $14.95), but he’s retaining a sense of humor about it all.
“The first book debuted at No. 1, the second book hit No. 2, and now I’m No. 4; at this rate, I’m not doing another for at least two years,” Boortz tells Buzz. Even worse, we got a peek at the stats to be published this coming Sunday and the book, co-authored with Congressman John Linder and Rob Woodall, slips to the No. 9 position, beaten out by a pair of books written by Barack Obama and Elizabeth Gilbert’s inexplicably popular memoir “Eat Pray Love.” Cracks Boortz of the touchy-feely tome: “If I knew that all I had to do was go to Bangkok and get [horizontal] I’d be No. 1, too!”
Still, Boortz says he’s happy the book is out there as an educational tool in the 2008 election. And while the Libertarian concedes his radio show would benefit from having foe Hillary Clinton elected this fall, Boortz says: “I don’t really want to sacrifice the future of this country in favor of good radio.”
OVERSCENE
University of North Carolina alum and former Atlanta Falcon Alge Crumpler cheering on his alma mater’s men’s basketball team at Stats sports bar downtown as the team beat rival Duke University over the weekend. We’re told Crumpler crippled “a variety of food from the buffet, along with beer he drank from special cups the Tar Heels fans brought down from Chapel Hill.”
Also spotted: growth hormone-free home run champ Hank Aaron and his wife, Billye, taking in a performance of “Menopause: The Musical” at the 14th Street Playhouse in Midtown. After the show, the Atlanta Braves legend happily stayed to sign autographs for the cast while Billye scored autographs from the cast as well.
HIGH FIVE
Music
Best-selling albums last week at Decatur CD
1. Stephen Malkmus, “Real Emotional Trash”
2. Kathleen Edwards, “Asking for Flowers”
3. The Gutter Twins, “Saturnalia”
4. Jim White, “Transnormal Skiperoo”
5. “Once” soundtrack
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
News correspondent Sam Donaldson is 74. Singer Bobby McFerrin is 58. Actor Terrence Howard (“Crash,” “Hustle and Flow”) is 39. Actor Johnny Knoxville is 37. Singers Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte are 29.
Contributing: News services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
‘ER’ star La Salle gets etiquette tips with toddlers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former “ER” star Eriq La Salle was among the guests at a Sunday morning birthday party for the 3-year-old daughter of his friends Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker.
Photo by Jessica McGowan/AJC
The princess-themed bash on Northside Drive was coordinated by Marietta-based Posh Tot events, and featured pink cupcakes, tea and a charm lesson by Cinderella, who covered basics such as elbows off the table and no talking with your mouth full. La Salle quipped that he picked up some valuable tips.
Buzz hearts La Salle’s juicy role in “Coming to America.” Can we say soul glow?
Georgians not quite country
In a bit of a shocker, neither Snellville’s Diana DeGarmo (“American Idol”) or former Atlantan Bobby Brown won CMT’s “Gone Country” Friday. Instead, it went to Julio Iglesias Jr., despite the fact his song didn’t sound country at all.
DeGarmo did manage to convince host and singer/producer John Rich that she could do country (in a Faith Hill ballad sort of way) after he berated her a week earlier. Even better, Bobby Brown scaled back his nutty behavior and pulled off a heartfelt tune in front of a country crowd.
Last Thursday, in Bravo’s “Make Me a Supermodel,” Atlanta’s Casey Skinner made it to the final six but is in danger of being eliminated this week after doing miserably in the acting scenes.
Local bands heading to Austin
We’re buzzing over Shane Harrison’s sweet gig. Our music critic is trailing local bands headed to Texas this week for South by Southwest, a music and film conference in Austin.
Hometown legend R.E.M. kicks off the music portion of the festival, in which more than 30 bands from Atlanta and Athens will take the stage. Local favorites include Dead Confederate, Trances Arc and Melissa Young, so look for Shane’s reports from the festival this week in the Atlanta Music Scene blog on accessatlanta.com.
Lil Wayne’s Arizona drug charge
The Associated Press reports that rapper Lil Wayne is fighting drug charges in Arizona.
Lawyers for the New Orleans-born artist have filed a motion in Yuma County Superior Court to reduce a charge of possession of drugs for sale.
Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., was indicted in February on one count each of possession of a narcotic drug for sale, possession of dangerous drugs, misconduct involving weapons and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia.
