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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2006 > October
October 2006
Hall of Fame nod puts R.E.M. back in spotlight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athens’ own R.E.M. has made the list of nominees for the 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the band’s very first year of eligibility. In order to be nominated, a debut single or album must have been released at least 25 years ago. “We looked at the calendar and, sure enough, it’s been 25 years,” R.E.M. manager Bertis Downs told Buzz Monday from his Athens office. In 1981, the band released its very first single, “Radio Free Europe,” with the B-side, “Sitting Still,” as a single on the Atlanta independent label, Hib-Tone. Other previous nominees getting another crack at being inducted this year include rap and hip-hop pioneers Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Patti Smith and the Stooges. The Dave Clark Five, Chic, the Ronettes, Joe Tex and Van Halen are also among the nominees. Five of the nine nominated acts will be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. The finalists will be chosen by more than 500 voters. R.E.M.’s inclusion on the ballot may actually help Smith, who for various reasons has thus far been denied inclusion in the elite club. “The guys are massive fans of Patti’s,” Downs said. “[R.E.M. frontman] Michael [Stipe] has gone on record saying that her album ‘Horses’ is one of the reasons he’s a writer and a singer.” If both acts make it into the 2007 class, Downs predicted “it could result in one of those classic jam sessions that the Hall of Fame ceremony is known for. But the guys are really just pleased to be considered.” Meanwhile, a rare vinyl copy of the band’s debut Hib-Tone “Radio Free Europe” single on eBay Monday had an opening bid of $75. But we found the single and its B-side were a bit cheaper (and technologically more accessible via iPod) on the band’s double disc set, “And I Feel Fine: The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987,” released this fall.
Whitney steps out Alpharetta home owner Whitney Houston re-emerged publicly over the weekend with longtime mentor Clive Davis. Houston, 43, was escorted to a benefit for juvenile diabetes research in Beverly Hills, Calif., by Davis, her record producer, People magazine reported Monday on its Web site. “I feel great,” Houston was quoted as saying, while Davis, one of Saturday evening’s honorees, told People: “We’re going to make a killer album.” A blond Houston, wearing a black gown and diamond earrings, sat at the main table for the 17th Carousel of Hope Ball with Halle Berry and Berry’s boyfriend, model Gabriel Aubry, People said. “American Idol” runner-up Katharine McPhee sang Houston’s “I Have Nothing” at the event. Houston filed divorce papers in Orange County Superior Court two weeks ago, a month after filing for legal separation from Bobby Brown.
Dooley’s ‘horror story’ At Monday’s 12th annual Pink Ribbons fashion show and luncheon, Barbara Dooley, wife of former University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, told her “horror story” — her diagnosis and subsequent treatment for breast cancer. “The cancer was found through a regular checkup,” Dooley told Buzz. “And the emotions you go through are incredible. But you tell yourself to think positive thoughts. “But then I found out that there are times when you can scream and holler and it’s OK.” Dooley, chic in a pink-and-black suit, finished her treatment in July, and her hair is growing back “very curly.” Vince, Barbara said, was the stabilizing force in the family. “He was so kind through it all that I told him, ‘If I had known how sweet you are, I would have had cancer years ago!’ ” Brenda Wood of WXIA-TV emceed Pink Ribbons, which was founded by Dr. Sheldon M. Lincenberg, head of Georgia Plastic Surgery. The 555 guests at the Ritz Carlton Buckhead raised about $80,000 for the Georgia Breast Cancer Coalition Fund and Bosom Buddies of Georgia. A highlight of the event was the Parisian fashion show with guest designer Kay Unger. Ten breast cancer survivors modeled chic after-five looks. One model survivor, Susan Murphy of Grayson, said her way to cope is to “live well, laugh often and love much.”
Sick bay Former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh has revealed that he has prostate cancer. “Since we’ve caught it very early, and it’s small and slow-growing, I fully expect to have a rapid and complete recovery,” Lesh, 66, says in a statement on his Web site. He plans to have surgery in early December. Lesh says he’s been monitored by “a crack team of doctors” since his 1998 liver transplant. One doctor noticed recently that he had elevated levels of prostate specific antigens (PSA), proteins produced by cells of the prostate gland. High PSA levels can indicate prostate cancer. A biopsy confirmed the diagnosis, Lesh said.
Celebrity birthdays CBS anchorman Dan Rather is 75. Actress Sally Kirkland is 62. Actress Deidre Hall (“Days of Our Lives”) is 58. NBC anchorwoman Jane Pauley is 56. Director Peter Jackson (“Lord of the Rings”) is 45. Drummer Larry Mullen of U2 is 45. Actor Dermot Mulroney is 43. Actor Rob Schneider is 42. Actor Eddie Kaye Thomas (“American Pie”) is 26. Contributing: 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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It’s over between the two Regular Guys (one says)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Eric Von Haessler, in the wake of the restroom stunt that led to his firing from 96rock last week, said that he and “Regular Guys” radio co-host Larry Wachs are unlikely to pair up again.
Sure, he said the same thing in 2004, after their first firing from 96rock over an indecency snafu. They got back together in 2005. “I was talked into it,” Von Haessler told Buzz last week. “I sort of knew I needed to move on.”
Trouble started for him and Wachs after Wachs taped a conversation between two fellow radio hosts at Viva 105.7, another station owned by Clear Channel, on Oct. 9 in a company restroom. They aired the conversation on the radio Oct. 10, leading the targets — Juan “Yogi” Tapia and Jose “Panda” Carias — to file a lawsuit against Clear Channel, Wachs and Von Haessler, citing invasion of privacy and negligent hiring.
Von Haessler was taken off the lawsuit last Thursday, according to Jamie Hernan, lawyer for Tapia and Carias. Though Von Haessler said that saves him on legal costs, “it’s still a stupid lawsuit.” And he’s still out of a job.
Because Clear Channel boss Chuck Deskins has asked employees not to discuss the case, Tapia and Carias declined to comment. But in a news release, the pair said they’ve been threatened in nasty e-mails and calls from irate “Regular Guys” fans and have hired bodyguards to protect themselves.
At the same time, they refuse to drop the lawsuit unless Clear Channel promises not to hire the “Regular Guys” again and not to retaliate against Tapia and Carias, who are under contract with Viva until 2009, Hernan said.
Von Haessler said he thinks Tapia and Carias are not driven purely by privacy issues or because the “Regular Guys” would make fun of Mexicans and illegal immigrants. “They are getting as much as they can out of their careers on the grave of the Regular Guys,” he said.
Clear Channel, which owns six radio signals in Atlanta, has had major financial and ratings problems locally, fueling rumors that some may change formats as early as today.
‘Rocky’ road to semi-stardom
There’s no easy explanation as to why a 31-year-old low-budget movie about transsexual aliens inspires a theater troupe to re-enact the story in sync with the film every week, word for word, song by song, grope by grope. But that’s what Lips Down on Dixie does with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Plaza Theatre on Ponce de Leon Avenue. Buzz checked out the Halloween edition Friday night.
But as costume maker and hostess Candace Weslosky noted, Halloween didn’t change the show, which drew a typical audience of about 100 people, about half of them “virgins” who have never seen it live. “It’s Halloween every week for us,” she told Buzz. The film is ” ‘Battlefield Earth’ bad,” she told the crowd, yet “we do this purely because we have no life.”
The troupe (www.lipsdownondixie.com), which relies on volunteers and donations, has dined on Meat Loaf (as in the movie), mocked Brad and Janet and danced “The Time Warp” again and again for six years at the Plaza. But they’ve had to restrict audience props. No throwing toast, for instance. “When toast gets wet and gets stuck in a place the cleaning people miss, it eventually smells like vomit,” Weslosky explained.
Weslosky, 23 and part of the show since 2000, wasn’t even alive when the movie first aired. But her loyalty paid off. She found love in the midst of such inanity and is now engaged to Chris Miller, who plays Brad.
Road to ‘Hell’s Kitchen’
If you’re a culinary Casanova and dream about getting verbally roasted by Gordon Ramsay on Fox’s summer hit “Hell’s Kitchen,” auditions will be held at the Flying Biscuit in Candler Park from 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 2 and at Viking Culinary Art Center, at 1745 Peachtree St., from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 3. (Flying Biscuit baker Jeff Dewberry appeared in Season One in 2005.)
But if you’d rather just watch a reality show live, ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” is going on tour and will hit the Gwinnett Arena on Jan. 26, with contestants actor Joey Lawrence, Lisa Renna, her hubby Harry Hamlin, pop singer Willa Ford, Season Two winner Drew Lachey and singer Joey McIntyre. Tix go on sale Nov. 4.
If carols don’t satisfy you …
Last year, 99X radio held its Christmas concerts over two days at the Tabernacle, with headliners O.A.R. and Our Lady Peace. The names and venue are bigger for the Dec. 6 “Mistle Toe Jam,” starring the Killers, Jet, AFI and OK Go, at Philips Arena. Tickets range from $27 to $49 and go on sale Nov. 4.
Celebrity birthdays
Singer Grace Slick is 67. Actor Henry Winkler is 61. Actor Harry Hamlin is 55. Actor Kevin Pollak is 49. Singer-guitarist Gavin Rossdale of Bush is 39.
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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With Paula Deen, ritzy lunch is a riot
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s a distinct advantage to lunching with a genuine Food Network celebrity at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead Dining Room. On Friday, Paula Deen’s presence at our table was likely the only reason we weren’t tossed out of the tony eatery.
The Savannah-based host of “Paula’s Home Cooking” and “Paula’s Party,” along with her hilarious husband, Michael Groover, eagerly enabled us to laugh to the point of tears and to trade tastes off each other’s plates.
