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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2006 > July
July 2006
Rapper has big plans to lighten up his look
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bone Crusher (real name Wayne Hardnett), the Smyrna-based rapper known for showing off his monstrous tummy on stage, isn’t the biggest person to show up on VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club,” the show in which entertainers have 100 days to lose as much weight as possible.
At 421 pounds coming into the show, Bone Crusher, 30, lags behind comic Ralphie May, who entered the first edition at a whopping 481 pounds. Nonetheless, Crusher told Buzz, “I didn’t even know I gained that much.”
His rapper buddy and Season 3 contestant Bizarre encouraged him. “He said, ‘Get on the show and show how big boys do it.’ I love competition. Anytime I can get in there and do my thing, I’m down for it.”
Bone Crusher, who joins the likes of former contestants Carnie Wilson, Ted Lange and Angie Stone, can’t say how much weight he’s lost, but he hopes to eventually drop to a relatively svelte 300. “I think everybody is entitled to one drug,” Crusher said in a trailer to the show. “My drug is eating.”
The fourth incarnation of “Celebrity Fit Club” debuts Sunday at 9 p.m.
Comics stand tall in Roswell
The Funny Farm comedy club in Roswell has become “Last Comic Standing” central, with former contestants such as Rich Vos and Bonnie McFarlane there recently, Gary Gulman coming up Aug. 10-12 and Season 2 winner John Heffron Aug. 24-26. But in a case of prescient booking, the Funny Farm had two of the current final four contestants on the NBC reality show this past weekend: hilarious, curly-haired Chris Porter and easygoing observational comic Ty Barnett.
Both know that the favorite to win $50,000, an NBC talent contract and a Bravo special is Josh Blue, who uses his cerebral palsy as fodder for humor. “Josh Blue is going to win it not because of his cerebral palsy. He’s funny,” a tired Porter told Buzz after his last set Saturday night. “He’s also likable.”
The fourth contestant, Michele Balan, has been skirting elimination for weeks. Via public vote, “Last Comic Standing” will pare the quartet down to three Tuesday night.
‘Murder’ writ large
Actress Angela Lansbury, 80, knows she may be best remembered not for her film career (“The Manchurian Candidate,” “Gaslight”) or her illustrious Broadway run in “Mame.” No, it’s her 12-year run as Jessica Fletcher, the sleuth on television’s “Murder, She Wrote.”
“I’m sure in my obituary, ‘Murder, She Wrote’ will be in the headline,” a chipper Lansbury told Buzz last week by telephone from her Los Angeles abode.
Lansbury gets to run through all aspects of her life with Robert Osborne on “Private Screenings” for Turner Classic Movies (Tuesday, 9 p.m.). “I just decided there comes a time in your life when you’re prepared to go back and re-examine your career,” she said. “I’m surprised and amazed at what I managed to fit into all those years.”
But after decades of working nonstop, Lansbury has slowed down, taking occasional gigs such as the movie “Nanny McPhee” and voicing her “Beauty and the Beast” character Mrs. Potts in the video game “Kingdom Hearts II.” (“Talk about legs,” she cracked. “She’s like a centipede!”)
Lansbury divides her time among homes in L.A., New York and Ireland. In New York, she’s so down to earth that she often takes the bus (!) to see operas, concerts and Broadway shows, graciously greeting the many tourists who recognize her. As for a new “Murder, She Wrote” movie, she said that if a “crackerjack” script can be done, she’s open to it.
Celebrity nuptials
Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock were married Saturday aboard a yacht in Saint-Tropez, France, People magazine confirmed. “She was the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen — like a modern-day Brigitte Bardot,” Jimmy Choo owner Tamara Mellon told People about Anderson, who wore a white string bikini to her nuptials. “Kid Rock was a total rock star. He gave her a good kiss. Everybody was crying.”
A tongue-lashing for Lindsay
A studio executive in a letter scolded party gal Lindsay Lohan for her behavior on a movie set, doubting her reasons last week when she said she suffered from heat exhaustion.
James G. Robinson, chief executive officer of Morgan Creek Productions, sent the letter, dated July 26, to the young actress, as well as agents, producers and others involved in the film “Georgia Rule.”
On Tuesday, publicist Leslie Sloan Zelnick told “The Insider” that Lohan was treated for overheating and dehydration at a hospital after filming “Georgia Rule” in 105-degree weather for 12 hours that day.
Robinson, in a letter posted Friday on TheSmokingGun.com, was skeptical: “We are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called ‘exhaustion.’ ”
Lohan plays a troubled teenager in “Georgia Rule,” which also stars Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman. Robinson said in the letter that Lohan has been frequently late for filming and has been “discourteous, irresponsible and unprofessional.” She returned to the set without incident Thursday.
Celebrity birthdays
Drummer Bill Berry is 48. Actor Wesley Snipes is 44. Musician Fatboy Slim is 43. “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling is 41. Actor Dean Cain is 40.
Contributing: news services. E-mail: rho@ajc.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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‘Idol’ finalists meet Bush
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Helena Oliviero - Staff
No more worries for Mr. President. Katharine McPhee was well enough to make her Oval Office appointment.
The “American Idol” runner-up recovered from a nasty bout of bronchitis and laryngitis just in time for her audience with President Bush on Friday, says Eric Green, a publicist with the Fox network program.
McPhee, champion Taylor Hicks and the rest of last season’s top 10 were the first contestants from the hit show to be invited to the White House, which said Bush is “aware of the show.”
Hicks handed Bush a harmonica. Third-place finisher Elliott Yamin overslept and showed up five minutes late at the White House. McPhee, who missed the first 18 dates of the “Idols Live” tour, made her first concert appearance later that day at the Verizon Center, singing “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” and “Over the Rainbow” before joining the group for a finale of “Living in America.”
Garden concerts in bloom
Speaking of “Idol” … If you need a little fix, you can catch alum George Huff —- the nice, earnest contestant from Season 3 —- at the Atlanta Botanical Garden concert series next month.
Huff will open for the Atlanta-based Blind Boys of Alabama at 8 p.m. Aug. 9. It’s part of the garden’s annual “SunTrust Concerts in the Garden.”
Gates open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $33, with a 10 percent discount for garden members. Order tickets online at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone at 404-249-6400. On Aug. 18, you can catch Taylor Dayne and Naked Eyes.
Gibson accused of DUI
Mel Gibson was arrested early Friday on suspicion of driving under the influence, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.
Gibson’s vehicle was speeding eastbound on the Pacific Coast Highway when officers stopped him at 2:36 a.m., sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said. The vehicle was a Lexus, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Gibson, 50, was booked at the Lost Hills sheriff’s station at 4:06 a.m., according to department records. The actor-director was cited and released, Whitmore said. Bail was set at $5,000.
According to the Washington Post Sunday, after Gibson was stopped, handcuffed and put into a police cruiser, Gibson reportedly launched into an anti-Semitic tirade punctuated by obscenities, threats and sexually abusive language, according to the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com, which on Saturday posted four pages of a handwritten report from the arresting officer. In the report, which appears to be a chronology of the arrest, Gibson boasted that he “owns Malibu” and ranted about “[expletive] Jews” and how “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department would not comment Saturday on the release of the arrest narrative by TMZ, but sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore earlier promised that “nothing will be sanitized. There is absolutely no favoritism shown for the suspect.” The case is still being investigated, and the Web site said Gibson’s encounter with officers once he reached the sheriff’s station was videotaped by the police.
The alleged anti-Semitic rant could prove especially damaging for the Oscar-winning director of “Braveheart,” who also made the religious blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ,” a movie about the Crucifixion. The film was controversial in part because some feared it would incite anti-Semitism and also because it was revealed that director’s father, Hutton Gibson, had made statements denying the Holocaust, calling it “mostly” fiction.
On Saturday, before the details of his tirade became widely known, Gibson issued a statement through his publicist in which he apologized for his “despicable” behavior and confessed that he has been struggling with alcoholism for most of his adult life.
“After drinking alcohol on Thursday night, I did a number of things that were very wrong and for which I am ashamed,” Gibson said in his statement. “The arresting officer was just doing his job and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person. I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable.”
Gibson went on: “I am deeply ashamed of everything I said. Also, I take this opportunity to apologize to the deputies involved for my belligerent behavior. They have always been there for me in my community and indeed probably saved me from myself. I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry. I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse. I apologize for any behavior unbecoming of me in my inebriated state and have already taken necessary steps to ensure my return to health.”
Wacky TV summer drags on
In TV news, ABC is having a sluggish summer. After cutting short runs of “How to Get a Girl” and “Master of Champions” because of terrible ratings, the network pulled the plug on its blatant “American Idol” copycat, “The One: Making a Music Star.” The show last week debuted at a minuscule 3.1 million viewers, the worst debut in ABC recorded history, and things got no better this week.
Elsewhere, a metro Atlanta trivia trio is well-positioned to win $250,000 in VH1’s new show “The World Series of Pop Culture.” On Thursday night, the cable network aired the semifinals featuring El Chupacabra —- Smyrna’s Mason Spencer, 34, his neighbor Alexandra Clark, 33, and Chamblee’s Jodi Roth, 33 —- vs. a team called Almost Perfect Strangers.
With the score tied after Clark aced a category about the show “Friends,” VH1 ran out of time and left a cliffhanger for next Thursday’s episode at 10 p.m.
But moments later, the network aired a promo revealing which team made it into the finals, immediately ruining said cliffhanger. (We won’t spoil it if you missed the promo.)
Also, the show’s graphics informed viewers that Spencer and Clark live in a place called “Smyma.”
Kitchen pals reunite
Klaus Fritsch, co-founder of Morton’s steakhouse chain, caught up with an old friend Thursday night —- Pano Karatassos, founder and CEO of Buckhead Life Restaurant Group. In town to tout his new book, “Morton’s Steak Bible” (Random House, $30), Fritsch hosted a book signing party at Morton’s Buckhead location attended by his longtime pal, plus 100 other guests. “I was chef at the Beef and Bird restaurant in Washington, D.C., in ‘68, and Pano was my sous chef,” Fritsch said. “He was excellent. I always call him ‘the golden Greek’ because he looks like [Aristotle] Onassis,” referring to the late Greek shipping magnate. In turn, Karatassos, who attended the party with his son Niko, said, “Klaus is truly one of the most generous and open people I’ve ever met. I feel fortunate to have worked side by side with him.” Before Karatassos and his son left, they enjoyed smoked salmon, and Pano asked Fritsch for his source of the tasty fish. Fritsch promised to get back to Karatassos with a name. Don’t be surprised if that particular salmon pops up at the Fish Market or Bluepointe in the near future.
Celebrity birthdays
Today: Documentary maker Ken Burns is 53. Actress Alexandra Paul (“Baywatch”) is 43. Singer Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men is 33. Country singer Martina McBride is 40.
Sunday: Actor Dick Wilson (Mr. Whipple) is 90. Movie director Peter Bogdanovich is 67. Singer Paul Anka is 65. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is 59. Actress Delta Burke is 50. Actor Laurence Fishburne is 45. Actress Lisa Kudrow is 43. Actress Hilary Swank is 32.
Contributing: Rodney Ho, Marylin Johnson and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Sweet talkin’ Georgians get turn in the spotlight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The home state of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has spawned many a great speaker. And three of them are showcased on TLC’s reality show “The Messengers,” which debuted Sunday night with 10 contestants vying to be the best orator. The reward: a special on TLC and a book deal. The best of the bunch, as voted by the audience in the first episode, was Robert Rutherford, 46, a quirky minister and carpenter from the small town of Waco, 55 miles west of Atlanta.
“I was blessed and surprised because four or five others hit home runs,” Rutherford told Buzz. Each show, contestants go on a field trip, then have to make two-minute speeches on a related topic. Week 1 was 24 hours on Skid Row, a part of Los Angeles packed with homeless. In future weeks, they go to a coroner, spend time in wheelchairs and pick crops at a migrant farm.
Rutherford is the only contestant who is a religious figure. But he said he’s “pretty liberal for the Bible Belt. I wear an earring and spiky hair, and I play in a rock band. I appeal to the masses.”
Two of his competitors are Atlantans and poets who met each other years before the show. See Flowers used to do a weekly poetry reading on Joyce Littell’s show on V-103 from 1998 to 2000 and had social worker Daneea Badio on as a guest.
Badio works with homeless people all the time, but the L.A. experience was different, she said, because she was on their turf. “I expected the despair and frustration, but I also saw love, joy and community, much more than I anticipated,” she told Buzz.
Flowers said visiting the coroner on the show helped him get past his mother’s murder from 1994. “The moment I inhaled the smell of death, I began to live,” he said. “I had always held on to death as my mother. That day, death was no longer part of my mother.”
Fresh look for fashion show
When it comes to fashion shows, retailer Jeffrey Kalinsky will have plenty of news to celebrate. First, his 14th annual “Fashion Cares” luxury designer fashion event Aug. 28 will have a new venue — a white tent set up in a parking area behind Phipps Plaza.
“It was time to come up with a different place, to keep the event new and fresh,” said Kalinsky, who last year formed a retail partnership with Nordstrom and also serves as the company’s director of designer merchandise. Kalinsky will present the first Jeffrey New Talent Award to the most promising graduate design student from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
This glitzy evening — a kickoff to the fall social season — will again be chaired by Lila Hertz and Carey Carter and benefit the Atlanta AIDS Partnership Fund and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Like last year, once $150,000 has been raised for the Atlanta AIDS Partnership Fund, the Elton John AIDS Foundation will offer a grant matching $1 for every $2 raised.