The 25-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Carter’s attorney, James Tilson, said the original complaint given to the grand jury was inaccurate in stating Carter had about 29 grams of cocaine when he was arrested in January. Tilson said Carter had fewer than 8 grams, according to a lab report.
Because Arizona has a statutory presumption that possession of 9 grams or more means an intent to sell, Tilson explained the amount Carter carried could mean the difference between jail time and probation.
A May 13 hearing is scheduled on the motion to remand the case back to the grand jury.
The rapper was arrested after his tour bus was stopped on Jan. 22 at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint near Dateland, Ariz.
Authorities said a search of the bus by Drug Enforcement Administration agents yielded nearly 4 ounces of marijuana, slightly more than 1 ounce of cocaine, 41 grams of ecstasy and miscellaneous drug paraphernalia. Officials also found a .40-caliber pistol registered to Carter, who has a concealed weapons permit in Florida.
The Arizona bust wasn’t Lil Wayne’s first run-in with trouble. The rapper has faced drug charges in New York and Atlanta; in August 2006, Carter was arrested near Atlantic Station, and he later failed to appear in court.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actor Chuck Norris is 68. Actress Sharon Stone is 50. Magician Lance Burton is 48. Actress Jasmine Guy (“A Different World”) is 46. Bassist Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam is 45. Singer Edie Brickell is 42. Rapper-producer Timbaland is 36. Singer Robin Thicke is 31. Singer Carrie Underwood (“American Idol”) is 25.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Is it less art because a black person opened their mouth and said it? It’s just casting. It’s an American play. We’re Americans.”
— Anika Noni Rose, on suggestions that the all-black cast of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on Broadway makes the Tennessee Williams play, traditionally all-white, less authentic.
AJC staffer Rodney Ho caught up with Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons promoting his Argyle Culture fashion designs at Macy’s in Stonecrest Mall on Saturday night.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Folk music’s newest generation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In an age when Britney Spears’ undergarments (or lack thereof) inspires national examination, it can be soul-nourishing to talk to singer-songwriter Peter Yarrow.
Or as the member of Peter, Paul & Mary describes the early 1960s when the legendary folk trio first came to national attention: “It wasn’t about being famous. It was about communicating with your art.”
This Sunday, the veteran human rights activist will be back in Atlanta at 3 p.m. live on air at PBA 30 as he introduces public television viewers to his latest concert special “Peter, Bethany & Rufus: Spirit of Woodstock.” Filmed in New York’s Catskills Mountains last year, the pledge drive concert features Yarrow in performance with his vocalist daughter Bethany and her musical partner cellist Rufus Cappadocia. The trio performs civil rights standards like “If I Had a Hammer” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” and there’s a glimpse of Yarrow introducing Bethany to his old cabin in the woods up there where old friend Bob Dylan wrote “Masters of War.”
Oh, and when you’re credited with kick-starting Dylan’s career by recording his “Blowin’ in the Wind,” you get to call him “Bobby.”
“This special is something I’m very proud of,” Yarrow told Buzz. “It represents the passing of the torch. Not only are Bethany and Rufus and their generation inheriting the style of folk music, they’re adopting the spirit of it as well.”
As a member of PP&M, Yarrow vividly recalls performing the songs at the historic March on Washington in 1963 and his admiration for the late Coretta Scott King.
“We’ve seen so much loss,” he reflects. “She couldn’t have been lovelier or more inspirational.”
A few years before her passing, Yarrow returned to Atlanta on King Day to sing “Blowin’ in the Wind” at Ebenezer Baptist with King and former Spelman College president Johnnetta Cole.
Last year, PP&M had to cancel a concert at Chastain Park amphitheater as Mary Travers recovered from back surgery (the trio is due back on the road this fall). The group has gigged at the Atlanta venue for decades.
“I love the informality of Chastain,” Yarrow explains, laughing. “People get a little loaded sometimes, but that adds to the playfulness of the evening for us.”
For info: www.pba.org or www.myspace.com/peterbethanyandrufus.
35 YEARS OF FLO
A cake, flowers and balloons were awaiting Mary Mac’s waitress Flo Patrick at the end of her lunch shift Friday. The boss tends to notice when they’ve been cutting checks for you for 35 years. Well, technically, the Conyers server is on her third set of owners.