Deen is in town this weekend to promote her fifth book, “Paula Deen Celebrates!” (Simon & Schuster, $26). The cookbook will debut on The New York Times Bestseller List at No. 4 this week.
“Can you believe that?” she whispered.
The Borders store across the street could.
The site of her Friday night signing had 1,300 copies of “Celebrates!” stacked and ready to go.
Groover told us that last week Deen’s book signing in a South Carolina Wal-Mart resulted in police cars being dispatched.
“Everybody was paying attention to Paula, and shoplifters were stealing things!” Groover said as he and Deen cackled. “Thank goodness the security folks were looking at their cameras.”
Simply because it was there on the menu, we had to order the $14.50 hot dog, dressed with fried tobacco onions, smoked chipotle sour cream and apple coleslaw. As we traded bites (Deen ordered the Asian-themed buffet), the TV cook dug into the dog and immediately scrunched up her nose. She put her mouth up to our ear and said, “That slaw needs more mayo. It’s a little dry. The hot dog tastes deeliiiicious, but it’s a little different.” She paused a moment and added: “I don’t think there’s any snouts or toenails in it. They probably used too much meat. It’s a little high-falutin’. “
Deen says her racy new Food Network show, “Paula’s Party,” has just been renewed for a second season. And there’s a reason the show airs at 10 p.m. Fridays. So far, she’s made an engaged couple in her studio audience breakfast in bed — and then climbed in with them. She’s also stuck her tongue into a running chocolate fountain.
“I’m a little bawdy,” she allowed. “I guess I’m just my father’s daughter. But it’s all done with a pure heart. Until my dying day, I’ll believe that God has a sense of humor and enjoys hearing us all laugh.”
The posh Ritz patrons dining around us, however, had other thoughts on the matter. Finally, she dabbed at her tear-filled blue eyes with her napkin, and playfully scolded: “Y’all, we’d better quit it or they’re gonna throw us out of here!”
Deen will sign books at 1 p.m. today at the Wal-Mart in Loganville and at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Costco in Buford.
An edible evening
Deen would have been right at home at the annual Dining by Design dinner Thursday night at Mason Murer Fine Art gallery in Midtown. The table sponsored by the Atlanta catering, event planning and design firm A Legendary Event was good enough to lick. Designer Steve Walsh had fashioned the entire conference tabletop, place mats and the swinging 1960s-inspired decor all out of chocolate. More than 300 pounds of the stuff was fashionably swirled into the table (in order to prevent a Friday morning backup at the city’s dry cleaners, jackets were gingerly removed) while 140 pounds of M&Ms adorned the table’s centerpiece.
“There was actually a lot of experimentation,” Walsh told us. “We had to get the consistency just right and create a formula that wouldn’t run or melt all over everyone.”
When we popped over to table helmed by Liz Lapidus, meanwhile, we half-expected to see the Atlanta publicist clock someone with a can of cleanser. After all, the table designed by Retro Modern’s Scott Reilly contained roses and wire hangers as the camp classic Joan Crawford bio pic “Mommie Dearest” played on the wall beside diners. When Faye Dunaway screeched on screen, “Christina, bring me the ax!” just before she hacked down her rose garden, Lapidus and company celebrated by placing roses in their teeth.
New Year’s Eve date
Dunwoody High School grad Ryan Seacrest will once again partner with his idol, Dick Clark, this New Year’s Eve. As they did last year, Seacrest and Clark will co-host the annual “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.”
The former “American Bandstand” host, 76, will join the “American Idol” host and musical guest Christina Aguilera to ring in 2007 before a national TV audience of millions. Clark missed the show two years ago when he suffered a stroke but returned to the holiday staple last New Year’s Eve.
Seacrest, the 31-year-old host of “American Idol,” handled co-hosting duties last year and is expected to eventually succeed Clark as the show’s host.
Clark originated the New Year’s Eve program back in 1972.
Celebrity birthdays
Today: Actress Joan Plowright is 77. Country musician Charlie Daniels is 70. Actress Jami Gertz is 41. Actor-comedian Andy Richter is 40. Actress Julia Roberts is 39. Country singer Brad Paisley is 34. Actor Joaquin Phoenix is 32. Singer Justin Guarini (“American Idol”) is 28.
Sunday: Actor Richard Dreyfuss is 59. Actress Kate Jackson is 58. Actress Winona Ryder is 35. Actress Gabrielle Union is 33.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Dallas Austin’s latest may put you to sleep
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We got an advance listen to Atlanta record producer Dallas Austin’s latest release Thursday.
We were immediately inclined to nod off.
But that’s precisely the idea behind “Blue,” a disc of soul-soothing compositions Austin has created as a benefit project for his Dallas Austin Foundation charity. The album, created exclusively for Blue Med Spa with selections titled “Bliss,” “Breeze,” “Sangria” and “Tranquility,” will be officially unveiled tonight at a release party at the Midtown spa.
Taking a moment from ringing up a spa gift certificate for Spice chef Marvin Woods, Blue Med Spa owner John Stupka told us: “The CD displays a different side of Dallas, a Zen type of a feel. It’s for chilling out, sitting by the pool or meditating.”
Tonight’s intimate fund-raiser, chaired by Stupka, Atlanta Falcons player Warrick Dunn and Mary Catherine Sneed, is open to only 100 guests. DAF helps to provide recording studio facilities in public schools for musically minded students. At press time Thursday, Stupka said only a handful of tickets remained.
Tickets are $175 per person or $300 a couple. The “Blue” CD is $15. Call for info: 404-357-1036.
A big Saturday
Two performers hitting Atlanta stages Saturday night have highly individual takes on fashion. R&B singer-producer Sleepy Brown says he gets his young Isaac Hayes look from his father — Jimmy Brown of the late ’70s Atlanta funk group Brick (“Dazz”). But literally, he gets it from the Little Five Points stores Envy and Junkman’s Daughter.
“My dad has always been the coolest to me,” said Brown, who is performing at the new Underground Atlanta nightspot, Sugar Hill. “And now I know exactly where to get my favorite old-man pants — just like his!”
As for N’Dea Davenport of the British soul band the Brand New Heavies, the former Clark Atlanta University student can’t point to such an immediate influence on her style.
“I try to stay out of communication with the status quo,” she explained prior to her group’s show at Center Stage in Midtown. “No TV. No movies. No theater. I go through phases of complete oblivion. People tell me about television shows, and I’m like, ‘I’ve never seen “Entourage.” Never seen “Desperate Housewives.” Never an episode.’
“I try to maintain a certain human innocence. I approach life in a basic way — as though I live in a rain forest. I guess I just don’t want to be influenced by what you’re supposed to be doing, what you’re supposed to be listening to, or what you’re supposed to be wearing.”
Overscene
Oscar-winning actress (and former Atlantan) Halle Berry and her model-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, sitting in first class aboard a Delta flight Thursday from Los Angeles to Atlanta. Buzz tipster and Beverly Hills financial services rep Frank Maiorano was seated near the couple. “Halle is simply stunning,” Maiorano told us. According to Maiorano, the beautiful couple happily ate the first class meal of ravioli, chicken, salad and chocolate cake.
Celebrity docket
For her latest alleged assault, catwalk stalker Naomi Campbell opted to put away her jewel-encrusted BlackBerry and went old school. UK media sources are reporting the model lunged at and used her fingernails to scratch up the face of a drug counselor Wednesday. Apparently, drug tests were requested as the model attempted to renew her U.S. work visa. Campbell was spotted returning to a London police station Thursday.
Metropolitan police had said Wednesday that officers were called to an address in central London in the afternoon and arrested a 36-year-old woman. She was released on bail.
Police declined Thursday to say whether Campbell, 36, was involved. But in response to inquiries about her, they confirmed that “a 36-year-old woman” had returned to a police station Thursday morning and was released on bail until an undisclosed date in December.
The force has a policy of not naming people who have been arrested unless they are charged with a crime.
A statement from the Outside Organization, which represents Campbell, said: “We believe there has been a misunderstanding. Once police have investigated, we are sure this will be resolved satisfactorily.”
Campbell admitted in 2000 that she attacked her personal assistant, Georgina Galanis. The model paid an undisclosed sum to Galanis and was not convicted of a crime.
Charges are still pending against the model in New York, where she allegedly attempted to brain another assistant with a blinged-out BlackBerry device.
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Ruby Dee is 82. Actor-comedian John Cleese is 67. Country singer Lee Greenwood is 64. Author Fran Lebowitz is 56. Singer Simon LeBon of Duran Duran is 48. Singer Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver is 39. Singer Kelly Osbourne is 22.
Contributing: Sonia Murray and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Dre takes in a movie, talks about his own
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OutKast’s André 3000 and CNN’s Thomas Roberts were among those in the audience Tuesday night as Atlantans got their first look at “Running With Scissors,” the twisted comedy-drama based on Augusten Burroughs’ best-selling memoir.
The jampacked screening at Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 16 (some Burroughs fans had to be turned away) featured an end credit Q&A with the writer, who turned up in a tan suede fringed jacket.
Since Dre was conveniently seated directly behind us, we chatted briefly with him about the eventual DVD release of the recent OutKast Prohibition-period musical “Idlewild.” He told us fans can look forward to an added musical performance of “Clock” that didn’t make it into the theatrical release, as well as the possibility of commentary from Big Boi and director Bryan Barber.
The multimedia mogul also told us that he was well-pleased with last week’s packed house at the Fox Theatre for the premiere screening of his upcoming Cartoon Network ‘toon “Class of 3000.” We remarked that some parents are probably still thanking him for handing out harmonicas to the small fry in attendance. Dre slid us a smile and replied, “There was a reason we gave them out as the kids were leaving.”