The evening starts at 7:30 with hors d’oeuvres and drinks from A Legendary Event, including the stiletto cocktail — a cool mix of vodka and pink lemonade with a jelly bean garnish. The live auction and fashion show begins at 9, with Dave FM radio personality Mara Davis serving as mistress of ceremonies.
Tickets start at $150. To purchase, call 404-841-0215.
The Beat gets new a.m. voice
For five years, 95.5/The Beat has aired a low-cost “more music” morning show while rivals Star 94 (Steve & Vikki) and Q100 (the Bert Show) focused on pricier, yet more lucrative, personalities. Now the Beat’s giving personality a try, hiring Murph Dawg, a native New Yorker who was working nights at Hot 98.1 in Greenville, S.C. Starting Aug. 7, he will team with existing morning host Stacy C. Program director Lee Cagle said they’ll be a true morning team but won’t gab as much as their competitors. Cox Radio, which owns 95.5/The Beat, is part of Cox Enterprises, parent company of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Breakup central
Not everythng is shiny and happy in Hoff-land. “America’s Got Talent” judge David Hasselhoff and Pamela Bach have officially parted ways. Their divorce was finalized Wednesday in Los Angeles, Bach’s attorney Bret Hunter said. “I’ve always loved him and always will, and have love and compassion for him,” Bach told The Associated Press. “It’s a very, very sad day, but a day to move on.” Hasselhoff, 54, filed for divorce Jan. 12 after 16 years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. Bach, 42, filed her own papers, also citing irreconcilable differences… .
Prince’s second wife, Manuela Testolini Nelson, has filed for divorce from the pop superstar, his attorney has confirmed. Patrick Cousins, Prince’s general counsel, said Wednesday the case was pending. An attorney for Nelson did not return a telephone call from The Associated Press. The [Minneapolis] Star Tribune reported on its Web editions Wednesday that the case was filed May 24. A court administrator told the AP the case was sealed July 11.
Celebrity birthdays
Cartoonist Jim Davis (“Garfield”) is 61. TV executive Dick Ebersol is 59. Actress Sally Struthers is 58. Actress Elizabeth Berkley (“Showgirls”) is 34.
Contributing: Marliyn Johnson and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail rho@ajc.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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Keep an ear out: R&B conference coming
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since so much great hip-hop and R&B music is coming out of Atlanta, a growing number of events are coming into the metro area. Today, Billboard magazine (www .billboardevents.com) is set to formally announce the return of its R&B Hip-Hop Conference & Awards Sept. 6-8 at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel. A month earlier, satellite radio personality Terry Bello will launch his Soul Music Summit (www.soulsummitonline.com) Aug. 11-12 at the Marriott Atlanta-Downtown. (Local and national performers Gordon Chambers, Eric Roberson, Anthony David and Algebra are among those scheduled to participate.)
And according to Katt Williams’ publicist, the comedian-actor will host the first BET Hip-Hop Awards at the Fox Theatre on Nov. 12.
And he gets his own car!
Scores of Planters peanut lovers and collectors (they call themselves “Peanut Pals”) will converge on Atlanta this weekend for their annual convention. And Mr. Peanut, celebrating the company’s 100th anniversary, will roll into town for the occasion in his NutMobile.
Yes, if Batman can have a Batmobile, Mr. Peanut can have a NutMobile. Bright yellow and shaped like the peanut, the sleek and curvy NutMobile has seats for three people.
Peanut Pals, a group created in 1978 and now boasting some 500 members in the United States and abroad, collect everything from Planters lapel pins and salt and pepper jars to more prized possessions, such as an original Mr. Peanut cast-iron penny scale (worth about $14,000).
Karleen Buchholz of Dunwoody, co-chair of the Peanut Pals convention, has fond memories of going to Mr. Peanut stores as a child, being greeted by a costumed Mr. Peanut and enjoying a bag of salty peanuts. Later, as an adult, she caught the collecting bug in an antiques store when she spotted a 1940 Leap Year jar of Planters Peanuts (she was born on Feb. 29, 1940).
“I just had to have it,” she told Buzz.
Over the years, she and her husband, John, also a Peanut Pal and co-chair of the convention, have acquired old counter jars that once kept peanuts in stores.
“And yes, we do like peanuts,” she says.
The eye-catching NutMobile is slated to make a public appearance from 10 a.m. to noon Friday at Stone Mountain Park. For convention info, see www.peanutpals.org.
Lance of ‘N Sync discloses he’s gay
Lance Bass, a member of the ‘N Sync boy band, says he’s gay and in a “very stable” relationship with a reality show star.
Bass, who formed ‘N Sync with Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, tells People magazine that he didn’t earlier disclose his sexuality because he didn’t want to affect the group’s popularity.
“I knew that I was in this popular band and I had four other guys’ careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said [that I was gay], it would overpower everything,” he tells the magazine.
‘N Sync is known for a string of hits, including “Bye Bye Bye” and “It’s Gonna Be Me.” The band went on hiatus in 2002.
Bass says he wondered if his coming out could prompt “the end of ‘N Sync.” He explains, “So I had that weight on me of like, ‘Wow, if I ever let anyone know, it’s bad.’ So I just never did.”
The singer says he’s in a “very stable” relationship with 32-year-old actor Reichen Lehmkuhl, winner of Season 4 of CBS’ “Amazing Race.”
Bass and Fatone, 29, are developing a sitcom pilot inspired by the screwball comedy “The Odd Couple,” in which his character will be gay.
“The thing is, I’m not ashamed — that’s the one thing I want to say,” Bass says. “I don’t think it’s wrong, I’m not devastated going through this. I’m more liberated and happy than I’ve been my whole life. I’m just happy.”
Celebrity birthdays
Actor Jerry Van Dyke (“Coach”) is 75. Actress-director Betty Thomas (“Hill Street Blues”) is 58. Actress Roxanne Hart (“Chicago Hope”) is 54. Actor Julian McMahon (“Nip/Tuck”) is 38. Comedian Maya Rudolph (“Saturday Night Live”) is 34.
Contributing: Marylin Johnson, 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.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Brinkley’s 4th bemoans his cheatin’ heart
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Christie Brinkley’s estranged husband has been silent about recent reports that he had an affair with an 18-year-old employee while married to the 52-year-old supermodel. Now his reportedly desperate apology is receiving a very public airing.
“This is an aberration,” Peter Cook, 47, said through a lawyer, according to a column by Cindy Adams in Tuesday’s New York Post. “I’m sorry. I’m contrite. I’m stupid. Foolish. No excuse.”
Adams wrote that Cook’s words were provided to her by his attorney, Norman Sheresky.
“I love my wife. … For a lifetime, I’ve tried to prove how much I love her,” Cook said, according to the article.
Sheresky said that Cook, the model’s fourth husband, is hoping for a reconciliation.
“He got involved, in over his head somehow, and he wants to make it up to her for the rest of his life,” said Sheresky, who also defended Cook as a “man who loves his wife and who loves his children.”
“This is not the way for people to have a discourse or a discussion about private matters,” Brinkley publicist Elliot Mintz told The Associated Press.
The couple’s separation exploded in scandal earlier this month when Diana Bianchi, now 19, claimed Cook had seduced her shortly after hiring her to work at his architecture firm.
The teenager’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, described the relationship as consensual, but claimed Cook’s role as employer and his gifts of a car, money and jewelry could possibly constitute sexual harassment.
Third Day in holiday spirit
Atlanta-based Christian rock band Third Day will release “Christmas Offerings,” the band’s first Christmas CD.
Slated for an October release, the songs include classics such as “Silent Night,” as well as four original songs.
“The ‘Offerings’ recordings are a special part of who we are as a band,” said Third Day bass player Tai Anderson in a press release. “We started the series for our fans — and we’ve wanted to do one reflecting the hope of Christmas for a while now.”
The Grammy winners have sold almost 6 million albums.
A definite maybe for Kimmel
Last week in Pasadena, Calif., Jimmy Kimmel lamented the continued absence of his late-night ABC show on the local Atlanta affiliate, WSB-TV. Atlanta is the largest market without Kimmel’s show, which airs at midnight in most cities. For three years, WSB-TV management has said it pulls in more money using reruns of “Entertainment Tonight” and the late news.
But new General Manager Bill Hoffman offered Buzz a ray of hope for Kimmel fans. One indicator: He helped get Kimmel onto Orlando TV before he came to Atlanta earlier this year. “I know ABC believes in the show in a strong way,” Hoffman said. “When I’m on the road, I watch the show, and I like it. We are still having conversations with ABC on a list of topics. This remains one of them.”
ABC likes Kimmel enough to give him a Sept. 13 prime-time special. “I love the show,” said ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson to critics in California last weekend. “But we have to get the word out some more and find different ways to do so. It’s been a little bit invisible.”
In Atlanta, make that totally invisible.
K-Fed to ‘Lose Control’ for teens
Britney Spears’ hubby has a new gig.
Kevin Federline will close the Teen Choice Awards, performing his single “Lose Control” for the first time on network television. The show airs Aug. 20 on Fox.
The 28-year-old, known to some as K-Fed, is expected to release his debut hip-hop album, “Playing With Fire,” in August.
Federline married Spears in September 2004. They have an infant son, and she is pregnant with their second child, due this fall.
A dad-size pain for Richie
Lionel Richie, father of size-zero Nicole Richie, says he’s hurt by media chatter about his daughter’s weight loss.
“I’ll be honest with you, it hurts me more than it hurts her,” the 57-year-old R&B singer tells “Access Hollywood” in an interview scheduled to air next Monday. “I must tell you, I’m the basket case.”
Nicole Richie, 24, co-stars with ex-friend Paris Hilton in the E! series “The Simple Life — ‘Til Death Do Us Part.” A new format allows the feuding friends to have nothing to do with each other.
In a recent interview in Vanity Fair magazine, Richie acknowledged she was “too thin right now” and was getting treatment to add pounds.
Celebrity birthdays
Actor James Best (“The Dukes of Hazzard”) is 80. Singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones is 63. Drummer Roger Taylor of Queen is 57. Actor Kevin Spacey is 47. Actress Sandra Bullock is 42. Actress Kate Beckinsale (“The Aviator,” “Pearl Harbor”) is 33.
Contributing: Rodney Ho and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail buzz@ajc.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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‘Survivor’ sent to federal prison
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Richard Hatch has been sent to a federal prison in Oklahoma as he serves a 51-month sentence for failing to pay taxes on the $1 million he won on the debut season of “Survivor.”
Hatch, 45, of Newport, R.I., arrived last week at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City. It wasn’t immediately clear why Hatch was moved or whether he will serve out his prison sentence at the facility, which is a hub for prisoners transferring through the federal system.
Hatch had previously been held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts.
A federal jury convicted Hatch in January of failing to pay taxes on the “Survivor” prize and other income. He was sentenced in May to 51 months in prison by a judge who said the reality TV star had lied repeatedly on the witness stand.‘L & O’ meets Muppets
“Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf is often accused of taking himself and his venerable TV “brand” too seriously. So everyone at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif., got a kick out of a clip he aired to introduce three actresses joining NBC’s various “L&O” shows this fall.
“Law & Order: Special Letters Unit” featured Muppets hunting down the most-wanted letter “M,” plus hilarious overuse of the shows’ famed “CHU-CHUNG!” musical trademark.
“I feel like a tobacco company executive, because hopefully we will hook 4- and 5- and 6-year-olds,” Wolf joked about “Special Letters Unit,” which will air on PBS’ “Sesame Street” on Aug. 14.
Then he sternly reeled off a series of statistics proving that the “Law & Order “brand” was stronger than ever — despite what many critics have written.
Playtime over.
CHU-CHUNG!He says it was a joke
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) says he was just playing along with the joke when comedian Stephen Colbert prodded him in an interview to say: “I enjoy cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do.”
The Democrat, unchallenged for re-election, appeared on Colbert’s Comedy Central show last week and was asked to say a few things that would “really lose the election for you if you were contested.”
Colbert asked the congressman to complete this sentence: “I enjoy cocaine because … “
A bemused Wexler looked into the camera and said, “I enjoy cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do.”
A follow-up in the complete-the-sentence questioning led to this comment: “I enjoy the company of prostitutes for the following reasons … because it’s a fun thing to do. If you combine the two together, it’s probably even more fun.”
Wexler told The Palm Beach Post after his interview aired last week that he had never seen the show before and only agreed to appear at the urging of his younger staffers.
Asked what his teenage children thought of his performance, he said: “They thought I was foolish.”
Monday, Wexler told The Associated Press he was fully aware of what was happening and had no regrets.
“I think it’s an important thing for members of Congress to be able to participate in a good-natured joke,” he said. “Everyone who watches the show knows that what is being said is a joke and that it’s about silly topics. I thought it was funny.”
Wexler isn’t the only one to be caught off guard by Colbert. When U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) appeared, Colbert asked whether it was difficult getting his rumored toupee through airport security. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is gay, was asked what it’s like to be “an openly left-handed” American.
Bruce Lee film planned
Bruce Lee’s family plans to produce a film on the late martial arts star, the first such movie it has actively supervised, the Chinese company making the picture says.