“I still love coming to work,” Patrick, 69, told us. “I just love my customers and the homey atmosphere.” A pair of comfortable shoes “with a good arch” helps too.
So how much fried chicken does Patrick estimate she’s served up over the years?
“Probably a henhouse full, darlin’!” Patrick cackles. “When I started here, you could get a vegetable plate for $1.35.”
So how were the tips Friday?
“Real great,” Patrick replied. “Those balloons floating around with ‘Congratulations on a Job Well Done’ probably didn’t hurt either, honey!”
HELLO, GOODBYE
On Friday, Citadel, the owners of the 106.7 signal, announced they’re switching to oldies on Eagle after the NASCAR race Sunday. So say hello to the Beatles. Say goodbye to Toby Keith. Don Imus will also be joining True Oldies 106.7 as a syndicated host. (Oh, and NASCAR fans, no worries: The races are staying on 106.7.)
For years, ABC Radio had country all to itself here thanks to its one-two punch of Kicks and Eagle. But new owners Citadel needed to cut costs. Thus, most of the on-air staffs for Kicks and Eagle have been cut.
Why hasn’t Atlanta had oldies for three years? It’s tougher for stations to sell music targeting folks over 50. But it’s still a sizable audience, and Citadel is doing it on the cheap by operating a satellite operation led by former WQXI-AM Top 40 jock Scott Shannon, now a New York radio icon.
‘WHO’ ON HOLD
Remember that “Horton Hears a Who” “We are here!” shouting stunt Twentieth Century Fox and the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces had scheduled for today at the Downtown Decatur Market at 777 Commerce Drive? Well, the challenge where the winning town in America scores a free screening of the flick and a story in USA Today has been switched to Sunday at 2 p.m. at the same location because of today’s potential for inclement weather. Apparently, these prospective Whovillians aren’t a hearty lot …
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Today: Actress Cyd Charisse is 86. Musician-actor Micky Dolenz of the Monkees is 63. Atlanta singer Shawn Mullins is 40. Actor James Van Der Beek (“Dawson’s Creek”) is 31.
Sunday: Singer-actress Keely Smith is 76. ABC’s Charles Gibson is 65. Atlanta actor Emmanuel Lewis (“Webster”) is 37. Atlanta rapper Bow Wow is 21.
OVERSCENE
Lovelorn lyricist/serial supermodel dater James Blunt hanging at Mood Lounge in Buckhead. We hear the singer was sipping Ketel One cocktails in the VIP section with L.A. friends Lonnie Moore, Marshall Crane and Sylvain Bitton. Club-goers report ex-big mouth Atlanta Brave John Rocker was actively discouraged from entering the area.
Contributing: Rodney Ho and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Comic earns his own keep (about time!)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Foxworthy’s brilliantly conceived Blue Collar Comedy tour spawned a TV show, two big-selling tour films and career steroids for Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy and local resident Ron White.
In fact, the four dudes have been so busy lately with other projects, a reunion is not happening anytime soon. So Engvall came up with a spinoff dubbed “Blue Collar Comedy: The Next Generation,” which arrives tonight at the Fox Theatre.
Engvall hosts a quartet of up-and-coming Southern-style comics: Reno Collier, Jamie Kahler, John Caparulo and Juston McKinney. “They’ve all opened for one of us at one time,” he told Buzz. “I’m kind of like passing the torch. They make me feel old.”
He turned 50 last year but is plenty busy himself, hosting CMT’s “Country Fried Home Videos,” starring in his own TBS sitcom, “The Bill Engvall Show,” and recently finishing a film he wrote co-starring Billy Ray Cyrus. He’s especially proud of “The Bill Engvall Show,” which is his first big success since all the Blue Collar brouhaha died down.
“Blue Collar was like being married to a rich girl. It’s awesome,” Engvall said. “But after a while, you want to earn your own keep.”
‘BLUE FLASHING LIGHT’ SPECIAL
We have peaches. They have peaches. And apparently those peaches are related, so we’re celebrating that luscious fruit by sending China a taste of something else Georgians love: the music of Athens.
Athens band Blue Flashing Light will be representing Georgia on the other side of the world at the International Peach Blossom Festival in Chengdu, capital of the Chinese province of Sichuan.
The anthemic rock quintet was selected to perform at the festival by the Atlanta-based U.S.-China Cultural & Educational Foundation, and the band members have embraced their role as Georgia’s emissaries.