The preview audience enthusiastically applauded at the conclusion of the razor-sharp “Scissors” (co-stars Annette Bening and Jill Clayburgh should just go ahead and begin shopping for Oscar night frocks), but Burroughs proved a dicier character in person.
The memoirist, who wrote “Dry” as a follow-up to “Scissors,” told the audience that he is now planning a “third memoir to close out the trilogy,” based on his deceased father, who recently died of cirrhosis of the liver.
“It’s going to be my dead daddy book,” he told the audience. “I wanted to find out, ‘Is he the person I think he is?’ ” Burroughs then happily disclosed that while he hasn’t actually begun writing the tome, it’s already been optioned for a film.
The statement caused a crestfallen Burroughs reader sitting next to us to whisper, “I think I just lost a hero.”
“Running With Scissors” officially opens here Friday.
A ‘Dining’ preview
Guess who’s coming to dinner? New York DJ Lady Bunny and a sold-out crowd for Elle Decor’s Dining by Design, a $350-a-plate dinner tonight at the Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery.
The annual fund-raiser for the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS always features a banquet of fantasy tabletops created by local designers that mere mortals would be hard-pressed to duplicate at home. This year’s lineup doesn’t disappoint, even if many of the sponsors were still installing their creations when spectators started streaming in Wednesday for the first viewing.
While all the tables were head-turners, one of the standouts was the setting Michael Knight, of “Project Runway” fame, designed for Macy’s. The Atlanta designer created a breakfast-in-bed theme using merchandise from the retail chain’s Hotel Collection in nontraditional ways. Who else would think of covering chairs in white bathrobes or using toothbrush accessories to hold napkins or, in this case, face towels? The table linens were comforters, and the place mats were really pillow shams. All this from a man who rarely sets a fancy table in his own home.
“I don’t even use it,” Knight says. “I’m an in-front-of-the-TV-with-dinner type guy.”
The lavish displays will be open for public sneak peeks today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Mason Murer, 199 Armour Drive N.E. Admission: $10.
Oprah salutes Madonna
On Wednesday’s edition of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Madonna said the 13-month-old boy she plans to adopt from the African country of Malawi is healthy and thriving in her London home.
The child, David Banda, was taken to London last week after Malawi’s High Court granted Madonna and her husband, director Guy Ritchie, an interim adoption order.
The Material Mom said David was healthy, despite having overcome malaria and tuberculosis. The interview was taped Tuesday via satellite from London.
“David is amazing,” the 48-year-old pop star said. “What really surprises me is how great my children are with him and how he’s transitioned so easily from living in Africa in an orphanage to living in our house.”
In an interview posted Tuesday on Time magazine’s Web site, David’s father, Yohane Banda, said he will not contest the adoption.
“I don’t want my child, who is already gone, to come back,” he said. “I will be killing his future if I accept that.”
Winfrey said,”I have to say, Madonna, that’s a brave thing that you did. This audience, I know, applauds you for it.”
Madonna has two other children — daughter Lourdes, 9, and son Rocco, 6.
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Shelley Morrison (“Will & Grace”) is 70. “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak is 60. Guitarist Keith Strickland of the B-52’s is 53. Country singer Keith Urban is 39. Actor Jon Heder (“Napoleon Dynamite”) is 29.
Contributing: Alma Hill 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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Nikolai’s Roof lines up top chefs for pricey benefit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You can’t accuse Nikolai’s Roof of procrastination. The four-star eatery atop the Hilton Atlanta downtown threw a lavish cocktail party Monday night to announce its Food & Wine Lovers Weekend, set for Feb. 2-4. The inaugural event will combine cooking classes, wine tastings and panel discussions with winemakers, sommeliers and chefs from all over the world. The hotel is offering exclusive weekend packages (with hotel room and Nikolai’s Roof dinners included) for $1,200 per couple (or $995 if you book before Nov. 30). The weekend serves as a benefit for the American Heart Association.
One of the weekend’s participants, Christophe Eme, the chef/owner of Ortolan in Los Angeles, flew in for the gathering. Eme was named one of America’s best new chefs in 2005 by Food & Wine magazine.
As a result of the honor, the very self-deprecating French chef told us: “I got a very large ego. That is why they are going to install double doors here for the February event. I am extremely grateful my English is really, really bad, and I am naturally very shy.”
Eme and Belgian-born Nikolai’s Roof chef Olivier de Busschere proved to be so shy as they effortlessly charmed the caviar- and vodka-sampling females in the room that the event could already be sold out.
A series of interactive wine and food experiences leading up to the February event begins Saturday with a series of cooking classes and wine tastings. Call 404-221-6816 for details or go to www.nikolaisroof.com.
And since it’s a benefit for the heart association, we attempted to overlook the fact that Nikolai’s Roof servers tried to ply us with delectable samples of cholesterol-choked foie gras all evening.
Paula dazzles Regis and Kelly
Food Network dynamo Paula Deen didn’t allow a little fashion faux pas to interfere with her “Live With Regis and Kelly” cooking demo with curmudgeon Regis Philbin on Tuesday. When she arrived on the morning show, she was wearing the very same orange shirt she’s sporting on the cover of her latest cookbook, “Paula Deen Celebrates!” Recognizing the style slip, Deen told Philbin: “I just got so upset back there in the green room!” The pair then attempted to whip up a batch of Deen’s oven caramel popcorn for trick-or-treaters. After she chastised her assistant for skimping on the ingredients (“Put in all of that butter, Regis!”), the talk show vet threatened to put his greasy hands on the Savannah restaurateur. “Don’t mess up my one and only orange shirt now,” Deen told Regis. Kelly Ripa showed up in the faux kitchen at the end of the segment as Deen pulled a finished tray out of a cold oven. “It’s hard as a rock,” Deen complained, tapping the congealed corn. Eyeing Deen’s retina-damaging wedding ring, Ripa cracked: “Why don’t you hit it with your diamond ring, Paula!”
The Lady and Sons owner brings her book tour here with appearances at Borders in Buckhead (7 p.m. Friday), Wal-Mart in Loganville (noon Saturday) and Costco in Buford (1 p.m. Sunday).
And FYI: Our all-time favorite lunch companion has agreed to once again have a meal with us while she’s in town. On the off chance Miss Paula says something colorful, we’ll be sure to report on it.
Overscene
Kristin Cavallari, star of the MTV reality show “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County,” dining on the patio at the InterContinental hotel in Buckhead. The backstabbing bad girl is a snooty sorority girl in the remake of “Revenge of the Nerds,” filming around town. On Sunday, Cavallari was also spotted at the Falcons-Steelers game. Alas, we attempted to obtain all the details Tuesday, but oddly, the female Buzz reader who was in the ladies room stall next to Cavallari declined to dish on the record.
TomKat: Making it official
Those “FreeKatie.com” folks better start working overtime. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have set the date. The Hollywood couple/chum for paparazzi will marry on Nov. 18 in Italy, Cruise’s representative, Arnold Robinson, confirmed Tuesday. Holmes will wear a dress designed by Giorgio Armani.
Holmes, 27, and Cruise, 44, became engaged in June 2005. Their daughter, Suri, was born April 18. She made her debut on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine last month. The photo showed Suri peeking out of a jacket worn by Cruise, with Holmes looking on.
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Marion Ross is 78. Singer Speech (Arrested Development) is 38. Actor Adam Goldberg (“Saving Private Ryan”) is 36. Country singer Chely Wright is 36. Singer Ciara is 21.
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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Vick’s onfield heroics fashionable with GQ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As it turns out, that cuticle-chewing win over the Steelers on Sunday at the Georgia Dome wasn’t Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick’s only impressive feat this week. Vick, who racked up a career-high four touchdown passes Sunday, also has been named one of the “16 Coolest Sports Heroes of All Time” in the November issue of GQ magazine.
The portfolio of legendary sports figures also spotlights the accomplishments of Joe Namath, Willie Mays, Magic Johnson and John McEnroe.
Of Vick, GQ scribe Raha Naddaf writes: “Comparing Michael Vick with any other player gets you nowhere. First off, he’s a quarterback, and quarterbacks are not supposed to run the 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds. Second, he’s a quarterback, and quarterbacks are not supposed to be the most electrifying, most elusive, most jaw-dropping players on the field at any time.”
Of Vick’s ultimate goal, GQ quotes him as saying: “To get to the Super Bowl, man. It’s time for the Falcons to go where they need to go and have fun doing it along the way.”
Since there wasn’t exactly a small army of Falcons fans clustered around the Dome’s ticket window demanding a refund Sunday, we’d surmise that Vick could be on target to achieving that goal.
The November issue of GQ hits newsstands Tuesday.
Rockers get their due
Atlanta rockers the Selmanaires got a nice hit of national recognition Monday when Idolator, Gawker’s music-centric sister Web site, gave the band a major shoutout and posted MP3s of several of the trio’s songs. Added Idolator editors: “A few months ago, we picked up the Selmanaires’ debut album, ‘Here Come the Selmanaires’ at Atlanta’s thankfully-still-in-existence Criminal Records; ever since, it’s become one of those records that pops up on shuffle every few days, prompting us to ask, “Whosa what’s this again? The Salamanders? The Salmonella?’ After our initial band-name confusion, though, we focus on the tunes, which are sorta tense, sorta garage-rock, sorta psychedelic. We like.”
Local fans are less confused by the band’s name (the act derives its name from Selman Street in Reynoldstown where twin brothers Herb and Jason Harris first rehearsed with member Tommy Chung in a house back in 2000). The Selmanaires will next gig at the EARL in East Atlanta on Nov. 24.