The film, which will be made by the Lee family and the Beijing Jian Yongjia film company, will be based on an upcoming biography of the late actor by Lee’s brother, Lee Chun-fai, Beijing Jian Yongjia said in a statement Sunday.
“Bruce Lee died young, but stories about him haven’t stopped surfacing for 30 years. A lot of them were rumors fed by rumors and exaggerated. Bruce Lee’s family didn’t make its opinions known because they understood people’s passion about Bruce Lee,” the statement said.
“As the members of the Lee family enter old age, to let people know the true story about Bruce Lee, Lee Chun-fai assumed responsibility and carefully organized materials kept by the family, writing the biography ‘Bruce Lee,’ a real and little-known true story.”
The book will debut on Nov. 25.
Hong Kong native Lee died in 1973 at age 32 from swelling of the brain. He is known for portraying characters who defended the Chinese and working class from oppressors.Celebrity birthdays
Supermodel Iman is 51. Cartoonist Ray Billingsley (“Curtis”) is 49. Actor Matt LeBlanc (“Joey,” “Friends”) is 39.v
Contributing: Sonia Murray, Jill Vejnoska and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Starfest no Music Midtown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, July 24, 2006
Atlanta’s Star 94 radio, in its ads earlier this year, hyped Star Fest as a way to make folks forget Music Midtown, which ended its 12-year run last year. But in the end, it was like comparing a Snickers bar to a gourmet meal.
Music Midtown, which never had a Star 94 stage, drew up to 100,000 people a day with seven stages and 100-plus acts over three days. Star Fest, at Atlantic Station on Saturday, was a far more modest affair. Buzz stopped by to check out edgy singer Pink at 7 p.m., and there were maybe 2,000 people in attendance in a space that could easily have held 5,000.
Pink and pop-rock act Train were the only genuine headliners. Yet the cost ($35 to $50 a ticket) was similar to what Music Midtown charged just three years ago.
Oddly, Star Fest scheduled Pink for 7 p.m., before lesser-known bluegrass act Nickel Creek, a group not exactly compatible with Star 94’s Top 40 playlist. A publicist explained that Pink had “a prior commitment.” Indeed, after a relatively brief 40-minute set featuring most of her hits, such as “Just Like a Pill,” “Don’t Let Me Get Me” and “Get This Party Started,” the singer booked out of the site in a matter of seconds.
Typically, concerts include a buffer zone of four to six feet between the stage and the first row —- enough for security personnel and photographers. For some unexplained reason, the Star Fest main stage had a bizarrely wide gap of 15 feet between front-row patrons and the performers. Was this to keep those unruly Star 94 listeners —- many with children and blankets —- from bum-rushing the stage?
More tidbits from Janet
Some leftover lines from Friday’s Janet Jackson press conference at the Four Seasons hotel:
On what the Janet of 2006 would tell the Janet of 1986: “Fasten your seat belt.” (Buzz learned that her Sept. 26 release, “20 Years Old,” is a nod to the two decades that have passed since “Control” hit stores. Apparently the 1982 album “Janet Jackson” and 1984’s “Dream Street” don’t figure in her math.)
On working again with brother Michael: “He owes me! I’m not going to let him forget.”
Different talk at Punchline
Jamie Bendall, co-owner of the Punchline Comedy Club, offered unemployed former 99X jock Jimmy Baron an intriguing idea: Organize a monthly late-night talk show. The first one took place Saturday night following a raunchy set by comic Jimmy Shubert.
For the experiment, Baron brought in as guests legendary concert promoter Peter Conlon, Q100 radio morning producer Jeff Dauler and Neal Boortz’s engineer and former WSB-AM talk show host Royal Marshall.
With minimal promotion, about 50 people showed up. Baron shared anecdotes with his guests about celebrities, censorship, radio host and consumer guru Clark Howard’s cheapness and doing stand-up comedy. (Marshall is honing his stand-up skills and loves the instant feedback; Dauler prefers cracking wise in the solitude of a radio studio.)
With government raising the fines for obscenity, Dauler said radio jocks now do more self-censorship. For example, he said, “The Bert Show” recently had to cut short a bit asking listeners about bizarre injuries because it couldn’t allow people to describe sex acts on the air.
About 40 minutes into the show, Baron asked a leading question, meant for Conlon: “So has anyone here talked to Elvis on the phone?” A wiseacre named Michael Jordan raised his hand and complained, “I’m falling asleep here!”
“Let me know if we keep you awake,” Baron retorted.
Before the bored, 34-year-old Jordan walked out, he said he was expecting a comedy show. “This is like a fat man’s ‘View,’ ” he complained. “This is not a place for Barnes.” (Yes, Jordan thought Baron was Steve Barnes, Baron’s former 99X co-host.)
Baron said afterward that the show worked out well but that he wasn’t sure late Saturday night was the right time to do a local version of “Inside the Actor’s Studio.”
Random bits
Among the celebrities overseen at Compound nightclub Friday night: Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Evander Holyfield, Jazzy Pha and Young Jeezy. Meanwhile, Fever nightclub brought in ultimate party gal Tara Reid Saturday night, who amusingly hung up on Q100 on Friday after Jenn Hobby had the temerity to ask Reid about her left breast popping out at an event in 2004… . The Rev. Al Sharpton, at a reception for black talk and R&B station WAMJ-FM 102.5 in the Ritz-Carlton downtown last week, celebrated his recent arrival on the Atlanta airwaves with his syndicated show, heard on the station weekdays from 1 to 3 p.m.
“It’s like having a long lunch with black America no matter where I am,” Sharpton told the crowd. He observed that Atlantans are especially vocal. “I know if I talk about crime, Detroit is there,” he said. “If I talk politics, it’s D.C. Atlanta, it doesn’t matter. I could talk about golf and you’d have something to say about that!”
Celebrity birthdays
Comedian Ruth Buzzi is 70. Comedian Gallagher is 60. Actor Michael Richards (“Seinfeld”) is 57. Actress Lynda Carter is 55. Director Gus Van Sant is 54. Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez is 37. Actress Anna Paquin is 24.
Contributing: Sonia Murray and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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A ‘Nip/Tuck’ vacation?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A few Buzz readers have recently inquired about WXIA-TV anchor Brenda Wood’s extended absence from the airwaves.
While the official word is that Wood is on a multi-week vacation, we hear that toiling under the unforgiving reality of high-definition technology (WXIA began using the high-tech cameras this year) may have inspired the veteran Atlanta newswoman to pursue some, er, “freshening.” While WXIA-TV president and general manager Bob Walker would not confirm that Wood’s vacation included catching up on DVD discs of “Nip/Tuck” (“All I know is she’s taking vacation time,” he told Buzz on Thursday), high-def viewers can soon judge for themselves. Wood is scheduled back in the anchor chair next week.
Urban Chic gives toast to community support
The gossip was flowing as freely as the pinot grigio and the air-conditioning Wednesday night during the Urban Chic 2006 patron party held at the Lowe Gallery.
The new fashion show event benefiting AID Atlanta, is scheduled for Aug. 3 at Compound nightclub in Midtown. Tickets range from $500 for VIP entry to $100 for advance seats to the event.
Wednesday night’s chilled-out cocktail party amid beautifully lit, colorful glass sculptures by artist Dale Chihuly, was designed as a thank you for local business leaders for donating time, cash or services to Urban Chic.
“I’m just here because I’m married to a member of the host committee,” Ted’s Montana Grill co-owner George McKerrow Jr. told Buzz, pointing to his wife, Ginair.
“Aug. 3 is also my birthday so I have a couple of reasons to celebrate this year,” Ginair said. “At the same time, we’re raising money for a worthy cause.”
Event co-chairs Richie Arpino, Randi Layne and John Stupka were busy milling about, ensuring that attendees were buying raffle tickets.
And yes, the Arpino Salon owner did confirm a few things regarding his 50th birthday blowout over the weekend (Buzz’s invitation was lost, you see …). Yes, the tented, 1950s-themed party for 200 in Arpino and partner Mitchell Anderson’s backyard did prompt a visit from an Atlanta police officer early Sunday morning.
“He was very nice,” Arpino explained. “He also happened to be extremely handsome. One of our female guests originally thought he was a stripper. He told us, ‘No I’m not, but I get that a lot!’ “
Layne’s company, Catwalk Productions, is organizing the Urban Chic fashion show, which she promises will be “an edgy show with lots of skin and partially naked boys.”
Layne was no slouch herself Wednesday night. The longtime Atlanta model wore an Italian print dress with a colorful Picasso-esque vibe to it.
“I didn’t realize it until I put it on,” she whispered to us, “but you can see completely through it!”
The low lighting in the gallery assured that no decency laws were violated.
For Urban Chic tickets, go to www.aidatlanta.org or 404-870-7732.
Quote of the day
“I’m [expletive] sweatin’ like Whitney Houston!” — Atlanta rocker and producer Butch Walker, while working the sold-out Variety Playhouse crowd Wednesday night in Little Five Points, where he played much of his new album, old favorites and a rocking cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”
Celebrity docket
“You Me and Dupree” actress Kate Hudson has accepted libel damages from a supermarket tabloid that claimed she was dangerously thin.
The British edition of the National Enquirer has agreed to pay undisclosed damages and print an apology for an October 2005 article that claimed Hudson was “way too thin” and looked “like skin and bones,” Simon Smith, a lawyer for the 27-year-old actress, said Thursday.
American Media Inc., the magazine’s U.S.-based publisher, apologized for “the deep distress and acute embarrassment” caused by the allegations, which it acknowledged were false.
The article — accompanied by a photo of a gaunt-looking Hudson — claimed her mother, Goldie Hawn, planned to confront her about her weight. Both Hudson and Hawn denied the claim.
Smith said Hudson lost weight to get in shape for a film after giving birth to her son, Ryder, in January 2004. He said she took legal action over the magazine’s suggestion she had “recklessly and foolishly endangered her health” by failing to eat.
Hudson, who received an Oscar nomination for her role in “Almost Famous,” is married to Chris Robinson of the Atlanta-birthed rock act, Black Crowes.
Celebrity birthdays
Jazz pianist/”Sunday Morning” correspondent Billy Taylor is 85. Actor Edward Herrmann (“Gilmore Girls”) is 63. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau (“Doonesbury”) is 58. Actor Josh Hartnett is 28. Actress Vanessa Lengies (“Stick It,” “American Dreams”) is 21.
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.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Proposal at triathlon beats 2nd-place finish
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Woodstock pediatric physical therapist Jen Adley was expecting a bottle of water and a towel after placing second in her age group at the grueling sixth annual Nautica New York City Triathlon on Sunday.
Instead, Adley, who had just finished a two-hour, 20-minute swim in the Hudson River and a bike ride and run through Central Park, ended up with an engagement ring and a TV crew in front of her to record a proposal from boyfriend Curtis Henry.
The Roswell bike shop manager decided to pop the question at the finish line, since the couple first met through triathlon-related sports outings.
“I could have looked a little better,” Adley conceded to Buzz on Wednesday while driving with Henry in New York. “It was a little nuts. I’m just glad I didn’t get light-headed.”
She immediately said yes to the proposal.
Henry says Adley’s post-race state worked well with his plan.
“I knew she would be a little winded,” he says. “There was a little security there. Plus, she had no idea it was coming.”
The downside?
Said Henry: “Well, she still had her running shoes on. She could have kept running!”
As the newly engaged 28-year-olds vacation this week, Henry says they’re still getting used to referring to each other as “my fiancé” and “my fiancée.” No date has yet been set.
Plus, when they return to Georgia next week, they won’t exactly be boring their relatives with footage from their trip either.
Huracanes … Inundaciones!
What’s Spanish for “golf ball-size hail”? Thanks to WGCL, we’ll all be finding out this summer during its severe weather “Storm Tracker” reports. In addition to running severe weather alert crawls on screen in English, the station will be providing the same information in español for its Spanish-speaking viewers.
Here’s hoping that by the end of hurricane season — unlike our aborted attempts in high school — we’ll finally be able to speak fluently about the weather in Spanish at cocktail parties. …
Quote of the day
“Show business is like dating a schizophrenic: I love you, I ignore you, you’re fantastic, you’re terrible. I don’t need that. I just want to wear makeup and be funny.” — “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” actor Bradley Whitford in the Los Angeles Times, responding to the online geeks who are already criticizing the new Aaron Sorkin show on Internet blogs, based on leaked scripts and scenes from the NBC fall drama’s pilot.
Coupling
We had a foreboding sense of deja vu while scanning Us Weekly’s Web site Wednesday. The online mag is reporting that sex tape specialist Pamela Anderson and hick-hop artist Kid Rock are finally making it legal.
The couple, now vacationing in St. Tropez, France, will marry July 29 on a yacht near the glamorous hotspot. …
Anderson confirmed the good news in an entry in her online diary: “It’s been a whirlwind … spontaneous but well thought through.”
When contacted by The Associated Press, Marleah Leslie, Anderson’s spokeswoman, declined to comment on the report.
You may recall that Anderson, 39, and Mr. Rock, 35, whose real name is the far less scintillating Bob Ritchie, became engaged in the Las Vegas desert in April 2002, but never set a wedding date. They broke up the following year.
Anderson and her first husband/video co-star, Tommy Lee, divorced in 1998 after three years of marriage. It could not immediately be determined where the couple has registered for video equipment-related wedding gifts.