When we first tried to get in touch with frontman Ian Schwarber, he was busy meeting with the Chinese cultural ambassador and getting a little phonetic instruction.
“I’m actually going to sing three songs in Chinese, so that’s surreal,” Schwarber said, before giving us a short sample that sounds pretty darn good. “It’s a pretty daunting task for me to learn all this, but the melodies are amazing.”
Schwarber goes on to explain that the white Chengdu peach is the ancestor of our own Georgia peaches, and that connection is one of the reasons the festival organizers bring over Georgia artists. “This year they decided they wanted a rock band,” he said.
Blue Flashing Light plays the festival beginning March 15, but the band will also stick around through March 23 to perform in this year’s Olympic host city, Beijing. After returning to Georgia, the band completes its fruitful cultural exchange with an appearance at the Georgia Peach Festival in Peach County in June.
‘IDOL’ ROMANCE WITH ESPERANZA SHIRTS BURNS BRIGHT
We’re beginning to suspect that former C.J.’s Landing crooner turned “American Idol” contestant Michael Johns is angling for an endorsement deal. On this week’s taped interview “Idol” segment (the singers had to discuss their “most embarrassing moment” — wacky!), Johns was wearing an I-85 Ridin’ Dirty T-shirt from Atlanta’s own Esperanza Clothing Co. Previously, on two other occasions on the program, the Aussie singer sported shirts from the hipster outfit’s line from last year. Which presents a problem, according to co-owner Daniel Barbalho.
Esperanza is just about to cut loose with its new 2008 line (half of it is already sold, we hear) and Johns has been rocking the shirts from last year’s rack. Still, plans are afoot to print fresh editions of the shirts that Johns is showing off to 28 million viewers weekly. To see the pics of Johns and read blog entries from the Esperanza boys (who aren’t traditional viewers of “Idol,” they tactfully point out): www.esperanza-atl.com.
HIGH FIVE
Music
Top-selling albums at Criminal Records in Little Five Points for the week ending March 1:
1. Dirtbombs, “We Have You Surrounded” (LP & CD)
2. Black Mountain, “In the Future” (CD)
3. Cat Power (LP, regular and deluxe editions)
4. Vampire Weekend, “Vampire Weekend” (LP & CD)
5. Beach House, “Devotion” (LP & CD)
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
TV personality Willard Scott is 74. Actor Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”) is 52. Comedian Wanda Sykes is 44. Singer Taylor Dayne is 43. Actress Rachel Weisz (“The Mummy”) is 37. Singer Sebastien Izambard of Il Divo is 35. Actress Jenna Fischer (“The Office”) is 34. Actress Laura Prepon (“October Road”) is 28.
Contributing: Shane Harrison, Rodney Ho and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Jenny McCarthy calls for rally at CDC
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Actress-turned-autism-activist Jenny McCarthy appears in a newly posted YouTube video Wednesday calling for the “largest rally ever” in front of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in late June.
“I will be there leading us on,” said McCarthy, punching her fists in the air for emphasis. “This is the time. This is the moment. This is the day.”
McCarthy, who never actually utters the word autism in the video, directs people to sign up on a Web site. The Web site for Talk About Curing Autism, or TACA, an organization urging support and awareness for autism, is taking names and promising more updated information about the event, which is scheduled for late June. McCarthy says in the video it will be either June 28 or 29. But the autism Web site says the event will take place on June 27.
McCarthy’s son Evan was diagnosed with autism in 2005.
By the CDC’s latest estimate, one in 150 children have an autism spectrum disorder.
ANOTHER ARQUETTE REACHES ‘MEDIUM’
You had Buzz at “cougar.”
Rosanna Arquette will guest star on sister Patricia’s spooky NBC show “Medium” on April 7, making her the latest Arquette sibling to make a mark on the drama, NBC and show producer CBS Paramount Network announced Wednesday.
The episode features the 48-year-old Arquette as “a beautiful, calculating ‘cougar’ who enjoys the challenges of bedding younger men.”
Brother David recently directed two episodes, and brother Richmond has guest-starred.