Soliciting Grammy votes
We also received some encouraging news from Atlanta filmmaker Clay Walker on Monday. It seems that he and veteran Atlanta jazz performer Freddy Cole are on the long list of potential 2007 Grammy Awards nominees. Ballots that were just mailed to industry voters will help determine who will be nominated.
Cole is under consideration for album of the year, best jazz vocalist and recording of the year for his sublime studio recording, “Because of You.” Walker is a potential nominee in the best long form video category for his documentary, “The Cole Nobody Knows.”
E-mailed Walker: “We need to ask anyone who might be a voting member or knows someone who is to please vote for our projects.” Voting continues through the middle of next week. If Cole scores the nomination, it could make an impressive birthday gift. The singer and pianist turned 75 last week.
Oprah, Madge, baby talk
Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is scheduled to use her nationally televised confession booth Tuesday to tape an interview with Madonna, in which the cone bra-favoring pop singer will discuss her increasingly controversial adoption of a 13-month-old boy from the African country of Malawi.
The interview is scheduled to air Wednesday.
Madonna traveled to Malawi on Oct. 4 with her husband, Guy Ritchie. They spent eight days visiting orphanages she is funding through her charity.
The child, David Banda, was taken to London last week after Malawi’s High Court granted Madonna and Ritchie an interim adoption order.
The toddler’s father, Yohane Banda, said Sunday he didn’t realize he was signing away custody of his motherless son “for good.”
It could not be confirmed at press time whether Oprah would brandish a sword in a Solomon-like attempt to satisfy all.
Celebrity docket
Rapper Foxy Brown could be thrown in jail Tuesday if she misses her sentencing in New York. Brown failed to appear in New York Criminal Court on Monday. Her attorney, Frank Rothman, said Brown was recovering at home from a dental procedure.
“I don’t take this kindly,” Judge Melissa C. Jackson said. “I don’t believe she is incapable of being here.”
The judge said that if Brown failed to show up, a plea deal sparing her jail time would be voided, and she would be sentenced to a year behind bars.
As Buzz readers will recall, Brown pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor assault charges stemming from a fight with salon workers over a manicure. In the memorable nail salon snit, Brown kicked one employee and smacked a second in the face in 2004 in an argument over payment for her manicure.
The deal would require Brown to serve three years’ probation and take anger management classes.
Celebrity birthdays
Actor-producer David Nelson (“The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”) is 70. Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman is 70. Actor F. Murray Abraham is 67. Actor Kevin Kline is 59. Actor B.D. Wong is 44. Singer Monica 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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Save the world or hawk a documentary?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fictional character Jack Bauer of “24” fame would be perplexed by the behavior of the actor who plays him, Kiefer Sutherland.
He’d find Sutherland’s desire to promote a band on his music label — Rocco DeLuca and the Burden — inconsequential compared with, oh, saving America from terrorists and nuclear bombs.
Bauer would find it odd that Sutherland would fly into Atlanta in the middle of filming the sixth season of “24” to promote a documentary, “I Trust You to Kill Me,” at the Lefont Plaza Theater. In it, Sutherland spends two weeks in Europe as tour manager for the band. (The actor chose Atlanta as one of four cities to promote the movie because 99X radio has given the band so much airplay.)
Bauer would find Sutherland’s lack of organizational skills and incessant carousing irritating. In the film, which is as much about Sutherland as the band, the self-deprecating actor loses his cellphone and, during one drunken escapade, goofily jumps head first into a Christmas tree.
Bauer would probably relate more to the intense, laconic lead singer DeLuca. In the film and at a crowded Smith’s Olde Bar appearance Saturday night, DeLuca resembled an angrier version of Dave Matthews but wails like Robert Plant and embodies the internal angst of the late Jeff Buckley.
Bauer and Sutherland do have one thing in common, though: Bauer is rarely seen eating anything, and Sutherland, when offered exotic vittles in Iceland, explained,
“I don’t like food.”
To thine own groove be true
Speaking of A-listers, Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx came to town for his annual Laffapalooza comedy fest at Center Stage in Midtown. Before the Saturday show, he graciously answered questions for a rapt audience of college students interested in the music business.
Foxx’s best advice: To do what you want to do, you often have to do something for the suits. “You do eight songs for them, four for you,” he said. “Do one movie for them, two for yourself. And sometimes what you do works, like ‘Ray.’ Nobody thought it would do what it did.”
He also gave props to Atlanta’s hip-hop sound: “What’s great about Jermaine Dupri and the movement is you made it your own. You took over. At one point it was East Coast, West Coast. Now everyone is coming here to get hits.”
To solidify that point, Atlanta sensation T.I. made a surprise appearance at Laffapalooza that night to sing a few songs.
Diss your digs and maybe win
Former Grant Park resident Ty Pennington and ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” are looking for Georgia residents for Season Four.
The top 20 show, as fans already know, seeks inspirational stories that will cause millions to tear up every Sunday night. Interested families should e-mail a brief synopsis of their story, along with family members’ names and what’s wrong with their house, to Veronica at castinggeorgia@yahoo.com by Wednesday. Go to abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/casting.html for more info.
Party time with Tom Joyner
Tom Joyner, the country’s most popular black morning radio host, made his annual trip to the Atlanta Civic Center on Friday for his live “Sky Show,” heard locally on Kiss 104.1. Among his guests: silky crooner Jeffrey Osborne, Kenny Lattimore, Chanté Moore and former Atlanta Hawk Dominique Wilkins.
During the show, Joyner name-dropped virtually every major black R&B or hip-hop artist who lives in town, from Usher to Ludacris, and one white dude: Elton John. And corporation representatives traipsed onstage with oversized checks to give out $90,000 in scholarships for Joyner’s foundation.
But Joyner never mentioned that his biggest sponsor, Southwest Airlines, doesn’t serve Atlanta. The audience winners of free Southwest tickets will have to pull a Clark Howard and drive 140 miles to Birmingham to use them.
Joyner gears these shows as much for the thousands who come to party early in the morning as for his radio audience. The old-school dance contest, for example, translated poorly on the air but got the audience hopping. Even during commercial breaks, Joyner tirelessly worked the crowd. Offering free T-shirts to all active military members, he laughed when an elderly man came to the stage. “Which war did you serve?” Joyner cracked. “The Civil War?”
Country music blues
Country music star Keith Urban, who battled a cocaine addiction in the 1990s, has checked himself into rehab for alcohol abuse, according to a statement he released Friday. Urban, who recently married actress Nicole Kidman, will likely cancel upcoming promotional appearances for his latest CD, “Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing.” … Meanwhile, another country singer’s personal life is also going south. Sara Evans’ estranged husband, Craig Schelske, alleges that his wife had an affair, according to court papers filed Friday in Franklin, Tenn. He also claims she had a nervous breakdown in 2005. In her filing, she alleges that he had an affair with the nanny.
Celebrity birthdays
Director Ang Lee is 52. Jazz singer Dianne Reeves is 50. Country singer Dwight Yoakam is 50. “Weird Al” Yankovic is 47.
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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Museum’s shirt show suits hip, young crowd
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Richard L. Eldredge The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/21/06
Not only were T-shirts the apparel of choice at the opening night party for the Museum of Design Atlanta’s latest exhibition Thursday, the venerable fashion mainstay also served as the artwork.
About 800 of the city’s hipster young artist types flooded into the gallery inside the Marquis II Tower space at 285 Peachtree Center Ave. downtown to take in “To a T: T-Shirt Culture … Cute or Couture?” which features T-shirt designs from local designers and artists from as far away as Australia, British Columbia, Brazil and England.
So how did the Atlanta-based museum make contact with T-shirt designers halfway around the globe?
“We started a Museum of Design Atlanta MySpace page,” MODA rep Laura Moody told us. “It’s really been an invaluable resource tool. We never would have connected with some of these people through conventional means.”
The exhibition also boasts two original his-and-hers designs from “Project Runway” finalist Michael Knight. For his pair of framed shirts, it’s likely that the budding Atlanta designer smashed up a mirror ball or two.
“He actually called at one point to ask if the shirts had to be wearable,” said Moody of the cutting-edge designs. “We told him, ‘No, do whatever you want.’ “
Upstairs, the boys from Atlanta-based Esperanza Clothing were showing off their city-centric line of shirts that salute Sweet Auburn, the Clermont Lounge, the city’s colorful past (“ATL: We Only Get Burned Once”) and one shirt that pleads to “Bring Back the Point ‘Cause Nobody’s Gotten Their Head Kicked in Too Long!”
But when we were introduced to Esperanza co-creator Daniel Barbalho, we strongly suspected the recent Georgia Tech grad never actually dodged beer bottles beside us in the late Little Five Points rock club in the previous millennium.
“We wanted a way to celebrate what’s cool about the city, and people have really responded,” Barbalho told us.
The best business card of the evening, however, belonged to the party’s DJ David Vanarsdale. His cards displayed near his mixing equipment were made from recycled vinyl albums. We were assured that only ancient Celine Dion and Kajagoogoo platters were mangled to make Vanarsdale’s unique calling cards.
“To a T” runs through Jan. 13 at MODA.
In-house radio feud
It’s not uncommon to encounter a few morning show feuds on Atlanta’s airwaves. But within the same company? The morning teams at Viva 105.7 and 96rock may be charting new territory.
This week, Juan Tapia (Yogi on the air) and Jose Carias (who goes by Panda) sued their employers Clear Channel and 96rock’s the Regular Guys over a bathroom bit in which they were the target.
According to the lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court, Regular Guys co-host Larry Wachs entered a bathroom at Clear Channel offices Oct. 9 and secretly taped a conversation between Tapia and Carias. Each was in an individual stall. “Defendant Wachs intentionally recorded Tapia’s and Carias’ conversation and recorded certain offensive sounds while they were utilizing the facilities,” the lawsuit said.