Celebrity docket
Actor John Cusack has won a temporary restraining order against a woman he claims has been stalking him for more than 18 months.
Emily Leatherman must stay at least 500 feet away from the 40-year-old actor, his home, workplace, car and any company or office where he does business, Santa Monica [Calif.] Superior Court Judge Linda K. Lefkowitz has ruled.
Why, you ask?
In court papers filed last month, Cusack said the 31-year-old homeless woman “is showing unusual interest by stalking, throwing long letters of interest over my fence in bags with rocks and screwdrivers inside, making unannounced visits to offices of people I work with in an attempt to meet with me and listing my address as her own during a recent arrest.”
The star of “The Ice Harvest” and “Must Love Dogs” said he has never met Leatherman but he has been recently introduced to her mail, which has been arriving at his home of late.
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Diana Rigg (“The Avengers”) is 68. Guitarist Carlos Santana is 59. Singer Chris Cornell of Audioslave (and Soundgarden) is 42. Actor and former Georgian Josh Holloway (“Lost”) is 37.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Another magazine to add to city’s stack
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The city’s magazine monsoon continues this month, pelting Atlanta readers with the local debut of Six Degrees.
Thankfully, unlike the other glossy mag rollouts in recent months, this entertainment and fashion-forward glossy fits in your pocket and won’t compromise the structural integrity of your coffee table.
The freebie Barbie-sized read arrives in Atlanta courtesy of a Miami-based regional publisher run by CEO Michael Melfi. Six Degrees also publishes editions in South Florida and Detroit.
For its Atlanta debut, overseen by publisher Moye Colquitt, the July issue features a cover story and interview with actress Keira Knightley and the following tidbits: Atlanta fashion designer Gregory Michael wants to be James Dean in his next life, Here to Serve Restaurant marketing guru Sari Bernstein’s favorite movie is “Top Gun,” and outgoing Atlanta chef Richard Blais thinks the celebrity he most resembles is Bart Simpson.
Atlanta editor Cindy Klinger says that Six Degrees wants to provide readers with more than the standard celeb interview.
“Our readers will have a real connection with Six Degrees and its content and be able to relate to the people and places we write about. In the end, it’s about them, the people who live, eat and enjoy all that is Atlanta.”
The postcard-sized breezy read is available at more than 400 salons, shops, spas, nightclubs and eateries in Little Five Points, East Atlanta, Virginia-Highland, Midtown, downtown, Buckhead, Decatur, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta and Vinings.
At press time Tuesday, we were still flipping a coin in an attempt to decide which series of nightclub photographs shot by Atlanta shutterbug Ben Rose frightened us the most.
We gathered from gazing at the nightclub pics inside Six Degrees that seemingly only perky blond females with zero body fat are ever allowed inside Compound, and that C.J.’s Landing in Buckhead is indeed still open (does Sam Massell know about this?) and apparently now caters exclusively to Big & Rich/Kid Rock fans.
Eat up, downtown
We’re hearing that next week’s downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week is already nearly sold out. Of course, when you can snag a meal at fancy joints like City Grill, BED, Azio, Lombardi’s or the Pleasant Peasant for $26 a person or dinner for two at casual dining spots like Ted’s Montana Grill, O’Terrill’s or Max Lager’s, there are obviously going to be enthusiastic takers. In addition to a great deal, the first 250 diners who book a reservation July 24-30 at one of the participating locations will also receive the premiere issue of the Downtown Connects card, which provides discounts at many eateries, shops, hotels and attractions. To check out the full list of participating restaurants, go to www.atlantadowntown.com.
Call Oprah for Mideast peace
We honestly have no idea what we did to remain on the Oprah Winfrey for Nobel Peace Prize Movement supporters’ e-mail list, but we’re eternally grateful for the continued entertainment. You may recall that we first wrote about the committed group of Winfrey fans (OWNPPM for short, natch) in January when 50 of its members converged outside the Carter Center to hold a world peace prayer vigil while continuing its push to get the talk show queen the Nobel Peace Prize.
According to Tuesday’s missive from OWNPPM sent to Buzz Central, the organization is now calling for Winfrey and Lebanese pop star Haifa Wehbe (said to be the Madonna of Lebanon) to join forces to “help end the current crisis in the Middle East.”
Says OWNPPM founder Rocky Twyman in the e-mail: “These women have more power than they currently realize. Winfrey [who] can boast having the most popular talk show in the Mideast and [Haifa], whom People magazine recently cited as one of the most beautiful women in the world and a mega-star in the Arab world, have a tremendous amount of clout.”
Reynolds shopping for lawyer?
As we’re now desperately trying to live up to that twitchy Star Jones Reynolds-obsessed persona depicted in this week’s Sunday Paper, we respectfully submit the following dispatch posted on MediaTakeOut.com Tuesday. The gossip site reported that Manhattan spies clocked the ex-“View”-er’s hubby, Al Reynolds, “visiting the offices of the divorce law firm Blank Rome LLP in New York’s Chrysler building.” MediaTakeOut.com spoke exclusively with a building employee who first noticed Jones Reynolds’ hubby. According to the witness, “Al walked up to the security desk and signed in to visit [Blank Rome divorce lawyer] Stanford Lotwin.”
While the report remained completely unsubstantiated at press time Tuesday, if true it could prove magnificent fodder for the seemingly inevitable “Shine II.”
Celebrity birthdays
Guitarist Brian May of Queen is 59. Actor Anthony Edwards (“ER”) is 44. Urs Buhler of Il Divo is 35. Actor Jared Padalecki (“Supernatural,” “Gilmore Girls”) is 24.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Cash-strapped Seeger’s in trouble with tax man
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Seeger’s, one of only 13 U.S. restaurants that holds a five-star rating from the Mobil Travel Guide, has reopened after an unscheduled hiatus earlier this month. Now Buzz has learned of a possible factor in that surprising closing: On July 6, a $265,923.11 lien for non-payment of taxes was recorded in Fulton County.
Charles Willey, Georgia Department of Revenue spokesman, said that filing a tax lien is a last resort. “Before we get to this stage, three separate correspondences are made between us and the taxpayer in an attempt to resolve the debt,” Willey said. “A lien is only imposed if the taxpayer fails to take action.”
In recent weeks, we’ve heard rumblings throughout the local restaurant industry questioning the financial stability of the Buckhead dining destination and its namesake Guenter Seeger, mentor to many of the city’s finest chefs.
Simone Rathle, Seeger’s Washington-based publicist, said Monday that a liquor license issue resulted in the restaurant’s closing this month and said she was unaware of the lien. At press time Monday, Seeger had not returned a phone call seeking comment.
The lien doesn’t necessarily indicate any immediate consequences for Seeger’s, Willey said, but would be an issue if the business were sold or if it sought a bank loan.
Last year, Seeger’s closed for a major face-lift by interior designer Bill Johnson. When it reopened, the number of tables had shrunk even as the already ultra-high-end eatery’s prices swelled.
Last week, Buzz received an e-mail touting a limited-time, relatively economical $85 three-course menu special being offered by the restaurant.
‘Love to Hate’ Peach Buzz?
We’re been known to flick through Atlanta free weekly Sunday Paper on the Sabbath, if only to see which clients local publicist Caren West is subtly spotlighting in her “In the Know” column or to catch up on the “Spider-Man” comic strip. This week, we had a whole new reason to covet SP. This very column clocked in at No. 17 in “The 50 Things We Love to Hate About Atlanta” cover story.
Yup, Buzz was mentioned right next to Sir Elton, Jane Fonda, Neal Boortz — three of our favorite subjects — and traffic gridlock. Wrote SP: “We admit it: We read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s entertainment column every day — and immediately feel dirty for reveling in Richard Eldridge’s [sic] unabashed love of star sightings, name-dropping and celebrity sleaze. Anyone that obsessed with Star Jones Reynolds needs counseling, but we hope he doesn’t get it anytime soon — where would we get our fix?”
Our goal for our second decade on the Buzz beat? To teach SP how to spell the name correctly. Sheesh, we’re starting to understand how Boortz feels.
Kinda.
Overscene
Hip-hop artist KRS-One and graffiti writer-artist Zephyr dining at the Real Chow Baby. … Former “Living Single” actor T.C. Carson taking in a performance of “Three Sistahs” at the Horizon Theatre in Little Five Points over the weekend.
One for the road
Ol’ Blue Eyes and his favorite ivory tickler, Bill Miller, are now reunited at that Sands Copa Room in the sky. As you may have seen in an Associated Press obit, Miller, Frank Sinatra’s 40-year pianist, passed on last week at age 91. While we had the pleasure of watching the ever-understated Miller play just once, it was nice to see the veteran player get a deserving send-off over the weekend with various media tributes.
Think you’ve never heard Miller’s work? He’s the guy playing that haunting accompaniment on Sinatra’s now-classic saloon song “One for My Baby (and One for the Road),” found on the crooner’s deliciously depressing, post-Ava Gardner groundbreaking 1958 concept album, “Only the Lonely.”
Still on tour last month with Frank Sinatra Jr. in Atlantic City, N.J., Miller served as a colorful supporting character in a lengthy profile of Sinatra Jr. in The Washington Post this month. As Miller sat nearby nursing a highball, Sinatra Jr. said of his father’s longtime collaborator in the Post: “He’s the greatest singer’s pianist there ever was.”
For Brad, it’s all about being dad
“I’m so tired of thinking about myself. I’m kinda sick of myself.”
So says new father, global do-gooder and celeb mag cover mainstay Brad Pitt, who told NBC’s “Today” show in an interview aired Monday that being a father has really changed his priorities.
Pitt and his partner, actress Angelina Jolie, have three children: 6-week-old Shiloh, 18-month-old Zahara and 4-year-old Maddox.
“You know, you can write a book, you can make a movie, you can draw, paint a painting,” said Pitt, “but having kids is really the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever taken on.”
Celeb birthdays
Director Paul Verhoeven (“Basic Instinct,” “Showgirls”) is 68. Actor James Brolin is 66. Country singer Ricky Skaggs is 52. Keyboardist John Hermann of Widespread Panic is 44. Actor Vin Diesel is 39.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Vern Yip pulls no punches as judge on ‘Design Star’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta interior designer Vern Yip and construction guru Ty Pennington both left TLC’s “Trading Spaces” to start network TV shows.
In Pennington’s case, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” became a monstrous, tear-jerking hit for ABC. The former Grant Park resident is now a huge star.
Yip signed with NBC for a similar show, called “Home Intervention.” NBC, in ratings and management turmoil, shot a pilot episode but aired it only as a one-time special last year.
“It was bad timing, my first shot at being executive producer,” Yip told Buzz last week. “It’s eventually where I want to head. I’m not sorry I did it.”
But Yip, who continues to run his own interior design and architectural firm, is back on televison as a judge on HGTV’s “Design Star,” which will debut Sunday. It’s basically a “Project Runway” for interior designers. The winner gets his or her own HGTV show.
In the first episode screened by Buzz, Yip is no pushover. About a curtain design, he says, “Looks like someone’s leftover prom dress exploded all over the place.” About a vacuum cleaner turned into a sculpture: “It was like a tombstone. Horrendous!”
“I like to think of it as constructive criticism,” Yip said. “I’m not going to pad it.”
He’s a fan of “Project Runway,” “American Idol” (he rooted for third-place finisher Elliott Yamin) and “Top Chef.” But he admits, “I can’t cook to save my life. Toast and cereal are a challenge!”
‘Idol’ hot for spotlight again
Of the former “American Idol” winners, Ruben Studdard arguably has been least in the spotlight recently. But he’s ready to change that, in a big way.
“I want to make people sick of seeing me,” a relaxed Studdard told Buzz on Saturday before a warm-up concert at Mable House Barnes Amphitheatre in Cobb County.
His third album release is set for Sept. 26, appropriately dubbed “The Return.” The first single, “Change Me,” hits radio stations this month.
Studdard packed the concert with covers (Al Green, Marvin Gaye and his idol, Luther Vandross), gospel favorites and “Idol” classics (“Superstar” and a lovely acoustic version of “Flying Without Wings”). His voice remains in fine form and his charm undeniable.
Atlanta, in many ways, is the Birmingham resident’s second home. He visits monthly, thanks to a huge contingent of family and friends. Studdard also recorded “The Return” here.
The singer, who has struggled with his weight for years, recently visited the Duke Diet & Fitness Center in Durham, N.C. (He missed the recent “Idol” finale to be there.) He said he’s lost 40 pounds so far and feels great. “I wanted to take some time off to change my lifestyle,” Studdard said.
He’s also glad to put behind him a lawsuit over the alleged theft of $246,000 from him by his godfather and manager. Last month, an Alabama judge awarded Studdard $2 million in losses and punitive damages. “It taught me I have to check everybody, not just because they’re family, to make sure my business is straight,” he said.
(For more of the interview, check out the “Idol” blog at www.accessatlanta.com.)
Atlanta’s ‘Crazy’ for this song
Gnarls Barkley’s hypnotic song “Crazy,” a major hit in Europe, has come stateside and become a rare multi-genre hit on rock, pop and R&B radio. The act, featuring Atlanta hip-hop star Cee-Lo and producer Danger Mouse, is now heard on Dave FM, Star 94, 99X, Q100 and V-103.
“It’s so different,” said Greg Street, night jock for R&B/hip-hop station V-103, who persuaded his boss, Reggie Rouse, to play the song. “It’s our era’s version of funkadelic George Clinton.”