SWAYZE BATTLING PANCREATIC CANCER
Patrick Swayze is being treated for pancreatic cancer but is well enough to continue working, a spokesman said Wednesday.Reports that the “Dirty Dancing” actor, 55, had a matter of weeks to live were “absolutely untrue,” Annett Wolf said.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
TV personality Ed McMahon is 85. Singer Mary Wilson of The Supremes is 64. Singer-guitarist David Gilmour of Pink Floyd is 62. Actor-director Rob Reiner is 61. Rapper Bubba Sparxxx is 31.
STORK REPORT
It’s a girl!
“Shark” actress Jeri Ryan and her husband, French chef Christophe Eme, have a new family member.
The 40-year-old actress has given birth to daughter Gisele in Los Angeles, her publicist David Lust announced.
“Both parents are thrilled. Jeri is resting comfortably, and Christophe is playing the part of proud new papa quite well,” Lust said. The baby, weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces, is the couple’s first. The pair wed in France last June and own L.A. restaurant Ortolan, which Eme heads.
Contributing: Sonia Murray, Helena Oliviero and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
‘Deep Dish’ author got tips on the set with Paula Deen
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kicking off her 12-city book tour for “Deep Dish” over the weekend at Barnes & Noble in Buckhead, Avondale Estates’ goddess of chick lit Mary Kay Andrews (well, OK, the author’s alter ego Kathy Trocheck) dished on how she got the inside skinny for her latest book. The tome takes place behind-the-scenes at The Cooking Channel, a fictional version of Food Network. She reached out to her old newspaper pal, Savannah cookbook author Martha Giddens Nesbit, who just so happens to have co-written a few books with one Paula Deen.
Over a period of a few weeks, Trocheck was able to hang out on the Savannah set of “Paula’s Home Cooking” which doubles as Deen’s house. One secret Trocheck discovered? It’s easier to crank out episodes of one of Food Network’s biggest hits if you happen to have a fully operational prep kitchen in your garage.
“It’s amazing,” Trocheck told her readers at the signing. “They’ll shoot two or three shows at a time. And Paula was so sweet. In between takes, she’d come over to me and say, ‘So darling, what else do you want to know?’ “
Even sweeter, Deen supplied Trocheck with a tasty dust cover blurb for her latest book: ” ‘Deep Dish’ is one delicious read. Mary Kay Andrews has cooked up a tale y’all will savor to the last bite.”
We’d wager that the author will be able to dine out on a rave like that for the foreseeable future.
BIG DR. SEUSS SHOUT-OUT SET IN DECATUR
This Saturday, for about 30 minutes, a tiny part of Decatur will be magically transformed into Dr. Seuss’ Whoville.
And no, the Grinch isn’t plotting a pre-Easter visit.
Like groups in other participating hometowns across America, The Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces has taken up a challenge from the makers of the upcoming “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” The goal: to raise their voices loud enough to score both a free screening of the upcoming computer-animated film adaptation of the classic kiddie book featuring the voices of Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and Carol Burnett plus a story in USA Today.
The public is invited to turn up en masse to re-create the book and film’s climatic scene where the Whovillians shout “We are here!” to attract the attention of the film’s primary pachyderm. (While we’re several decades removed from the original source material, Buzz vaguely recalls that the residents of Whoville had some self-esteem issues to work out after allowing an anti-social green furry freak to make off with the entire town’s supply of Who Hash and whatnot… ).
Reps. from 20th Century Fox will be on hand to measure decibel levels officially with fancy sound meters. The AFPS is inviting everyone, well, within earshot, to arrive at the Downtown Decatur Market at 777 Commerce St. at noon Saturday.
The winning Whoville will be announced March 12.
FLIP-PING OVER TO PR
Veteran meteorologist Flip Spiceland recently left WXIA-TV and quickly found a new job in public relations.
He will be penning press releases and hobnobbing at trade shows for The Facility Group in Smyrna, which plans and creates buildings. Sure, that isn’t nearly as sexy as broadcast TV, but he said he needed a new challenge after 38 years in the business, including 21 at CNN.
“I’m driven by challenges,” he told Buzz. “Moving TV to the Web was not a challenge I liked. I like this a whole lot better.”
But the question we’ve all been wondering: Is that name Flip Spiceland for real? More or less, he said. His parents called him Flip from birth but gave him a more traditional name on his birth certificate: Philip Howard Spiceland.
“In kindergarten, when the teacher said Philip, I had no idea who she was talking to,” he said. Growing up, “it didn’t feel that funny of a name. There were two other Flips in my school.”