The next day, the Regular Guys aired Tapia’s and Carias’ conversations and made fun of their “race and sexual orientation,” the lawsuit stated. The pair, who helm a Spanish-language music station, said they have complained in the past to Clear Channel management about offensive comments made by the Regular Guys but felt they were “largely ignored.”
None of the parties involved would comment about the lawsuit, which cites invasion of privacy and negligent hiring and seeks unspecified punitive damages. After the lawsuit was officially filed Monday, 96rock took the Regular Guys off the air and has been airing repeats.
There was no immediate word if a judge would eventually flush the suit.
Coming Out month?
Apparently, a couple of folks didn’t get the memo that National Coming Out Day was last week. In a statement Friday to People magazine, “Grey’s Anatomy” actor T.R. Knight confirmed that unlike his character, Dr. George O’Malley, he is not a heterosexual.
“I guess there have been a few questions about my sexuality, and I’d like to quiet any unnecessary rumors,” Knight said in the release. “While I prefer to keep my personal life private, I hope the fact that I’m gay isn’t the most interesting part of me.”
Former “American Idol” contestant and Cumming resident R.J. Helton, meanwhile, disclosed during a Sirius Satellite Radio interview this week that he is gay. The announcement had the potential to shock one grandmother somewhere in Billings, Mont.
Upside? A lucrative future awaits Helton performing aboard those gay cruise ships that crusty “A.I.” judge Simon Cowell is so fond of referencing.
Celebrity birthdays
Today: Actress Joyce Randolph (“The Honeymooners”) is 81. TV judge Judy Sheindlin (“Judge Judy”) is 64. Guitarist Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go’s is 53. Actress Carrie Fisher is 50. Actor Will Estes (“American Dreams”) is 28.
Sunday: Actress Joan Fontaine is 89. Actress Annette Funicello is 64. Actor Jeff Goldblum is 54. Comedian Carlos Mencia is 39. Country singer Shelby Lynne is 38. Reggae rapper Shaggy is 38. Drummer Zac Hanson of Hanson 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.
Andre 3000 parties for ‘Class of 3000’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you noticed a symphony of harmonicas Wednesday night in Midtown, you have André “Dre” Benjamin to thank. The colorful half of Atlanta rap duo OutKast — also known as André 3000 — was the host of the premiere of his new Cartoon Network animated series, “Class of 3000,” at the Fox Theatre.
Among those in attendance for the unveiling of the show, set in a fictional school of performing arts in Atlanta: Seven, Benjamin’s son with singer Erykah Badu; OutKast partner Antwan “Big Boi” Patton’s wife, Sherlita, and kids; OutKast producer Ray Murray; Atlanta Braves player Brian Jordan; Michael Mauldin (music mogul Jermaine Dupri’s father and entertainment power broker in his own right); V-103’s Ryan Cameron and family; and WXIA-TV news anchor Karyn Greer.
“We knew we wanted to show Bankhead, and we knew we wanted to show Buckhead,” Benjamin said. “ATL all day long!”
Performances by R&B singer Chris Brown and local rapper DJ Unk rounded out the near three-hour premiere.
“Class of 3000” will premiere at 8 p.m. Nov. 3 on the Cartoon Network .
And the parting gift to the many children in attendance? Those harmonicas that are probably still echoing along Peachtree Street.
Overscene
Music and movie producer Dallas Austin, “Tom Joyner Morning Show” personality Myra J. and former V-103 personality Porsche Foxx in the capacity crowd Wednesday night at Variety Playhouse to see Natalie Cole. The R&B legend’s latest album, “Leavin,’ ” a brand-new CD of eclectic covers, was produced by Austin. (And by the way, you haven’t fully lived until you hear Nat’s little girl toss off this line from Fiona Apple’s “Criminal,” which Austin has thoughtfully transformed into a horn-punching R&B smackdown for the diva: “I’ve been a bad, bad girl / It’s a sad, sad world / When a girl can break a boy just because she can …”)
Rapper marks VH1 win
The local rapper who calls himself Mercury Storm has been showered with attention since he won VH1’s Freestyle 59 contest, a national hip-hop talent search. Merc (real name: David Parker) had taped an acceptance speech in advance in case he wound up winning, but he didn’t find out that he’d won the contest — and $10,000 in prize money — until Tuesday night’s broadcast of VH1’s “Hip-Hop Honors” program. Merc watched the show with family and friends at the Central City Tavern.
“The whole venue just erupted so much, I couldn’t even hear myself,” he said. “I couldn’t even hear my speech. Luckily, I recorded this on the TiVo, so I got to see it later.”
Parker said he was bummed that VH1 edited out his plug for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program but happy that his on-air dedication to his late cousin, Neil Parker, made it on air.
Parker says he’s going to use the 10Gs to pay off credit card bills and his car. “And whatever’s left over, I’m going to use to propel my rap career and try to push things in the right direction.”
What, no gold grille or 28-inch rims?
“I’d rather be debt-free,” he said. “To me, that’s a bigger accomplishment.”
Liza, David at last!
Already forgotten that scrapped VH1 reality series starring Liza Minnelli and her on-track-to-be former hubby David Gest? Bless its heart, YouTube hasn’t. This week, the online video clip junk drawer posted the unaired pilot — the entire 30-minute celeb-crammed car crash. And since it’s officially in our job description, we eventually removed our fingers from our eye sockets, jammed in the earbuds and dutifully endured it for you Thursday.
It does not disappoint.
In the ep, Liza takes a jazz dance class that leads the heavily perspiring singer to ask: “Am I the only one spritzing here?”
Meanwhile, Gest is supposed to be out ordering furniture for a star-filled dinner party. Instead, he goes on a CD-buying bender (“Don’t tell Liza,” he instructs an assistant. “She has me on a no-CD diet!”). The highlight of the spree? When Gest asks a clerk, “Where are your LL Cool J albums?”
Later, Minnelli sucks down a triple ice cream-laden coffee drink at Starbucks while lamenting: “I wish I had a waistline again. My hips are just sittin’ there on those fake hips now.”
Naturally, the episode concludes with the lavish party at the couple’s Andy Warhol-choked Manhattan penthouse with guests Ray Charles, Sandra Bernhard, Liz Smith, Ashford and Simpson and a disturbingly “Anna Nicole Smith Show”-addicted Dominick Dunne. Gest frets at length about a spill on the carpet and later gives a guest (and the camera crew) a tour of his fabulous memorabilia collection, filled with Patty Duke and Cher trinkets and his Diana Ross and the Supremes doll collection.
Hmm. In retrospect, maybe Minnelli was smart to yank down the curtain on that union. The seemingly unauthorized posting may have also been yanked down as you read this, but you can try www.youtube.com; search for “Minnelli and Gest.”
Celebrity birthdays
Actor William Christopher (“M.A.S.H.”) is 74. Musician Tom Petty is 56. Actor Viggo Mortensen (“The Lord of the Rings”) is 48. Rapper Snoop Dogg is 35.
Contributing: Nick Marino, 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.
‘24’ star dons his tour manager hat for ATL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just in the nick of time, Jack Bauer is being dispatched to Atlanta this weekend.
His mission: to single-handedly save the “alternative rock” radio format.
“24” star Kiefer Sutherland has been booked to host the first big party for 99X’s brand-new “Morning X with Sean, Leslie and Jenners” and to introduce local rock fans to Rocco DeLuca and the Burden, a new signee to Sutherland and Jude Cole’s Ironworks record label.
Between bouts of saving the world on his hit Fox drama, Sutherland took on the role of tour manager on DeLuca and band’s recent world tour. The sometimes hilarious results (let’s just say Sutherland doesn’t share Bauer’s meticulous sense of order in the face of constant chaos) are chronicled in the rockumentary “I Trust You to Kill Me.”
After taking the red-eye from the Los Angeles set of “24” and sleeping in all day here, Sutherland will introduce his protégés and a screening of the documentary at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Plaza Theatre on Ponce de Leon Avenue. After the screening, Sutherland will host a Q & A with DeLuca onstage at the Plaza.
At midnight, the rock buds and fans will head over to Smith’s Olde Bar, where DeLuca will plug in for a set of songs from his album, “I Trust You to Kill Me.”
“A month ago, when we had our first meeting on the phone, it was a little crazy,” 99X program director Leslie Fram told Buzz on Wednesday. “I’m a huge fan of ‘24,’ and all I could think was, ‘I’m talking to Jack Bauer!’ The fact that Kiefer is taking time off from shooting the show to do this is great. He’s deeply committed to this music. Plus, he ended the phone call by telling us, ‘I think I have to go blow up a bus now.’ “
Fram told us that DeLuca reminds her a great deal of late singer-songwiter Jeff Buckley, “who’s also a great blues guitarist.”
While it helps greatly to be a 99X listener this week in order to score tickets to the events, some tickets to the Smith’s gig and the Plaza screening are also being made available to the public. The Plaza will sell tickets the day of the screening for $7.50 (cash only) while Smith’s Olde Bar is selling tickets this week to the late-night set for $10 in advance or $12 on Saturday.
Uncoupling
Who would have guessed that Alpharetta’s kookiest couple would inspire stifled yawns as their 14-year “Lemony Snicket” storybook marriage officially concludes. This week, singer Whitney Houston filed divorce papers in Orange County [Calif.] Superior Court, a month after filing for legal separation from Bobby Brown, confirms Houston’s publicist Nancy Seltzer. The couple lived in Alpharetta.