Alternative rock station 99X started playing “Crazy” in April, before anybody else. Program Director Leslie Fram compares its appeal to OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” in 2003: “It’s a multi-format smash because it not only encompasses rock but early R&B, soul and hip hop.”
Michelle Engel, program director at rival Dave FM, loved the song the first time she heard it: “The groove is undeniable, and in the Atlanta sunshine with the car windows down, it is unbeatable.”
Cee-Lo, just back from Europe, told Buzz that the Gnarls Barkley side project has far exceeded expectations. “The fact everyone on both ends of the spectrum has embraced it is amazing,” he said Saturday night at a party at Midtown’s Compound nightclub to celebrate general manager Wes Lambert’s birthday.
Cee-Lo wrote “Crazy” in just a couple of hours, he said. “It’s done simply enough. You feel like you could have written that song. There’s a lot of humility, humanity.” He then hit the stage to perform “Crazy” as a sweaty crowd joyously sang along.
At the same party, Dallas Austin — recently pardoned in Dubai after a cocaine possession conviction — showed up. But the local producer slipped out of VIP before Buzz could catch him.
Celebrity birthdays
Art Linkletter is 94. Comedian Phyllis Diller is 89. Actor Donald Sutherland is 71. Actress-singer Diahann Carroll is 71. Singer Spencer Davis is 64. Actor David Hasselhoff is 54. Singer Regina Belle is 43.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail rho@ajc.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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Webisodes of ‘The Office’ now online
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Sandy Springs resident Brian Baumgartner, who plays accountant Kevin on the NBC sitcom “The Office,” is front and center on this summer’s online “Webisodes” of the comedy.
NBC devised the series of 10 clever original shorts, dispensed every Thursday via nbc.com, not only to toss the show’s rabid fan base some fresh material, but also to gauge just how many fans are downloading the episodes from the Web (the eccentric cubicle comedy is among the most downloaded shows on the Internet).
In the short clips, titled “The Office: The Accountants,” Baumgartner’s character and fellow accountants Oscar and Angela will try and track down $3,000 that’s gone missing from the department.
Other “Office” workers, like actress Melora Hardin (who portrays corporate office boss Jan), and Phyllis Smith, who plays, well, Phyllis, pop up as guest stars.
In the debut episode posted this week, the always agitated Angela carefully explains to Jan, “It is not an accounting error. Well, it’s not my accounting error.”
Baumgartner’s hilariously deadpan expressions (Kevin has a slight crush on Jan, you see) enliven the two episodes that Buzz previewed.
The actor has also scored a prime opportunity at tvguide.com where Baumgartner is blogging weekly this summer as the “Webisodes” unspool online.
Writes Baumgartner on his debut blog of the online-only story line, “I like to think of it as part murder mystery —without the murder— and part tragic comedy — without the tragic.”
Usher on Broadway
Alpharetta resident Usher will be relocating — at least temporarily.
The multi-platinum recording singer and five-time Grammy winner will make his Broadway debut, taking over the role of conniving lawyer Billy Flynn in the long-running musical revival “Chicago,” producers Barry and Fran Weissler announced Friday.
“I have always admired Broadway actors for their showmanship, dedication and focus that goes into performing live onstage every night,” Usher said in a statement. “Being on Broadway allows you to connect to audiences in a whole new way that’s different from music and movies.”
Usher bows Aug. 22 in “Chicago” and will appear through Oct. 1.
He joins a wide-ranging list of folks who have played Billy Flynn on Broadway, including Huey Lewis, Wayne Brady, Kevin Richardson, George Hamilton, Taye Diggs, Alan Thicke and Billy Zane.
The Who hits the road
It’s been more than 20 years since the Who blasted their way through a major concert tour. This fall, the band will give it another go.
The opening date will be Sept. 12 in Philadelphia, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey announced Thursday. Then they will wind their way through the United States and Canada before jumping to South America, the Far East, Australia and Europe.
Stops on the tour include New York, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Seattle, Los Angeles and Toronto. Alas, no Atlanta date is yet scheduled.
The Who will perform songs from their new “mini-rock” opera, “Wire & Glass,” and their upcoming studio album, tentatively titled, “Who 2,” set for release Oct. 23. It will be their first studio album since 1982’s “It’s Hard.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a tour as much as this one,” Townshend said in a statement. “Roger and I are both fit and well, ready to rock.”
Daltrey said he and Townshend plan to perform “some rarities that we’ve not played for a long time.” They will be joined by keyboardist John “Rabbit” Bundrick, bassist Pino Palladino, drummer Zak Starkey and singer-guitarist Simon Townshend.
Weez-ing its last?
Rivers Cuomo says that, for now, Weezer is “done.”
Cuomo, the band’s bespectacled songwriter and frontman, told MTV that, while he remains in touch with his bandmates, “We’ve never mentioned getting together.
“Really, for the moment, we are done,” he said. “And I’m not certain we’ll ever make a record again, unless it becomes really obvious to me that we need to do one.”
Jim Merlis, a spokesman for Geffen, says the label has no official response, but added that Cuomo has made similar statements in the past.
Celebrity birthdays
Today: Actor Philip Carey (“One Life to Live”) is 81. Actor Jan-Michael Vincent is 62. R&B singer Millie Jackson is 62. Singer Linda Ronstadt is 60. Actor Terry O’Quinn (“Lost,” ) is 54. Actor Willie Aames (“Charles in Charge”) is 46. Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 45. Actor Brian Austin Green (“Beverly Hills, 90210”) is 33.
Sunday: Drummer Stewart Copeland (The Police) is 54. Dancer Michael Flatley is 48. Actress Phoebe Cates is 43. Actor Will Ferrell (“Anchorman”) is 39. Actor Corey Feldman is 35.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Fallen would-be star
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chris Pierson, Atlanta’s representative on CBS’ “Rock Star Supernova,” was booted Wednesday night by the band after judges criticized him for a lack of identity.
“There’s a certain level of authenticity in your performance that’s missing,” judge Dave Navarro said on Tuesday after Pierson performed Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out.”
On Wednesday, the public picked the bottom three, including Pierson. From there, the newly created Supernova band listened to each singer one more time.
Pierson, who works at Hard Rock Cafe downtown and heads a band, Streetlight Syndrome, failed to sway the judges with his version of the Tonic song “If You Could Only See.” Gilby Clarke, formerly of Guns n’ Roses, said the fact the public had voted Pierson in the bottom three two weeks in a row hurt his cause.
“It’s been a crazy ride so far,” Pierson told the band after he was nixed. “Now it’s over, but there’s a long way to go yet for me.”
Surprisingly, Tommy Lee, the wild Motley Crue drummer, is coming across as the Paula Abdul of the judges. “There are no losers, bro,” Lee burbled. “All of you are winners just to be at this level here. You won, bro.”
Olympic moment ‘electric’
Our question for Dick Ebersol, executive producer of NBC Olympics coverage since 1992, and co-creator (with Lorne Michaels) of “Saturday Night Live,” was simple: Who misbehaved more, the partying athletes in the Olympic Village or the nutballs backstage at “SNL”?
Ebersol claimed to have been in the control room during the Games and unaware of any hanky panky. As for SNL, he said, the cast and crew are calmer these days: Backstage is “almost like being on a pleasant Caribbean vacation.”
Ebersol will join “voice of the Olympics” Bob Costas Satuday during a gathering at Centennial Park to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 1996 Atlanta Games and to honor the thousands of Olympic volunteers.
Contacted at his summer home on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, Ebersol said the ‘96 Games provided what he said was the most riveting scene of any Olympics competition in his experience: When Muhammad Ali was revealed by the spotlights during the Opening Ceremonies, holding the lighted torch that would set the caldron aflame.
“It was, to me, after all the Olympics that I’ve been involved with and produced through the years, my favorite, most electric moment.” The Centennial Olympic Park event, which is free, begins at 6 p.m.
Jolie, Pitt to tell slain reporter’s story on film
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, whose relationship was spawned on a film set, will again work together — this time on a movie based on the life of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan.
Jolie will star as Pearl’s wife, Mariane Pearl, in an adaptation of her book, “A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl,” it was announced Thursday. Pitt will produce the film, which will be directed by Michael Winterbottom.
The movie will be produced by Revolution Films and Plan B, the production company Pitt and his ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston, founded. Pitt and Aniston, who were divorced last year, remain co-owners of the company.
It is the first announced role for Jolie, 31, since the birth of her daughter with Pitt, Shiloh Nouvel, in Namibia in May. The couple have two older children, 18-month-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia, and 4-year-old Maddox, adopted from Cambodia.
Pitt, 42, and Jolie first collaborated as co-stars in last year’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”
The movie will be based on Mariane Pearl’s account of her husband’s abduction in Karachi, Pakistan, where he was researching a story on Islamic militancy. Months later, his beheaded body was found in a shallow grave in a compound on the outskirts of Karachi.
Cash back on top
He died nearly three years ago, but Johnny Cash is back at the top of the charts — for the first time in 37 years.
“American V: A Hundred Highways,” a compilation of recordings by the Man in Black, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart with 88,000 copies, according to the Web site billboardradiomonitor.com. It was the lowest sales figure for a No. 1 album since Nielsen Soundscan began measuring in the early ’90s.
The disc is Cash’s first No. 1 album since 1969’s “Johnny Cash at San Quentin.” It also tops Billboard’s country albums chart, pushing the Dixie Chicks’ “Taking the Long Way” to second place.
Celebrity birthdays
Movie and stage director Ingmar Bergman is 88. Actor Harry Dean Stanton is 80. Country singer Del Reeves is 74. Actor Matthew Fox (“Lost,” “Party of Five”) is 40. Actress Missy Gold (“Benson”) is 36. Musician Taboo of Black Eyed Peas is 31.
Contributing: Bo Emerson, 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.
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’s Olympic family to reconnect
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A reunion is planned for the Atlanta Committee for Olympic Games management staff — 2,200 people who served as everything from transportation managers to food or beverage managers or venue managers.
Harvey Louie, who served as the regional logistics manager for the Olympics and now lives in San Francisco, is organizing the event. He has been able to get in touch with only about 500 of the staffers who, unlike volunteers, worked up to eight years on Olympic-related details. The reception, 2-7 p.m. Saturday at the Inforum building, costs $40 per person and is by invitation only. People can contact Louie at Harvey@ACOG1996.com or go to www.ACOG1996.com for information.
Media hype over Cruise baby reaches fever pitch
Almost three months after the birth of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ daughter, the Shroud of Suri has yet to be lifted. Suri Cruise has yet to be seen in public, either in person or in photographs, since entering the world April 18.
To some, this is a holdout of staggering proportions. Us Weekly magazine is running a clock, ticking off the days (84 and counting) since Suri’s birth. German TV station RTL, taking matters into its own hands, has produced a composite image of what Suri might look like. TMZ.com, perhaps digging for evidence of Suri’s existence, obtained a copy of the official birth certificate, filed May 8 in Los Angeles.
In Atlanta, Mara Davis, midday jock at Dave FM, did a timely themed lunch hour Wednesday in the wake of Suri speculation. Among the songs chosen: “Anybody Seen My Baby?” by the Rolling Stones, “Disappear” by INXS, “She’s Not There” by Santana, “Building a Mystery” by Sarah McLaughlin and “Last Kiss” by Pearl Jam (lyric: “Oh where, oh where, can my baby be?”)
Lest anyone rent out milk-carton space, Cruise spokesman Arnold Robinson pleads for privacy: “If and when they do make a decision, it will be at their discretion and not anybody else’s,” he told The Associated Press.
The secrecy is in stark contrast to the couple’s radically public courtship. Cruise, 44, and Holmes, 27, spared no photo-op during their whirlwind romance. They are now engaged, though there has been no word on wedding plans.
Brinkley, hubby No. 4 split
Supermodel Christie Brinkley and her fourth husband, Peter Cooke, have separated, her publicist confirmed Tuesday.
Cooke and Brinkley married in 1996 and have a daughter.
Brinkley, 52, was previously married to Frenchman Jean-Francois Allaux, singer Billy Joel and developer Richard Taubman. She and Joel have a daughter, and she and Taubman have a son.
“Her immediate concern is for her children, and she’s hoping during this obviously difficult time that people will be kind enough to respect her privacy,” her publicist, Elliot Mintz, said in a statement Tuesday.
How sweet it is to be top wuss
Musicians on Blender magazine’s list of the 25 biggest wusses have perpetrated enough syrupy balladry to drown a Himalayan-sized mountain of pancakes. The parade of pantywaists is pilloried in the latest issue of the magazine with a penchant for list-making, which hits newsstands on Tuesday.
Amidst the obvious candidates — Barry Manilow, Pat Boone, the oversharing Nick Lachey — are some surprises. The Cure’s Robert Smith gets the nod for “pioneering a vocal style in which he sounds on the verge of breaking into heaving sobs at any moment.” Metallica is taken to task for its “touchy-feely life coach in a Cosby sweater” as seen in the documentary “Some Kind of Monster.”
The No. 1 wuss at the top of Blender’s list: James Taylor. The accompanying list of “16 Wimp Rock Classics,” from Captain and Tennille’s “Muskrat Love” to newly minted American Idol Taylor Hicks’ “Do I Make You Proud,” might be the perfect way to drive away unwelcome houseguests. Blender’s assessment of one of this year’s biggest hits, “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt, is unlikely to light up Blunt’s life: “this generation’s Debby Boone, just not as pretty.”