Ah … but his name is like butter in broadcast circles. Just two weeks ago, some dude on listgasm.com posted the “20 Most Ridiculous Weathermen Names.” Flip came in ninth with the comment: “He obviously chose weather over adult entertainment. Good choice Mr. Spiceland!” (No. 1? Dallas Raines in Los Angeles.)
A BIT OF ‘BETRAYED’
In today’s excerpt from “Betrayed: The True Life Story of Lisa Lynette Clark,” we learn that even if you’re a 37-year-old Douglasville mother-to-be and your boyfriend is an underage teen, you still experience that age-old dilemma over selecting a baby name. From page 100: “I said, ‘You keep changing your mind and I love the name Skye, and it is your middle name. It is beautiful. He said, ‘Fine, what about a middle name?’ I suggested Cobain because they had changed my due date to Feb. 20 which is Kurt Cobain’s birthday. He wanted Chimara or Nirvana to be his middle name. Chimara sounded OK but Nirvana sounded like a girl’s name.”
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actor James B. Sikking (“Hill Street Blues,” “Doogie Howser, M.D.”) is 74. Comedian-magician Penn Jillette is 53. Singer Teena Marie is 52. Guitarist John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is 38. Actor Kevin Connolly (“Entourage”) is 34. Model Niki Taylor (right) is 33. Actor Jake Lloyd (“Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace”) is 19.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I thought I’d have to kill Oprah to get in Vanity Fair!”
Comic Wanda Sykes on “Entertainment Tonight.” The actress dressed up as Naomi Campbell for the glossy’s upcoming salute to Women in Comedy issue.
Contributing: Rodney Ho and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
Athens melts away stress for the B-52s
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While the B-52s’ first new studio album in 16 years doesn’t officially drop until March 25, “Funplex,” the title track and first single, already is garnering glowing reviews from fans who have downloaded it off iTunes.
On the guitar-laden dance track, vocalists Atlantan Cindy Wilson, Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider adopt the personas of shopping mall rats and the people who wait on them. Or as the band’s official MySpace.com page more accurately describes it: “Running amok on diet pills and slinging tacos in a sprawling shopping center.”
On iTunes, fans have posted rave reviews, including: “A little slice of pop heaven,” “Welcome back!” “I can’t stop playing it on my car stereo with the windows down and the sub woofer cranked,” “Love the guitar, love the vocals, love the wacky lyrics” and “The combined sound of Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson together is simply one of the most amazing sounds ever.”
Oh, and by the way, the Athens-birthed band is online reading those reviews.
Explained Schneider to Buzz: “I personally loved the one that read: ‘It’s nice that they stopped off at the mall on their way to the home!’” The B’s frontman laughed and added: “Yeah, hopefully, they’ll take that one down!”
Schneider says the band also is looking forward to its star billing on Cyndi Lauper’s gay-friendly “True Colors” tour this summer (the tour lands at Chastain Park Amphitheatre June 16).
The band recorded portions of “Funplex” last year at John Keane Studio in Athens. On the band’s MySpace page, Pierson explains that returning to Athens (the studio was literally a few blocks from the site of the house where the band played its very first party on Valentine’s Day 1977) helped in the creation of the disc: “It felt like coming full circle. We were tapping back into that wellspring of creativity. It was like the spirit of when we started. My voice teacher used to say tension is the enemy of all art, and being in Athens melted away any tension. It’s so easygoing there.”
CELEBRITY DOCKET
Kid Rock waived his right to appear in a DeKalb County State Court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of battery for his part in a fight at a Buford Highway Waffle House in October.
Rock, a chart-topping “Hick-Hopper” from Detroit, is looking at a future court date and a trial before either a judge or jury. But the dates have not been set.
Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, and five others who were involved face charges in the incident. The 37-year-old is charged with five counts of battery and one count of simple battery, both misdemeanors.
Ritchie was arrested last October and locked up in the DeKalb County Jail before being released on a $1,000 bond. Police said he was finishing an early morning Waffle House meal following a performance at the Tabernacle in Atlanta when a customer recognized a woman in his entourage.
The customer, Harlem DeJon Akins, 39, exchanged words with the woman and an altercation ensued with Ritchie joining in the fight.