Oddly, the documents could not immediately be Googled on Wednesday (and believe us, we tried). Houston, 43, had asked in her separation papers that she be granted custody of the couple’s 13-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina, and that Brown, 37, be allowed visitation rights.
The couple wed in 1992, with Houston at the height of her fame as a Grammy-winning superstar known for such hits as “I Will Always Love You.”
In recent weeks, the singer has been living in Los Angeles and working on a comeback album with original mentor Clive Davis.
Celebrity docket
In another jaw-dropping turn of events, Bobby Brown has actually paid up $11,000 in delinquent child support, after being threatened with arrest if he stepped back into Massachusetts.
A family judge had issued an arrest warrant two weeks ago after Brown failed to show up at a hearing over two months’ worth of payments he owed to Kim Ward, the mother of his two teenage children.
Brown’s attorney said then that he was having a “very difficult” time, as his tumultuous marriage to Houston was coming to an end.
Patrick McDermott, the registrar of probate for the Norfolk Probate and Family Court, said this week that both sides have assured him Brown has since made his payments, though no paperwork had been filed with the court.
“I have at least been given the word that Kim Ward is satisfied that payment has been made and she’s good to go, for now,” he said.
McDermott said the arrest warrant would technically remain in effect until the judge holds another status hearing, which had not yet been scheduled. But he said there was no real risk Brown would be arrested.
“Provided he’s paid up, there’s no reason to haul him in here,” he said.
Overscene
NBA great Charles Barkley sipping on a Grey Goose vodka with a splash of cranberry at Taurus restaurant Tuesday night… . Model/actress/David Bowie missus Iman dining on grilled Atlantic salmon, pearl couscous and shiitake soy glaze and a glass of chardonnay at Spice in Midtown last week. Rapper/actor Ludacris was also spotted at the eatery last week.
Celebrity birthdays
Artist Peter Max is 69. Actor John Lithgow is 61. Singer Jeannie C. Riley is 61. Singer Jennifer Holliday is 46. Actor Jon Favreau is 40. “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker is 37. Country singer Cyndi Thomson 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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Really going hip-hop? Elton spied with Timbaland
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Peachtree Road resident Elton John might just be following through on his recent threat about trying his hand at a hip-hop album. Las Vegas Review-Journal gossip Norm Clarke (think Buzz but with a wicked cool eye patch) reports that Sir Elton and producer Timbaland were spotted teaming up at the Palms recording studios over the weekend “on a super secret project.” John is in Vegas this week performing his “Red Piano” shows at Caesars Palace.
Clarke says work might well be continuing on the trans-Atlantic Broadway debut of John’s London hit “Billy Elliot” musical as well. Sir Elton’s hubby, David Furnish, was seen at Krave Nightclub on Sunday with “Billy Elliot” director Stephen Daldry.
Aaron, friends quietly mark wife’s birthday
When highly respected retired CNN chairman Tom Johnson sends a text message to inform us that we’ve missed a significant milestone in the city’s history, we tend to sit up straight and take a few notes.
But since we’re well aware of how humble Billye and Hank Aaron are, it didn’t surprise us that they didn’t issue a press release regarding Billye’s private 70th birthday celebration Sunday night at City Grill downtown.
“I go to a lot of functions in this city and around the world, but this was truly a special evening that perfectly captured the magic of Billye and Henry,” Johnson reflected Tuesday.
Among the 200 or so guests who flew in from all over the country: Cissy Marshall, the widow of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young; CNN founder Ted Turner; Morehouse President Walter E. Massey; and the birthday girl’s sisters and brother. An entertainment highlight was an a cappella performance by Aaron’s grandson, singer Victor Aaron Haydel.
Said Johnson, who attended with his wife, Edwina: “It was an evening of Billye thanking the many people from all walks of life she’s encountered through the years. It was quite a wonderful tribute.”
Bouquets of yellow roses greeted the Texas College alumna as she entered the celebration.
A delayed ‘Aftermath’
It’s every singer-songwriter’s worst nightmare. The release party for your debut CD has to be scrapped when your master recording gets lost by a certain shipping service. That’s the position pianist and singer Luke Myers was in last month when the 23-year-old Marietta native’s first EP project temporarily went missing, forcing him to reschedule his release party for Tuesday night at the Red Light Cafe in Midtown. “It was a little frustrating,” Meyers told us.
But now with “Aftermath,” his disc of five songs that evoke the work of Sarah McLachlan and Coldplay, available at cdbaby.com and iTunes.com, the shy singer was only left with one task — presenting the personal works live.
“It’s actually pretty terrifying to get up there by yourself with just a piano,” Myers said. As for the autobiographical nature of the tunes centering on lost love, the singer cracked: “The songs aren’t totally about me and my experiences, but there’s enough of me in there.” For more info: www.myspace.com/lucassimonmyers.
Final tallies in
Word trickled into Buzz Central Tuesday that last weekend’s seventh annual Pink Tie Ball, which had 500 guests at the Grand Hyatt in Buckhead, helped to raise more than $700,000 for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Attendees sported pink dresses and pink bow ties, the symbolic color for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. … Across the street at the InterContinental hotel, the Russell Athletic Roses 65 Sweatshirt Ball was busy raising more than $225,000 for cystic fibrosis. Ball guests helped to celebrate the 80th birthday of the venerable workout garment by creatively incorporating bits of sweatshirts into their formal attire. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation board member and former Atlanta Hawks star Dominique Wilkins sported a red cummerbund created from a red sweatshirt.
Celebrity docket
Actor Wesley Snipes was indicted Tuesday on eight counts of tax fraud for allegedly failing to pay nearly $12 million in taxes and failing to file returns for six years.
Federal prosecutors in Tampa said Snipes fraudulently claimed refunds in 1996 and 1997 on taxes already paid and then failed to file returns from 1999 and 2004. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 16 years in prison.
The “Blade” actor had not been arrested at press time because authorities didn’t know where he was.
Celebrity birthdays
Actor Peter Boyle (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) is 71. Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis is 45. Actress Erin Moran (“Happy Days”) is 45. Country singer and “American Idol” contestant Josh Gracin is 26. Actress Joy Lauren (“Desperate Housewives”) is 17.
Contributing: Marylin Johnson and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Fonda heads glitterati turning out for charity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
During the celebrity-sprinkled launch party for Spanx pantyhose founder Sara Blakely’s charitable foundation Saturday night, we ran through a small barrel of ink while attempting to scribble down all the scoop.
First up, we spotted a luminous Jane Fonda at the Ritz-Carlton downtown pre-dinner cocktail reception with two of her children, Atlanta businesswoman Vanessa Vadim and actor Troy Garity.
Garity’s proud mother told us he had flown in from the Virginia film set of “Lake City” for the weekend. His co-stars? Sissy Spacek, Keith Carradine, Rebecca Romijn and musician Dave Matthews. According to Imdb.com, Garity plays Spacek’s son, “who comes to the aid of his estranged mother after her safety is threatened.” Filming began this month.
Fonda herself recently returned from filming “Georgia Rule” in Hollywood with “Pretty Woman” director Garry Marshall and co-stars Felicity Huffman, Lindsay Lohan, Dermot Mulroney, Cary Elwes and Marshall good-luck charm Hector Elizondo, who is cast in practically every movie the director shoots.
Fonda, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention founder, told us that chances are excellent the film will serve as the next benefit for the charity.
“But there’s no set date for its release,” she explained. “It could be March, April or even October. Since it’s Morgan Creek’s [studios] first chick film, they’ve got to determine when is the best time to put it out there.”
Earlier this year, prior to the film shoot, we confided to the actress that Marshall is one of our very favorite — and one of the most hilarious — people we’ve ever interviewed for this space.
When we brought up “The Princess Diaries” director and Murphy Brown’s former boss Saturday night, Fonda kissed her fingertips and said, “He was absolutely wonderful. You told me!”
And since we had been generously given an all-access pass to the festivities, we were — sigh — on our best behavior. Consequently, we saved for the film’s 2007 premiere all the Lohan inquiries we were dying to ask Fonda.
Big checks and ‘Barbarella’
Inside the Ritz-Carlton ballroom, Virgin chairman Richard Branson (who donated $750,000 of seed money to start the Sara Blakely Foundation), kept things extremely entertaining as he was interviewed on the dais by Star 94’s Vikki Locke. Of his recent $3 million check donated to combat global warming, Branson joked, “It was actually quite painful when it got down to adding those last few zeroes!”
Branson then told a particularly racy anecdote involving his circumcision (as an adolescent!) and his simultaneous discovery of Jane Fonda’s sexy space spoof “Barbarella.” “I ended up in stitches, literally!” Branson disclosed as Fonda laughed a few tables away. “I once told that story at a function in front of Ted Turner and Jane just after they had gotten married. Jane was actually great about it but Ted acted, well, a bit clumsy over the story!”
Dessert with Jewel
The evening remained intriguing as singer-songwriter Jewel performed a three-song set over dessert. Taking the microphone post-Branson, the singer told the rapt audience, “My publicist was concerned about what I’d say on stage, but after Richard’s comments about sex in space, I think I’m going to be OK.”
Describing an impromptu hitchhiking trip through Mexico as a 16-year-old while learning to write songs, Jewel characterized the risky endeavor as “that spring break trip all parents are dying for their children to take!”
A Supreme Christmas party
A bit later, we ran into Captain Planet Foundation Chairwoman Laura Turner Seydel as the Blakely Foundation launch party migrated across Peachtree Street to the old Macy’s building, which had been transformed into a food-filled nightclub featuring a concert by Collective Soul. She told us that Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence, former members of the Supremes, have been booked as the entertainment at the 12th annual Captain Planet Foundation Xmas Party on Dec. 8 at the Tabernacle downtown.