Man of independent means
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather says he will be the ultimate authority on a weekly news program he’ll begin in October on HDNet for owner Mark Cuban, promising “independent journalism.”
While he carefully framed his remarks, saying they were not intended to reflect criticism of his longtime former employer, Rather described himself as moving from an environment of corporate accountability to freedom. The “difference here is the chain of command begins and ends with me. … You could say it’s like operating without a net, but I don’t see it that way,” he told the Television Critics Association on Tuesday.
“Dan Rather Reports” will feature field reports, interviews and investigations. Rather will produce the program, which will be up to an hour long, and be its host. He said he will have creative and editorial control. “News at its best … is a wake-up call, not a lullaby, and I’m not in the lullaby business,” Rather said.
Celebrity birthdays
Actor Patrick Stewart is 66. Singer-
guitarist Roger McGuinn of the Byrds is 64. Actor Harrison Ford is 64. Drummer Will Champion of Coldplay is 28.
Contributing: Shane Harrison, Rodney Ho and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Champion ATL eater wings it for win
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta’s best competitive eater, Dale Boone, lost the regional Nathan’s hot dog eating competition last month for the second year in a row, but he took a consolation prize Saturday. He won a local Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo chicken wing competition, gulping 30 wings in less than four minutes.
Boone was barely recognizable to fans who lined up at Atlantic Station for the wingding because in the past year he’s lost more than 100 pounds, trimming down to a fighting weight of 220. He said too much fat around his stomach has limited his performances in the past.
Always a great “sprint” eater, he hopes he can now better compete in the 12-minute endurance matches like the Nathan’s contest. (Boone has never eaten more than 20 hot dogs in such contests, while the record is nearly 54, set this year by the master Takeru Kobayashi.)
Boone saw his rank among competitive eaters drop from 12th a year ago to 18th this year, according to the International Federation of Competitive Eating, during a period when Boone was in India directing films. But he’s back, and hungry. He won a ribs-chomping contest July 3 in Memphis, devouring 3 pounds in eight minutes.
And he hopes to rock the Krystal burger-eating competition later this year. “Everything,” he told Buzz, “is falling into place.”
‘Idol’ hopefuls, go west
“American Idol” won’t stage auditions in Atlanta in its search for fresh meat for the upcoming sixth season. “Idol” held auditions here for the first three seasons. Would-be Georgia contestants will have to drive a couple of hours west to Birmingham for auditions on Aug. 21.
Surprisingly, this is the first time Birmingham will be host for the auditions, despite the fact it has already generated two winners — Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard — and two runners-up in Bo Bice and Diana DeGarmo (who was born there but was raised in Snellville).
Other audition cities are Los Angeles (Aug. 8); San Antonio (Aug. 11); East Rutherford, N.J., near New York City (Aug. 14); Memphis (Sept. 3); Minneapolis (Sept. 8); and Seattle (Sept. 19). Age qualifications remain the same: 16 to 28.
Memphis was scheduled as an audition site last year, but Hurricane Katrina forced the show producers to move to Greensboro, N.C. That wasn’t a bad deal because the city helped the show land finalists Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler and Bucky Covington.
In other “Idol” news, Daughtry, the rocker who finished in fourth place, has signed a record deal with 19 Recordings/RCA Records.
Further study needed?
Timothy Leary would probably make something out of the synchronicity of the two events, but, as the Moody Blues told us (somewhat ahead of the fact), Timothy Leary’s dead. His spirit is alive and well, however, at Johns Hopkins, where researchers gave volunteers doses of the vital extract from psilocybin mushrooms to test their “mystical” effects. The results of the study were announced Tuesday, on the same day family members confirmed the death of Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett, widely considered a casualty of psychedelic drugs.
Directors of the Johns Hopkins study claimed they took great pains to avoid giving any of their subjects a “bad trip” and hailed the salutary results for most: 60 percent enjoyed the “full mystical experience” (according to the language of the paper), and months later most reported “moderately to greatly increased” well-being or life satisfaction.
The study was criticized vigorously by various government entities, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which footed part of the bill. Critics pointed out that it is still illegal to possess magic mushrooms in every state except Florida and New Mexico.
Dubious duet
Jackie Chan tried some impromptu live karaoke Monday night but drew less than pleasant reviews from his Hong Kong audience, according to the Ming Pao Daily News. Jumping onstage during a concert by Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jonathan Lee, the chop-socky film star demanded a duet with Lee. Chan then tried to conduct the band but stopped and restarted the music several times, the newspaper reported.
During the ensuing awkward pause, audience members started to heckle Chan, who replied with an insult, according to the report.
A spokesman for Chan, Solon So, told The Associated Press he hadn’t seen Chan since the incident and had no immediate comment.
Reality bites
A cast member on MTV’s “The Real World” was arraigned Monday on a misdemeanor assault charge after police said she bit her boyfriend during a domestic dispute.
Paula Ann Meronek, 25, allegedly bit her boyfriend, John Alyward, several times when he refused to let her into their home early Sunday morning, police said.
“I think it was an argument that led to one thing then another,” said Cromwell, Conn., Police Chief Anthony Salvatore.
Celebrity birthdays
Actor Topher Grace (“That 70s Show”) is 28; one-time Charlie’s Angel Cheryl Ladd is 55; Fleetwood Mac singer/keyboardist Christine McVie is 63; comedian, philanthropist and newly minted curmudgeon Bill Cosby is 69.
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.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Before church, a Cristal toast for Austin and friends
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Before his carefully choreographed, prayerful pew-perching Sunday morning at Word of Faith Family Worship Center in Austell, Dallas Austin engaged in some behavior, well, a bit more in line with that of a music mogul — he partied like a rock star at Pano’s & Paul’s Saturday night.
Buzz Central was brimming over with tips Monday morning about the recently pardoned 35-year-old record producer’s Buckhead bash, celebrating his freedom after being held in custody on drug charges for nearly eight weeks in Dubai.
With approximately 25 friends and family members, including A-listers “Madea’s Family Reunion” creator/actor/producer/director Tyler Perry and “Remember the Titans” actor Denzel Washington, Austin and company dined on chef Gary Donlick’s batter-fried lobster tails and wine.
And to toast his successful return home to Atlanta? A 3-liter bottle of Cristal champagne.
Oops.
Yes, the recently boycotted bubbly was the table’s drink of choice. In his defense, Austin was locked up in a sketchy foreign country in recent weeks as rapper Jay-Z labeled the fermented foreign grape juice’s makers “racist,” and called for hip-hop enthusiasts everywhere to order alternative brands of bubbly.
Naturally, Austin’s newest appendage, Atlanta attorney Joel Katz — the man, who along with an assist from client U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), natch, is widely credited with helping to secure Austin’s release — accompanied the producer to the dinner.
We’re told that fans waited outside until late into the evening to grab autographs and photos as the celebrity crowd departed. Inside the eatery, well-wishers welcomed Austin home and congratulated him on his government pardon.
There was no immediate word on whether Katz would translate the celebratory homecoming bash into billable hours.
It could also not be determined at press time Monday when exactly Austin would begin producing Hatch’s (also a musician and songwriter) next CD project.
Eat your heart out, Jessica
Now that Nick Lachey’s new solo album is a hit, he’s ready to go on the road.
Lachey, 32, will tour this fall in support of “What’s Left of Me,” which debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s album chart in May and has sold more than 500,000 copies, Jive Records announced Monday.
The 26-city tour opens Sept. 20 in Albany, N.Y., with stops including Washington, Chicago, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Indianapolis. The tour will end Oct. 26 in St. Louis.
The pop star is booked at Atlanta’s Tabernacle downtown on Oct. 20. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday via Ticketmaster.
“These shows will be performed in a series of smaller theaters, allowing intimate concerts with fans,” the record label said in a statement.
In his best-selling ballad “What’s Left of Me,” Lachey publicly presents the pain of his bitter breakup with his former “Newlyweds” MTV reality series co-star/wife/tuna fish consumer Jessica Simpson. The couple recently divorced after three years of marriage.
Keith Richards’ brain OK
On the eve of the relaunching of the Rolling Stones’ European tour, Keith Richards finally elaborated on one of the wackier celebrity Sick Bay installments we’ve chronicled this year. The grizzled guitarist says he’s now recovered completely from the head injury he suffered falling out of a coconut tree.
“I feel great. I can’t wait to get back on the stage again. Basically everything is cool,” Richards said Monday. The 62-year-old guitarist fell from a tree April 27 while vacationing in Fiji, forcing the Stones to postpone their European tour.
He later had surgery in New Zealand to relieve pressure on his brain.
“Of course they put me out like a light. I was surprised myself. … I had total comfort,” Richards said.
The Stones resume their “A Bigger Bang” tour tonight at San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy. The 21-date tour wraps up Sept. 3 in Denmark.
Asked what he’s been doing since the fall, Richards responded, “I recovered. … Six weeks, I mean not bad for a brain job.”
The Stones were in a jovial mood during the press conference, and when the inevitable question came — what the heck was Richards doing up in a coconut tree and did he find what he wanted? — everyone was ready to set the record straight.
“If you saw the tree, you’d realize the joke. Fiji is not just made of coconut trees. It was a little tree,” Richards said.
Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood were eager to illustrate the point, indicating a height less than half of Richards’.
Richards also confirmed his role in the third installment of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, saying he’d be filming for a week or so in September. Richards is to have a cameo role as the father of the flamboyant Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp.
“Now I know why [Depp] paid for all those lunches,” Richards deadpanned.
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Brett Somers (“Match Game,” “The Odd Couple”) is 82. Actor Tab Hunter is 75. Actress Sela Ward is 50. Guitarist Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi is 47. Singer Suzanne Vega is 47. Actress Lisa Rinna (“Dancing With the Stars,” “Days of Our Lives”) is 43. Actor Justin Chambers (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 36. Actor Michael Rosenbaum (“Smallville”) is 34. Rapper Lil Kim is 31.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Atlantan first black man on ‘Project Runway’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlantan Michael Knight is the first black man to be on Bravo’s hit show “Project Runway,” which returns for its third season Wednesday. “It feels really, really great, and I’ll get attention for that,” Knight told Buzz.
But the suave 28-year-old said he isn’t going to be a polarizing character, like Santino Rice on Season 2. “I’m a very drama-free person,” he said. (From a viewer’s standpoint, that’s not a good thing.)
The Montgomery native attended Georgia Southern University in Statesboro before coming to Atlanta in 2001 to pursue a fashion-related job. He decided on Atlanta instead of Los Angeles or New York because “you have to crawl before you walk,” he explained. “Atlanta is big enough to get some exposure and meet some people but not so large I’d get lost in the sauce.”
Knight said he’s worked with local R&B group Jagged Edge and Ciara on possible clothing lines and had designs in a few boutiques but hasn’t yet gotten his big break.
Slimming comic sets sights on Peachtree Road Race
Buzz could have seen Bill Maher do his liberal political shtick at the Fox Theatre on Friday night. Instead, we chose something a bit lighter — or heavier, depending on your point of view.
Ralphie May, the big dude who came in second during NBC’s first version of “Last Comic Standing” in 2003, made his first appearance headlining at the Punchline over the weekend, and he proved that he should have won. While May could do a good political rant, he catered to the bibulous late-show crowd with plenty of hilarious material that never would have made it past the censors at NBC.
May revels in political incorrectness, cracking wise about midgets, the mentally challenged (he used a different word) and African-Americans. “Locate your nearest black person,” he advised non-blacks. “You’ll be looking at them to make sure it’s OK to laugh.” The comic also attacked men who wear flip-flops. “We don’t want to see your toes,” he informed them. “They’re yellow. They look like dip-size Fritos!” (It was one of his few jokes we actually can print.)
After his second show, May told Buzz that he thinks people are way too sensitive about words, that they should care more about actions.
A Chattanooga native (“I’m about as Southern as it gets; I’m related to myself,” he cracked during his act), May also has a strong local connection: His late father, Winston May, was a longtime Roswell resident and was once president of the Georgia Poultry Federation.
May looks slimmer than when he was on “Last Comic Standing.” Since his near-victory, he’s had gastric bypass surgery, done a stint on VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club ” and married his longtime girlfriend, gorgeous Lahna Turner. He’s lost more than 200 pounds and is down to about 400. His continued weight loss has been hindered by a hernia and complications from having extra skin taken off.
But he has a plan to show off his more svelte self: He wants to run the 10K Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race next year. “I’ll be happy to just finish it,” May said.
Trivia teams vie on VH1
Claire Johnstone, a 28-year-old Atlanta media account executive, can spout all things Britney, watches “Lost” religiously and has seen every John Hughes movie from the ’80s numerous times. She was a perfect candidate for VH1’s “World Series of Pop Culture,” a game show that debuts at 10 Monday, with teams of trivia buffs competing for $250,000.
“Us Weekly is my bible,” Johnstone told Buzz.
Her team, which includes two former Atlantans, dressed in J. Crew cardigans and called themselves “I Love Jake Ryan,” named after the heartthrob in “Sixteen Candles.”
Another team of metro Atlantans is vying for the prize, too: Mason Spencer, 34; Jodi Roth, 33; and Alexandra Clark, 33. As the El Chupacabra, they play trivia regularly at Laseter’s Tavern in Vinings.