When the scuffle ended, Ritchie and his group boarded their tour bus and left the restaurant. Police pulled the bus over and arrested Ritchie and the others.
OVERSCENE
Peru’s former president Alejandro Toledo, and Chile’s former leader Ricardo Lagos dining at Veni Vidi Vici in Midtown. We’re told that their party of eight walked into the restaurant sans reservations (natch, the eatery was only too happy to accommodate the distinguished diners …). They sipped “a nice bottle of Amarone” and Toledo enjoyed chef Jamie Adams’ spaghetti and veal meatballs while Lagos made a meal out of risotto fruitte di mare (risotto with mussels, shrimp, clams and calamari).
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin attending the opening night performance of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Fox Theatre. We’re told she was the special guest of artistic director Judith Jamison (the two studied dance together back in Philadelphia as young girls at the Judimar School of Dance).
A BIT OF ‘BETRAYED’
Today’s excerpt from “Betrayed: The True Life Story of Lisa Lynette Clark” provides a fascinating glimpse into how complicated the holiday season can become when your boyfriend isn’t old enough to drive. Clark, you’ll recall, is the Douglasville 37-year-old who married her teenage lover and later gave birth to their child. The extremely explicit tell-all (written by Jennifer Grant, Clark’s former prison pal), was pulled from store shelves last week. A re-edited version is due out this week. From pages 46-49: “All week I offered to take him to the mall but he kept putting it off. I was mad that one day before Christmas he hadn’t bought me a present. It turned out that this was the beginning of him ruining every holiday we had together. … The next night I went to pick him up and he handed me a beautiful white Christmas Pooh bear. Although it was late I was impressed.”
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Folk singer Miriam Makeba is 76. Singer Bobby Womack is 64. Actress Catherine O’Hara (right) is 54. Actress Patricia Heaton (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) is 50. Singer Evan Dando of the Lemonheads is 41. Country singer Jason Sellers is 37. Actress Andrea Bowen (“Desperate Housewives”) is 18.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I love your outfit. I do want the earrings back.”
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton clowning around with “Saturday Night Live” cast member Amy Poehler, who was dressed in an identical outfit while portraying Clinton in a sketch over the weekend.
Contributing: David Markiewicz and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
Spike Lee speaks of blazing trails
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Buzz checked out two different events this weekend with different results in terms of punctuality.
Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee was on time and on point Friday evening at his alma mater, Morehouse College, taking part in a Black History Month celebration hosted by Nike.
Lee recounted how “mutually beneficial” his relationship with the sneaker company has been over 22 years. A couple of Nike ad men saw his early hit “She’s Gotta Have It” in 1986, noted that his character Mars wore Nikes and asked Lee to direct and star in Nike commercials with Michael Jordan. The rest is advertising history. Nike helped raise Lee’s profile while his cool commercials propelled Nike to greater heights of popularity.
Lee also checked in on Morehouse’s new sports journalism program, which he helped launch with $325,000 of his own money. “The press box is still a mostly segregated area,” he said, “while the brothers are running up and down the field.”
He told the audience that back in the ’80s, a film by a black director was “an event.” Nowadays, he said, “Tyler Perry has a film out every week!”
After he showed a trailer of his upcoming World War II film “Miracle At St. Anna,” Lee left quickly to catch his beloved New York Knicks at Philips Arena that evening. Philips PR man Kenan Woods told Buzz he helped get Lee seats next to the Knicks bench but Lee’s presence didn’t help the struggling Knicks, who lost to the Hawks. Sorry, Spike!
Meanwhile, Atlanta R&B singer Keyshia Cole taped a reunion show Saturday based on her hit BET show “Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is.” The show was scheduled to tape at Turner Studios in Midtown from 4 to 6 p.m. Cole and her family arrived late at 4:30 p.m. and didn’t get on stage until 7:30 p.m. By then, Buzz was long gone. Taping, a BET spokeswoman said, didn’t end until 10:30 p.m. Even she missed the taping because her flight back to D.C. was at 9:30 p.m. The reunion show is set to air on BET March 20 — presumably on time.
Focus on dads
Calling all cool dads — guys with good jobs, active in their kids’ lives and still making time for getting together with the guys.
A casting director is on the hunt for a few men who make women drool for a reality show about a group of guys for Bravo Television called, “The Dad’s Club.”