Laura’s father, Ted, along with environmentalist Philippe Cousteau, are the event’s special guests.
An “eco-chic” fashion show with “luxury eco designer” Linda Loudermilk will be featured as well as a VIP cocktail reception held nearby at Ted’s Montana Grill.
“Believe it or not, after 12 years of doing these benefits, it’s gotten easier,” Turner Seydel told Buzz. “We’ve formed a community over the years. We like to say we’re doing God’s work, which makes it easier as well.”
For tickets: 404-522-4270 or www.captainplanetfdn.org.
Celebrity birthdays
Actor Tom Poston is 85. Daredevil Evel Knievel is 68. Singer Gary Puckett of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap is 64. Actor Michael McKean (“Laverne and Shirley,” “This Is Spinal Tap”) is 59. Country singer and former Newnan resident Alan Jackson is 48. Reggae singer Ziggy Marley is 38. Singer Chris Kirkpatrick of ‘NSync is 35. Rapper Eminem is 34. Singer Wyclef Jean of the Fugees is 34.
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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Kathy Griffin wins raves with gossipy show
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gays love Kathy Griffin. And they came in droves for her sold-out Friday night performances at the Ferst Center for the Arts, giving her an extended standing ovation just for arriving onstage.
Having worked crowds ranging from college campuses to American soldiers in Iraq, pop-culture dish maven Griffin happily calibrates her act for the audience — though she doesn’t always get it quite right.
“I love Atlanta. I love the fried food. I love the Yellow Jackets!” she said, referencing the Tech team since she was on campus. But some audience members booed (Dawg fans?). Then someone in the audience yelled, “We’re gay: We don’t care!”
During the late show, the star of Bravo’s Emmy-nominated reality show “My Life on the D List” spent plenty of time on subjects who have never said they’re gay — but might be. Targets included Clay Aiken (she’s a big fan), host Ryan Seacrest (she’s no fan), Tom Cruise (she loves to mock Scientology) and Star Jones’ husband Al Reynolds. (“Al is the guy who when he walks by you, you can hear finger-snapping!”)
Griffin was gleeful watching Jones’ career “demise” as “The View” matriarch Barbara Walters, with one withering look, “turned Star into a pillar of salt.”
One thing Griffin didn’t talk about much was her own unpleasant divorce, which she only mentioned in passing. Rather, she ended her 90-minute gig by dusting off an old story from 1999 about co-headlining with comic Andy Dick at a University of North Florida concert. According to her and news accounts at the time, Dick pretended to do a sex act with another man onstage, much to the chagrin of administrators and many of the students.
Overscene
Following his Friday night gig at Chastain Park Amphitheatre, singer-songwriter and former Atlantan John Mayer (who turns 29 today) came by his old haunt Smith’s Olde Bar to support his guitar player David Ryan Harris at Harris’ midnight gig. …
Mike Epps, Bruce Bruce, Arnez J and Nard were among the comics at Uptown Comedy Corner to celebrate their own, V-103 morning show co-host Wanda Smith. Also in attendance for her often X-rated birthday roast Thursday were Q of R&B group 112, JaQuitta Williams of WSB-TV, Frank Ski, Miss Sophia and Bubby Love of V-103.
Feeding the masses
Taste of Atlanta pulled up its big tent in a Lenox Square mall parking lot and relocated to the far trendier outdoor streets of Atlantic Station this year. The results were tasty indeed: perfect weather and a huge boost in attendance and funds raised for charities such as the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
For attendees midafternoon Saturday, however, this meant long lines at many of the 70-plus restaurant booths, each with samples ranging from pumpkin-themed goodies at Wolfgang Puck to chocolate soup at Sotto Sotto.
The longest waits were for any restaurant offering ribs, including Fado, Roy’s, KC Pitt BBQ and the Tahitian Noni Café. By 4 p.m., a few restaurant booths had shut down after supplies were (too) quickly consumed. The Oceanaire, out of its New England clam chowder, posted a makeshift sign: “So sorry. We’re out.”
Meanwhile, Marvin Woods, new chef at Spice, cheerfully cooked delicious shrimp hush puppies for a patient crowd. Unprepared for the onslaught, he had only brought a single cast-iron skillet.
Duluth teen is ‘Casper’
Part-time Duluth resident Devon Werkheiser, best known as Ned on the popular Nickelodeon show “Ned’s Declassified,” is playing the voice of Casper the Friendly Ghost in a new animated film, “Casper’s Scare School,” debuting this Friday on the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network.
Though Casper will interact with characters voiced by the likes of sitcom stars Jim Belushi and Bob Saget, Werkheiser said he never met them. “I did four-hour voice sessions all by myself,” the 15-year-old told Buzz. “I was kind of upset about that.”
Werkheiser, who was able to recite the entire “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” film at age 6, attended Atlanta acting school the Talent Factory while going to Medlock Elementary and River Trail Middle schools. He only spent two weeks at Northview High School because of the shooting schedule for “Ned’s,” which drew more than 17 million viewers over eight showings the week of Oct. 2.
Now home schooled and spending most of his time in Los Angeles, he’s auditioning for movies. “I love acting,” he said. “L.A. is so fast-paced, and there’s always something to do and new people to meet. It’s cool. But sometimes, I miss just sitting at home and being normal.”
‘Access’ is excelling
Publicists at “Access Hollywood” gleefully passed on news to Buzz last week that the show is doing three to four times better among women in its new time slot on WAGA-TV at 7 p.m. weekdays vs. WXIA-TV at 12:30 p.m. last season. They trotted out Spelman College grad and “Access” correspondent Shaun Robinson for a phone interview.
Robinson, who has family in Atlanta, said she loved Spelman and wishes she could visit Atlanta more often. Last time she came in 2005, she noshed at Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles and Mary Mac’s Tea Room. She’s also a big fan of Whitney Houston.
“I think Whitney is on the road to recovery,” Robinson told Buzz. “She’s got friends and family supporting her.”
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Angela Lansbury is 81. Actress Suzanne Somers is 60. Guitarist Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead is 59. Actor-director Tim Robbins is 48. Bassist Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is 44.
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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Atlanta ‘Runway’ finalist gets the star treatment
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Not one, but two red carpets greeted “Project Runway” finalist Michael Knight as the Atlantan lent his rapidly growing star power to help the Art Institute of Atlanta on Thursday night.
Knight was there to help generate buzz for AIA’s new fashion and retail management degree program. Under a tent in the AIA parking lot, strategically placed models posed in Knight’s creations as hundreds of aspiring fashion students, industry insiders and stargazers showed up to greet Knight. “Y’all are here for me!” he said in a moment of Sally Field-like delirium. “It’s bananas.”
Dressed in a yellow Izod polo shirt, with jeans and gym shoes, Knight regaled the crowd with tales from fashion’s edge. Around age 8, he picked up a jumbo pencil after seeing a dress on “Soul Train” and thinking, “Man, I could do something like that.” He went on to study fashion design at Georgia Southern University, but after an industry internship, he ended up with a job at a collections agency. Three months later, he quit.
Good thing.
Knight’s best friend had a gig with R&B group Jagged Edge and hooked him up with styling duties. That led to a high-wattage roster of clients before his debut on “Runway.”
While Knight dodged questions about the show’s finale, which airs Wednesday, he did drop a few tidbits. Yes, he is designing a collection. Yes, he will stay in Atlanta. And yes, he has a little slip of paper in his wallet with a pledge for the future: “I will be in Bryant Park [in New York] next year.”
Atlanta’s cocktail party “It” guy also turned up at the fall/winter Versace collection preview Wednesday night at the Buckhead home of David Tufts. Among the 150 socialite types spotted scooping up this season’s must-haves: Kimmy Umphenour, Nicole Jones and Kirsten Braden. Proceeds benefit the Georgia Aquarium. The charitable effort has proved so popular that the Buckhead Versace shop will continue to kick in to help the downtown attraction with each purchase through Sunday.
We’re told, incidentally, that a $25,000 coat is still available (where did we put that Buzz Central black Am Ex card?).
New name for anchor
The Monica Kaufman era at WSB-TV Action News officially ended Thursday. On the evening’s telecasts, viewers were introduced to Monica Pearson, the veteran anchor’s new professional name. More than a year ago, the newswoman married DeKalb County policeman John E. Pearson Sr. And while she’s gone by her married name on WSB’s Web site for over a year, changing Miss Monica’s moniker on-air required alterations to station promos and graphics. When meteorologist Glenn Burns reintroduced Pearson to viewers during the 11 o’clock report, Pearson cracked, “New name, new hair, new everything!”
A real-estate marriage
Real estate office openings don’t normally rank very high on our mandatory R.S.V.P. list. However, as we ventured through the adorable house at 1031 Juniper St. on Thursday night that is the new headquarters of Sanctuary Real Estate in Midtown, we were, well, really impressed. Owner Ryan Cooper’s vision is to unite buyers with sellers, and builders with agents, all under one roof. And anyone who has sweated through I-285 gridlock trying to get from a Realtor’s office to a lawyer’s office for a closing will appreciate the approach.
“Through this new concept of a boutique agency, we’re hoping to eliminate some of that stress,” Cooper told us out on the back deck of the house. “This way, our clients can just walk from one room of the house to another to complete another part of the process.” Sanctuary’s opening party also served as a benefit for the Warrick Dunn Foundation. Attendees included Dave FM’s Holly Firfer and CNN’s Thomas Roberts. For more info: www.yourownsanctuary.com.
Country star files for divorce
Country singer Sara Evans alleges in divorce papers that her husband committed adultery, was verbally and emotionally abusive, drank excessively and frequently watched pornography in their home.