“Half the time, our conversations consist of quotes from TV shows and movies,” Spencer said. “It’s kind of sad.”
You can catch Johnstone on Wednesday’s episode and Spencer’s team Thursday.
Chappelle leftovers
Dave Chappelle, who skipped out on a third season and a $50 million contract with Comedy Central last year, left behind just enough sketches for the network to cobble together three “lost” episodes. On Sunday night, viewers could see the pressure on Chappelle. One sketch features a barber charging him $11,000 after he finds out how rich he is.
Later, a dying comrade tells him, “You didn’t have to do two more seasons, no matter how good this show is. They’re only going to say it’s not as good as last year was.”
In another sketch, Chappelle takes revenge on people now that he’s rich. At one point, he airs a Super Bowl commercial mocking a casting agent who snubbed him years earlier and leaves her office crooning Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This.”
Celebrity birthdays
Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 59. Country singer Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts is 36. Actor Adrian Grenier (“Entourage”) is 30. Singer Jessica Simpson is 26.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail buzz@ajc.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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Elton John wants to rock New York Fashion Week
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Part-time Peachtree Road resident Elton John is gearing up for a busy fall. In addition to the upcoming release of his and longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin’s new album, “The Captain and the Kid,” the long-awaited sequel to “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy,” the singer will also turn fashion curator this fall.
Not only will the pop star perform at the third Fashion Rocks concert, he’ll get to put his distinctive fashion sense to work. The event will kick off New York Fashion Week in September. Proceeds will benefit his AIDS foundation.
The concert will be Sept. 7 at Radio City Music Hall. A two-hour special will air the following evening at 9 on CBS.
Performers will include Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Bon Jovi, the Black Eyed Peas, Jamie Foxx, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Nelly Furtado, Daddy Yankee, the Pussycat Dolls, Rihanna and Scissor Sisters.
Fashion segments will be included in the show.
“Fashion and music have always been inextricably linked,” said Richard D. Beckman, president of Condé Nast Media Group and an executive producer of the show, in a statement Thursday. “People will never forget the day the Beatles walked off the plane, David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, John Travolta strutting in ‘Saturday Night Fever’ or Madonna as the ‘Material Girl.’ “
“Today, the worlds of fashion and music are merging faster than ever, with multiple artists including Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z capitalizing on this synergy by launching fashion lines of their own,” he said.
According to Billboard, John has also contributed a vocal to “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ ” the lead-off single from the Scissor Sisters’ new album, “Ta-Dah,” due out Sept. 26.
Stork report
Danielle Spencer, wife of Oscar-winning, phone-slinging actor Russell Crowe, gave birth Friday to the couple’s second child.
Tennyson Spencer Crowe was born at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, weighing about 8 pounds, said Crowe’s Australian manager, Grant Vandenberg.
“Mother, father and baby are doing extremely well,” he said.
It is the second child for the celebrity couple and a brother for 2-year-old Charlie.
Crowe — who won an Oscar for the 2000 film “Gladiator” — married Spencer in a star-studded Australian wedding in 2003.
The 42-year-old actor has said fatherhood changed his life.
“I’m very involved in being a dad,” Crowe told TV show “Entertainment Tonight” in May 2005. “My days, if they start in the morning with a cuddle from my son, are just so much more glorious than they were prior to that.”
Buzz readers will recall that Crowe made headlines last year when he was arrested for throwing a phone at a New York hotel concierge. He pleaded guilty to third-degree assault last November and was sentenced to a conditional discharge, meaning he must not get arrested for one year.
Sick bay
Journey will have a new lead singer on its summer tour with Def Leppard while Steve Augeri recovers from a chronic throat infection.
Jeff Scott Soto, who has performed with Journey guitarist Neal Schon, was to step in for Augeri starting with last night’s show in Bristow, Va.
“Steve’s been suffering with an acute throat condition since before we kicked off the tour with Def Leppard. We were hoping he’d be in well condition to handle the rigors of the road, but unfortunately it appears to be a chronic condition requiring total voice rest,” the band said in a statement Thursday.
Augeri’s doctor will monitor his condition to determine when he may be able to rejoin the tour. Alas, as it stands, chances are good that ticket-holders for the sold-out show booked for July 13 at Chastain will have to settle for the replacement to Steve Agueri’s replacement of original Journey singer Steve Perry.
Celebrity birthdays
Today: Singer Jerry Vale is 74. Singer Steve Lawrence is 71. Actor Jeffrey Tambor (“Arrested Development,” “The Larry Sanders Show”) is 62. Children’s singer Raffi is 58. Actor Kevin Bacon is 48. Country singer Toby Keith is 45. Actor Michael Weatherly (“Dark Angel”) is 38. Singer Beck is 36. Guitarist Stephen Mason of Jars of Clay is 31. Actor Milo Ventimiglia (“Gil-more Girls”) is 29. Actress Sophia Bush (“One Tree Hill”) is 24.
Sunday: Actor Richard Roundtree is 64. Actor Chris Cooper is 55. Actor Jimmy Smits is 51. Actor Tom Hanks is 50. Singer Courtney Love is 42. Actor Fred Savage is 30. Singer Dan Estrin of Hoobastank is 30.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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‘Worst Places’ author slaps Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When the advance copy of author Dave Gilmartin’s upcoming tome, “The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America,” lighted at Buzz Central on Thursday, we couldn’t resist the urge to flip through it.
Residents of College Park, Douglasville and Hinesville, however, might.
The comedic travel guide (St. Martin’s Press, $15.95) due in stores this fall is billed as “a hilarious guide to the American towns, cities, and suburbs that depress us the most.”
Alas, the three above Georgia locales (along with a nice poke in the eye to Atlanta) all make the book.
Of College Park, Gilmartin writes: “Ted Turner aside, everyone knows that Atlanta [creates a vacuum]. Lest there be any doubt, real cities don’t refer to themselves as ‘Hotlanta.’ Yet, even this pseudo McCity, preposterous as it may be, is a Shangri-La compared to its neighbor, College Park, a realm of crime, razed buildings and televangelists currently in the midst of a transition from community to runway. This is College Park: misnamed, frightening and above all, undesirable.”
The College Park Chamber of Commerce might be tempted to reprint the section from “Worst Places” for travel brochures compared with what is said about the other Georgia towns.
Of Douglasville, Gilmartin writes: “Might as well be called Hee-Haw Town, USA. Douglasville has always been a simple, slow-paced place for rednecks and hillbillies.”
Hinesville gets even worse treatment in the book. Writes Gilmartin: “Hinesville is the sort of town that everyone talks about moving away from. It’s an endless topic — escaping to wherever there are better jobs, less dust that seems to settle in your mouth or more shady trees to shield you from the sun.”
Other U.S. destinations deemed “Worst”? Salt Lake City (“What if a whole city was fashioned after a Hallmark store?”), Camden, N.J. (“Like an A-bomb went off and everyone survived”) and Carson City, Nev. (“For folks burned out on the high culture of Reno”).
Star gazing online
Blessedly, for our purposes at least, Star Jones Reynolds can’t seem to stop calling attention to her ouster last week from her co-hosting duties on the ABC daytime hen party, “The View.” On her Web site, www.starjones.com, she’s posted the address for Brian Frons, the president of ABC Daytime, along with contact info for show creator Barbara Walters and “View” executive producer Bill Geddie, citing the “several thousand visitors to starjones.com who have requested the info.”
In a letter to the Web site’s visitors, meanwhile, Jones Reynolds writes: “Dear Friends: How can I express my gratitude? Thank you all for lending me your words of encouragement while going through such a challenging few days. I must say that had it not been for all of your e-mails and letters, this past week would have been very difficult.
“It’s like Maya Angelou has shared: ‘I’ve learned that no matter what happens or how bad it seems today, life does go on and it will be a better tomorrow.’ “
Headed to the Emmys
Comic actor Leslie Jordan’s long-suffering mama over in Tennessee is finally going to get to enjoy one of the perks of her son’s chosen profession. On Thursday, the diminutive actor scored an Emmy nomination for guest actor in a comedy series for his scene-stealing turns this season on “Will & Grace.” We’re told that Jordan — who brought his sold-out one-man show “Like a Dog on Linoleum” to the 14th Street Playhouse this year and last — is ecstatic about the nomination. He’s planning to take his mother — a frequent topic in his stage work — and his twin sisters to the August ceremony.
Crow speaks out on cancer
Sheryl Crow says it was difficult to be apart from ex-fiancé Lance Armstrong after she was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.
“It was difficult, you know,” Crow tells Vanity Fair magazine in its August issue. “I know he wanted to be there.”
Crow and Armstrong announced their breakup in February. The 44-year-old rocker says the split was “devastating” for both of them. “I do think about Lance every day,” she says. “And I think about his kids every day.”
When Crow learned she had cancer, she contacted the seven-time Tour de France champion, who was on a solo road trip from Lake Tahoe, Calif., to Oregon.
“When I got that news, I can’t even describe it,” says Armstrong, who is a survivor of testicular cancer. “It was the cruelest twist. … I actually turned around to make the drive … and she said, ‘You know, I just don’t think that’s a great idea.’”
The singer, who underwent surgery in late February, denies speculation that Armstrong, who has three children from a previous marriage, didn’t want to start another family.
“It would be easy to say this is all about my wanting to get married and have kids but it was never that simple,” she says. “It was much deeper than that.”
Says the 34-year-old Armstrong: “We were at different points in our lives.”
Celebrity birthdays
Drummer Ringo Starr is 66. Actor Billy Campbell (“Once and Again”) is 47. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard (“Ally McBeal”) is 43. Bassist Ricky Kinchen of Mint Condition is 40. Actress Jorja Fox (“C.S.I.”) is 38. Actor (and son of Atlantan Jane Fonda) Troy Garity (“Barbershop”) is 33.
Contributing: News services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Fur Bus takes media for ride to hot ATL eateries
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The driven folks behind the Fur Bus sponsored a wild media tour late last week to roll out the Atlanta company’s two newest party vehicles, with scheduled pit stops at five of the city’s hottest eateries.
It was not for the easily intoxicated or the sensitive-stomached.
The Michael Jackson-blasting, fur-lined, tricked out vehicles made stops at Tin Lizzy’s in Buckhead for guacamole; Pie Bar in Midtown for pizza; Taurus, located on the cusp of Buckhead, for martinis and massages courtesy of next-door neighbor Spa Sydell; Ecco in Midtown for French wine and fried goat cheese spheres drizzled with honey; and, finally, libations on the rooftop of BED downtown.
Fur Bus co-owners Trey Humphreys, Bucky Corban and Rick Butgereit served as chaperons for the three-hour tour. Humphreys’ right hand was sporting a bandage, a result of installing the air-conditioning unit.
“I’m not sure if you know this,” Humphreys confided to Buzz, “but there are these whirling things inside an air conditioner that you should really try and avoid sticking your fingers into.”
Cracked Butgereit: “We like to say that there’s a pound of flesh in every one of these [vehicles].”
The popular buses are frequently seen around the city, conveying bachelorette parties, birthday celebrations and prom dates from venue to venue.
By the time the maiden voyage departed BED, certain individuals on board had shucked their shirts and ties and were dancing with abandon. And with the volume of camera phones being utilized, the evening was well-documented, much to the chagrin of the more telegenic participants in attendance.
Buzz took copious notes throughout.
With the direction the evening was going, naturally, we had to ask the inevitable: Has anyone ever become ill while on board?
“Twice,” Humphreys said. “And since we usually have to replace everything inside afterward, there’s a steep service charge involved.”
To avoid any incidents after the media excursion, a small squadron of Zero Drivers awaited the press types back at Tin Lizzy’s to transport everyone and their cars safely home.
Last call for lyrics
For weeks now, loyal Buzz readers have e-mailed us suggested lyrics for the upcoming Woodruff Park theme song being written by “It’s Buckhead!” belter Melanie Massell to help celebrate the downtown park’s upgraded free Wi-Fi green space.
Even budding Atlanta country singer-songwriter Mark Scott took time to contribute to the effort.
Here are a few lines he sent us: “Just north of where the Five Points meet/ There’s an urban oasis, grass ‘neath your feet/ Take a stroll and just slow down/ You’ve found the coolest spot in town/ It’s right downtown, a park called Woodruff / Once you go there you can’t get enough.”
Massell, meanwhile, has been busy working with your lyrics to create the tribute to Woodruff Park.
“It’s been difficult to select the right phrases without creating a song with a dozen verses,” she reports via e-mail.
“There are so many great ones to choose from. I will tell you that I have found the hook for the chorus — and I think you’ll find it hard to sit still when you hear it.
“I’ve been pleased to see that Atlantans are passionate, creative and sharing their personal excitement about their city. It humbles me to be the one who will compile so many peoples’ thoughts into the final creation.”
As it stands, the new Woodruff theme could be finished and unveiled during a splashy public concert there as early as August. We’ll keep you posted.
Uncoupling
The couple who first gained fame on the MTV reality series “Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica” are officially finished. Pop stars Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey are single again.
Papers filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court show the singers now “are restored to the status of single, unmarried persons.” Lachey, 32, and Simpson, 25, filed for divorce in December after three years of marriage.
At press time, it was not immediately clear who will now assume the role of explaining to Simpson the difference between chicken and tuna.