“The idea is that there are so many shows following around moms, why not focus on the dads?” said casting director Charisse Simonian. “We want dads who are successful and who are juggling busy careers with fatherhood yet make time to hang out with the guys. … Those guys that women will think, ‘I wish he was my husband.’ “
Those interested in applying, send a one-paragraph bio and photograph to clubcasting@luckymail.com. The deadline is March 10.
Casting directors plan on coming to Atlanta during the week of March 17 to whittle down the finalists.
DeGarmo too pop?
Singer/producer John Rich hit Snellville native Diana DeGarmo hard in CMT’s reality show “Gone Country” Friday night, accusing her of not being country enough. After he heard a rough cut of her song, he said she’s a “great singer.”
“But I gotta tell ya,” he added, “There ain’t nothin’ about that vocal that’s country at all. That is straight pop music big time.”
He then asked why she wanted to get into country. She said it was “a challenge,” then giggled nervously.
Terrible answer!” Rich shot back. “You need to want to do this because you love country music, not because it’s a damn challenge!”
Later, DeGarmo is seen crying back at the house while Carnie Wilson and Dee Snider try to console her. “He made Simon Cowell look like a pussycat,” DeGarmo said. “When I was growing up, I wanted to be a country singer more than anything in the world. I tried and I got shot down bad.”
Snider, acting like a supportive dad, said she had “gumption” and added, “You’re the bravest 20-year-old I know.”
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Singer-guitarist Robyn Hitchcock is 55. Guitarist John Lilley of the Hooters is 54. Actress Miranda Richardson is 50. Rapper Tone-Loc is 42. Guitarist John Bigham (Fishbone) is 39. Actress Julie Bowen (“Boston Legal,” “Ed”) is 38. Actor David Faustino (“Married … With Children”) is 34. Actress Jessica Biel is 26.
Contributing: Rodney Ho and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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T-shirts get 2 doses of free publicity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Esperanza Clothing Co. co-owner Daniel Barbalho wasn’t tuned into the live “American Idol” results show Thursday night when suddenly friends were calling to tell him what contestant Michael Johns was wearing. The Aussie and former Atlantan was sporting one of Esperanza’s “Bring Back the Point” rocker shirts (the tee, at right, is a tribute to the late Little Five Points rock club).
“It was ridiculous!” Barbalho told Buzz on Friday. “I’m not really sure how he got our shirts, but we’re not complaining.” Previously, Johns wore one of Esperanza’s “Resurgens” shirts to an “AI” photo shoot. The former C.J.’s Landing singer shares mutual friends with Esperanza co-owners Bart Sasso and Eric Kelly.
“Our [clothing] lines are inspired by everything cool in Atlanta,” Barbalho said. “I don’t really watch ‘American Idol’ ever, but I’ll be tuning in now just to see if Mike is going to wear another one of our shirts.”
One small glitch: The tees Johns is giving huge national attention are technically last year’s models. However, the spike in hits being logged on esperanza-atl.com Friday have inspired the Georgia Tech grads who run the Atlanta clothing company to ready fresh batches.
SEINFELD SCHEDULED
Funnyman Jerry Seinfeld is coming to Atlanta in May.
Tickets are $47-$77 and go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster outlets for the comedian’s May 2 appearance at the Fox Theatre.
Tickets may also be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone at 404-817-8700.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Today: Singer Harry Belafonte is 81. Actor Robert Conrad is 73. Singer Roger Daltrey is 64. Actor-director Ron Howard is 54. Actor Tim Daly (“Wings”) is 52. Actor George Eads (“C.S.I.”) is 41. Guitarist Ryan Peake of Nickelback is 35.
Sunday: Actor John Cullum (“Northern Exposure”) is 78. Author Tom Wolfe is 78. Singer Lou Reed is 66. Singer Jon Bon Jovi is 46. Actor Daniel Craig (“Casino Royale”) is 40. Singer Chris Martin of Coldplay is 31.
CELEBRITY DOCKET
Boy George has denied imprisoning a 28-year-old Norwegian man at his London home last year. The former Culture Club singer pleaded not guilty to the charge of false imprisonment during a court hearing in London. Audun Carlsen claims Boy George handcuffed him to a wall after he went to the singer’s apartment as a photo model. The incident allegedly took place in April.
Contributing: Rodney Ho, Bob Longino, Mike Morris, Richard Eldredge and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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