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Shirley Knight is 70. Musician Robbie Robertson is 63. Singer Huey Lewis is 56. Singer Marc Cohn is 47. Actress Edie Falco (“The Sopranos”) is 43. Rapper RZA is 37. Singer Jason Wade of Lifehouse is 26.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Bobby Brown’s hootchy-kootchy draws boos
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alpharetta’s most esteemed resident, Bobby Brown, was back with New Edition over the weekend in Houston — and here’s a shocker: His bizarre behavior inspired the crowd to boo him off the stage.
Brown, who left the old school boy band in the 1980s for a solo career, reunited with the band Sunday night for two songs at the Essence Music Festival.
As the other five members moved to slick choreography Sunday, Brown ran around the stage wildly and performed raunchy dance moves.
The men brought the crowd to its feet with their performance of the 1985 hit “Mr. Telephone Man.”
Brown then left the stage, and the remainder of the group — original members Ralph Tresvant, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe, plus Johnny Gill, who replaced Brown — performed several ballads.
Brown followed with a solo set that started with “Don’t Be Cruel,” then quickly turned to more raunchy dancing and talk about his sex life with wife Whitney Houston.
By the time he finished with “My Prerogative,” Brown was shirtless, and many in the audience were screaming for him to get off the stage.
‘General Hospital’ pair to check in for parade
Today, “General Hospital” actors Kimberly McCullough and Jason Thompson will swap their normal work environment of smoldering heat and steaminess in an air-conditioned Los Angeles soundstage for the real deal.
The current “GH” It couple are this year’s honored guests/victims riding atop a float in WSB-TV’s Salute 2 America Parade, beginning at 1 p.m. today.
When he began on the show last year, Thompson’s main acting responsibility as Dr. Patrick Drake was to be belligerent to his new TV dad, Dr. Noah Drake, played by a returning Rick Springfield.
McCullough was lured back to the show around the same time to reprise the role of Robin Scorpio, a part she originated at age 7. She was soon joined by a reunion of her TV parents, soap superspies Robert Scorpio (played by Tristan Rogers) and Anna Devane (Finola Hughes).
So what’s it like to act again, this time as an adult on equal footing with Rogers and Hughes?
“I wouldn’t call it equal footing,” McCullough cracks. “It’s given me a lot of perspective. I didn’t realize how many little tricks I had learned from them as an actor and had adapted into my work. And back then, I was pretty protected on the set as a kid. Not anymore!”
Thompson and McCullough are quietly making soap history depicting a couple who routinely hit the sheets when one of the characters is HIV-positive. “GH” writers had Robin contract the virus as a teen from a boyfriend who later died from AIDS.
“It’s a powerful thing to tackle as an actor, to show this couple dealing with this but not allowing it to be the only focus,” Thompson says.
“It’s an opportunity to show someone living with this,” McCullough says. “I get to break a stereotype.”
After “stalking” her, McCullough is being reunited all this summer with her TV mom after a five-day guest stint by Hughes in May was a hit with fans. The actresses have remained close off-camera.
In a departing airport scene with McCullough this past spring, fans caught a glimpse of the actresses’ real-life connection. Without warning during taping, Hughes traced “I love you” in McCullough’s hand, a gesture of affection she started when McCullough was a little girl.
Laughs McCullough: “I fell completely apart on camera. As soon as they said, ‘Cut,’ I yelled to Finola, ‘I hate you!’ ”
Spice-ing up the menu early
While he’s technically not debuting his menu until this fall, we’re hearing that incoming Spice executive chef Marvin Woods has been secretly slipping a few of his signature dishes onto the menu. Fans of the Turner South “Home Plate” TV chef have also frequently spotted Woods in his trademark bandanna bopping around the Spice kitchen as well.
Thus far, Spice fans have had an opportunity to sample his seafood martini, tomato-braised monkfish with wild rice summer vegetable pilaf, arugula and spinach salad with warm applewood smoked bacon dressing, roasted ribeye steak with creamed spinach and assorted wild mushrooms and Caribbean Alaskan king crab salad with reduced orange syrup and crispy plantain chips.
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Gloria Stuart (“Titanic”) is 96. Conductor Mitch Miller is 95. Pauline Phillips, aka advice columnist Abigail Van Buren, is 88. Actress Eva Marie Saint is 82. Playwright Neil Simon is 79. Singer Bill Withers is 68. Actress Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu in “It’s A Wonderful Life”) is 66. TV talk show host Geraldo Rivera is 63. Percussionist Ralph Johnson of Earth, Wind and Fire is 55. Percussionist Domingo Ortiz of Widespread Panic is 54. Singer John Waite is 51. Bassist Matt Malley of Counting Crows is 43. Singer Stephen “Ste” McNally of BBMak is 28.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Atlanta hitmaker pays debt to ‘Rock Star’ band
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When offered a major role on the CBS reality show “Rock Star: Supernova,” which debuts Wednesday, Atlantan Butch Walker squirmed. He agreed to produce the band but declined to sit as a judge. Instead, he’ll appear as a “special guest.”
“I’m not going to be an artist everyone knows as a [expletive] TV celebrity,” the always candid Walker told Buzz on Friday from Los Angeles. “I like attention, but when it’s the attention based on my music.”
Walker pays the bills with his producing work (the All-American Rejects, Avril Lavigne, Pink), but he prefers creating his own songs and performing. His latest solo effort, “The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites,” comes out July 11 and leads into a tour that starts July 18 and 19 at Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse.
“This record reflected I had a blast last year,” Walker said. “I had a great time on the road and doubled my fan base just touring. It’s a fun record, and the tour is going to be all about getting our party out of our system.”
He said he decided to help out “Rock Star” because it’s good money — and he feels he owes something to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, part of the show band, which also includes Jason Newsted of Metallica, Gilby Clarke of Guns N’ Roses and a future lead singer to be crowned on the TV show.
“I camped out for Mötley Crüe’s ‘Shout at the Devil’ tour” in 1983, Walker recalled. “I hung out with half the band members I’d be with for 15 years. It’s serendipitous. He wanted me to be involved. I said, ‘Let’s do it. I’ll pay you back.’ “
Two Georgians are among the “Supernova” contestants: Chris Pierson, 25, an Atlantan who works at the Hard Rock Cafe and is in a group called Streetlight Syndrome, and Dana Andrews, 22, who lives in the Augusta area and works in a wedding band.
You’ll be able to watch the debut of the show online today, two days before it airs on CBS, at www.rockstar.msn.com.
Plain to see
Paris Hilton, pop star? If her reggae-lite tune “Stars Go Blind” is any indication, it’s possible. Q100 spun the song 40 times last week; Star 94, 30 times. And nationally, it’s ranked No. 24 in airplay, according to Allaccess.com, after just a month.
Q100 Program Director Dylan Sprague said response has been very positive, even when people find out it’s Hilton, not someone like Gwen Stefani.
“I got to hear the album in December,” Sprague said. “It’s all very good. She got the right producers, the right songs.”
Random bits
Atlanta-based TNT’s hit show “The Closer,” starring Kyra Sedgwick, has been greenlighted for a third season of 15 episodes. It’s doing better than in Season 1, averaging about 6.6 million viewers so far. So what if Sedgwick’s Scarlett O’Hara-style accent really doesn’t sound like someone from Atlanta? …
The WB, which will merge with the UPN to become the CW on Sept. 18, announced plans to run the initial episodes of classics such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Dawson’s Creek” and “Felicity” the night before. It will also blend in original promos and a highlight reel of its 11-year history before it bows out… .
Consumer advocate and syndicated talker Dave Ramsey joined the 640/WGST-AM evening lineup last week, replacing the retiring Phil Hendrie. Also, an experiment in having former 99Xer Jimmy Baron fill in for GST afternoon talk host Kim “the Kimmer” Peterson this week got nixed Friday after Peterson and the GST sales staff balked when Baron made some jokes about the Kimmer’s listeners on his blog… .
Meanwhile, with Ramsey gone from 920/WGKA-AM, conservative talker Mike Gallagher moves to the noon-to-3 p.m. slot there. The station also recently tripled its signal power.
Bottoms up at Uptown
You can now get your drink on at Uptown Comedy Corner, which struggled for months to get a liquor license and opened in May without one. Last month, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin reversed the liquor license board’s decision to deny the club a license. The city last year had revoked the alcohol license of the Library, the bar that preceded Uptown on the Marietta Street property.
A landlord who loses a liquor license is typically punished by not being able to get a new one for a year. But co-owner Gary Abdo argued that the Library never renewed its license in 2005, so there was no license to revoke.
Started by Abdo, the original Uptown Comedy Corner in Buckhead helped build the careers of dozens of African-American comics in the 1990s, but it shut down earlier this decade under different management.
Celebrity birthdays
Country singer Johnny Lee is 60. Writer Dave Barry is 59. Talk show host Montel Williams is 50. Actor Tom Cruise is 44.
Actor Thomas Gibson (“Dharma and Greg”) is 44.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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Marching Kazoos ready for Fourth parade
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let the Rose Bowl invite precision marching bands. Independence Day is the time for slack community outfits. We’re not talking the Marching Abominables. Those folks look like a Blue Angels squadron compared to the bands that regularly saunter through Decatur on July 4. Take the anarchic Decatur Marching Kazoos, for example. “We always ask people how we sound, and they change the subject,” said leader Beth McAlister. In terms of musicianship and entertainment value, McAlister said her band ranks “at the bottom, no question.” On the other hand, members aren’t harassed by the demands of the practice schedule, because there isn’t one. They will gather at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Decatur’s First Baptist Church to prepare for the 6 p.m. drum roll, and if you have a kazoo, you’re welcome to join. “Our best number has always been ‘The Flintstones.’ It’s American as apple pie.”
Huffington signed for Decatur book bash
Arianna Huffington, founder of the news and opinion blog Huffingtonpost.com, will be the keynote speaker for the first AJC Decatur Book Festival Sept. 1-3 in downtown Decatur. The author of “Fanatics and Fools” and “How to Overthrow the Government” takes a slightly kinder and gentler tack with her forthcoming book, “On Becoming Fearless: In Love, Work, and Life.”
Organizers of the book festival, sponsored in part by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, announced the lineup at a luncheon Thursday, attended by several of the headliners: Emily Saliers, member of the Indigo Girls and co-author (with her father, theologian Don Saliers) of “A Song to Sing, A Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice”; Michael Connelly, best-selling crime fiction writer; novelist Joshilyn Jackson (“Between, Georgia”); and Melissa Fay Greene, author of the acclaimed “Praying for Sheetrock,” whose forthcoming book, “There Is No Me Without You,” is a densely reported, intensely personal account of the impact the AIDS crisis in Africa has had on children. For a full lineup of authors and events, go online at decaturbook festival.com.
A Neiss send-off
Ed Neiss, retiring after 25 years as director of the Fox Theatre, was honored Wednesday night by a host of Atlanta show-biz luminaries with a sit-down dinner on the Fox’s stage. Neiss was praised for brilliant programming at Atlanta’s rococo Midtown venue, where he kicked off his tenure with a 1981 show by the Rolling Stones. Rock promoter Alex Cooley said Neiss had stellar ability at adding obscure charges to a performer’s bill, and added modestly, “I taught him everything he knows.”
Chris Manos, founder of Theater of the Stars, said, “Ed Neiss is the nicest person who tells the worst jokes in Christendom. But every once in a while, there’s a great one in the midst of all that rubble. So those of us who like jokes stick around.” Alan Thomas, chairman of the Fox’s board, told the group that Neiss was about to complete his 25th consecutive year in the black, which must be some sort of record for American theaters. Neiss offered the following advice to his successor, Allan C. Vella: “When they [promoters] say it’s not about the money, it is about the money!”
Also, find elves
One of Dewayne Herbert’s first challenges as the new area director of marketing and public relations for Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza will be finding a new Santa Claus for Phipps, to replace the beloved Ray Bryan, who died in April. The Simon Property Group introduced Atlanta business leaders to Herbert on Wednesday during a cocktail reception at the InterContinental Buckhead’s Au Pied de Cochon. Herbert, 26, began his career with Simon in 2002 at Tippecanoe Mall in Lafayette, Ind. He also served as the manager of mall marketing for DeSoto Square in Bradenton, Fla., before moving to Atlanta. Herbert holds a bachelor’s degree in management from Purdue University and he lives in Atlanta with his wife, Brandi, and his dog Kobe.
More Star wars
Star Jones Reynolds continued to blab about her departure from morning chat show “The View” on other chat shows, including “Larry King Live” on Thursday night and the “Today” show Friday morning, but the unkindest words of all came from ABC’s president of daytime, Brian Frons, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Frons told EW that ABC made a mistake by not getting rid of Jones Reynolds sooner. “If I have one regret, it’s that I didn’t press Barbara [Walters] to get rid of her when her connection to viewers hit an all-time low in November,” said Frons. “Had we done that, there would have been no connection to the Rosie O’Donnell signing. It would have been really focused on what Star had done to herself.”
Celebrity birthdays
Today: Missy Elliott is 35; Pamela Anderson is 39; Carl Lewis is 45; Dan Aykroyd is 54; Deborah Harry is 61; Twyla Tharp is 65.
Sunday: Lindsay Lohan is 20; Jose Canseco is 42; Jerry Hall is 50; Richard Petty is 69.
Contributing: Marylin Johnson, Howard Pousner, Teresa Weaver and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.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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