Evans, 35, filed for divorce on Thursday from Craig Schelske and announced through a spokesman that she was quitting ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” “to give her family full attention at this difficult time.”
The couple married in 1993 and have three children ages 7, 3 and 2.
Schelske, 43, and unemployed, ran for Congress as a Republican from Oregon’s 5th District in 2002. The Salem, Ore., native could not be reached for comment.
In the filing in state court in Franklin, Tenn., where the couple has a home, Evans alleges that Schelske watched pornography on the couple’s computers and has at least 100 nude photographs of himself in a state of arousal. She also alleges that several photos show Schelske having sex with other women.
Celebrity birthdays
Today: Actor Roger Moore is 79. Singer Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues is 60. Country singer Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks is 32. Alpharetta-based singer Usher is 28.
Sunday: Actress Linda Lavin (“Alice”) is 69. Actress-director Penny Marshall is 64. Musician Richard Carpenter of the Carpenters is 60. TV chef and Atlanta restaurant owner Emeril Lagasse is 47.
Contributing: Nedra Rhone 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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Star 94 staff lets out post-stunt sigh of relief
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The cuticle chewing emanating from the Star 94 on-air staff was almost audible Wednesday at Buzz Central as the station went jockless for more than 24 hours.
Between songs and music, a voice-over told the radio station’s listeners to tune in at 7:20 a.m. Thursday when Star 94 would “unwrap” its new lineup.
Consistently during the day, word came into Buzz that DJs, fearing a format change, had become so concerned for their jobs, they were ringing their lawyers and agents while consoling at least one staffer who was in tears.
As listeners now know, the bit was all a stunt to promote a Star 94 concert.
At 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Star 94 general manager Mark Kanov conference-called the staff together to end the agony and to let it in on the surprise.
“There was some angst,” Kanov conceded to us Thursday. “Others figured it out. But the only way to keep a secret is not to tell it. If we had told the staff, I guarantee you, in 10 minutes, you and [ajc.com radio blogger] Rodney [Ho] would have had it online. The rap on radio is that it’s now so corporate and boring. Star 94 is anything but.”
The Ashton Kutcher-style antics, however, don’t really jibe with Kanov’s long-established business practices. During his nearly 40-year tenure in the Atlanta radio market, Kanov has consistently emphasized treating listeners and staffers like family.
“Some of the staff said they didn’t sleep a wink, worrying about it. But hey, I got to punk the whole station,” Kanov reasoned. “It was fun. Now, everybody can say, ‘Whew!’ “
Q100: What’s in a name?
Perhaps not coincidentally, down the dial Thursday morning, Q100’s “Bert Show” had its own big announcement timed for 7:20. The morning show’s longtime stunt guy, Phil Terrana, announced that his actual name is Mark Owens, now that he’s departing the show for a “Morning X” producing gig at sister station 99X.
Show namesake Bert Weiss then went on to explain that the Terrana moniker actually is the given name of another well-known Atlanta radio personality. “We did it to get into their heads a little bit,” Weiss told listeners. “There’s a little psychological warfare, a competitive thing going on. Every time this guy uses a credit card, somebody is asking him, ‘Aren’t you that guy from ‘The Bert Show?’ “
Wringing out Wash ‘n Wear
A few final tidbits of dirt drifted our way Thursday from this week’s successful Wash ‘n Wear benefit fashion show at the King Plow Arts Center downtown. First, our eyes backstage informed us that many of the Atlanta Falcons models involved, including Warrick Dunn, Patrick Kerney, Alge Crumpler, Brian Finneran, DeAngelo Hall, Michael Vick and Keith Brooking, heavily favored boxers over briefs during their quick changes.
Also, just as Vick was about to take the stage, his diamond-encrusted Oyster Perpetual Pearlmaster Rolex wristwatch unexpectedly flew off. While he didn’t have time to retrieve the timepiece, Vick motioned for T boutique owner Teresa Hebert to pick it up. When Vick caught up with Hebert afterward, the Rolex had a new home — on her wrist. The estimated price tag of the trinket? $150,000. We’re hearing a deal was struck in exchange for the safe return of the watch, but at presstime, we were still trying to pry loose the details from the involved parties.
‘Runway’ recap
All four fashion designers, including Atlantan Michael Knight, are still in the hunt for the top prize on Bravo’s reality series “Project Runway.” On Wednesday night’s episode, design mentor Tim Gunn announced their final challenge: Design 12 looks to be featured at New York Fashion Week. They had two months and $8,000 to complete the assignment.
In Wednesday’s episode, Gunn visited each designer. In Atlanta, he warned Knight to make sure his collection was “cohesive.” Back in New York, he suggested to Laura Bennett to “youth up the styling.” Visiting Uli Herzner in Miami, he advised her “to surprise” the judges with her safari-inspired line. And in Los Angeles, he praised Jeffrey Sebelia’s work, saying, “I am in awe of what you are doing with zippers.”
Days before Fashion Week, the entire clan reconnected in the Big Apple. But controversy struck when Sebelia’s nearly perfect workmanship in the final collection was not consistent with his previous offerings, resulting in speculation that he had outside help. Sebelia claimed innocence. Did the designer get booted off “Runway”? Tune in Wednesday for the finale.
Celebrity birthdays
Musician Paul Simon is 65. Actor Demond Wilson (“Sanford and Son”) is 60. Singer-actress Marie Osmond is 47. Actress Kate Walsh (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 39. Singer Carlos Martin of Il Divo is 38. Country singer Rhett Akins is 37. Singer Ashanti is 26.
Contributing: 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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Eager patrons descend for 12 tastemakers’ best
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Culinaire,” the chef-stuffed Taste of Atlanta opening night party at Atlantic Station’s Twelve Hotel, proved to be one-stop shopping for the scoop Tuesday night. Twelve of Atlanta’s top chefs were assembled around the hotel’s ballroom, offering samples of signature dishes from their eateries at the preview event for this weekend’s food festivities.
First up, we chatted with Rathbun’s and Krog Bar owner Kevin Rathbun as he and his assistants served up Chinese takeout boxes filled with Thai squid salad. As he preps Kevin Rathbun Steak, his upcoming third Inman Park eatery on Krog Street, the chef told of his recent field trip to City Hall to apply for various licenses.
“I asked what we could do about changing the name of the street from Krog to Rathbun,” he cracked. “I was told, ‘Kevin, that’s never gonna happen!’ It never hurts to ask, though.”
At the Restaurant Eugene booth, owner/chef Linton Hopkins was doling out sinful samples of roasted kabocha squash with house-cured country ham drizzled with a buttermilk hollandaise.
But the longest lines were formed by the patient foodies craving a taste of Aria’s ricotta spinach ravioli with veal meatballs. “I think the lines are long because they can smell it,” chef Gerry Klaskala theorized as he handed us a sample of his grandmother’s delectable, cooked-all-day family recipe. “Now, stop writing and taste!”
Not only was the taste worth the wait, we contemplated licking our Styrofoam plate.
With us in line were Vinings couple Johan and James Brown, who were also busy lapping up tastes from some of the city’s top restaurants at their inaugural Taste of Atlanta outing. “We love sampling great food,” James told us as Johan arrived with samples of butternut squash soup courtesy of Taurus restaurant. “They used to have a similar event in Boca Raton [Fla.] that we always attended. It’s a wonderful way to check out new places.”
A good ‘Report Card’
As we rounded a corner in the Twelve Hotel ballroom, we bumped into a guy who inspires endless eye twitching from the metro area’s restaurant owners. Yes, among the attendees was CBS 46 consumer reporter Adam Murphy, who does the TV station’s frequently stomach-churning “Restaurant Report Card” segments, where he discloses lousy local food inspection scores.
“All the restaurants here are top-notch so they probably don’t have a problem with me being here at all,” Murphy told us. “You’re probably not going to see a rat writhing in agony on top of a stove here!”
Murphy says he practices what he preaches on air and checks out a restaurant’s posted inspection score before he sits down anywhere.
Well, except, like the rest of us, when it comes to those late-night cravings. “Sure, like anybody else, I’ll hit a drive-through occasionally,” Murphy said. “That’s when you’re taking a gamble, though.”
Food fight!
We also witnessed some good old-fashioned, homemade trash-talking from CBS 46 meteorologist Gene Norman and B98.5 FM’s Will Gara, who will face off this Saturday at 5 p.m. during a “Taste of Atlanta” cook-off. “I’m going to wipe the floor with him,” Norman told us confidently. His wife, Elaine, says her hubby’s turkey lasagna and dirty rice are tops with her.
Bragged the prepared Norman: “I may also do a more fall-like dish since I’ve already taken a look at the long-range Doppler Radar forecast and noticed we’ll have cooler temps this weekend.” Countered Gara: “I’m not scared of that weatherman. I’ve got my grandma on speed-dial!”
Taste of Atlanta events will be sprinkled all throughout Atlantic Station this Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more info: www.tasteofatlanta.org.
Fresh out of food
As it turns out, it was best that we had a few nibbles under our Buzz belt. By the time we popped into the one-year anniversary party for MetroFresh in Midtown, a human tornado had already gutted owner Mitchell Anderson’s popular Monroe Drive eatery. Aside from a few stray chips, 250 attendees had scarfed every scrap of food in the place. The refrigerated cases were even cleaned out.
A still slack-jawed Anderson told us: “It was wild. The restaurant was jammed with customers, the patio was jammed with customers, and there were people sitting on the curb out in the parking lot balancing plates on their laps!” The party served as a thank-you for the popular takeout joint’s successful first year.
The smartest thing Anderson said he did in his debut year? MetroFresh’s daily e-mail menu and message he now sends to more than 2,000 customers. Assessed Anderson: “It’s a way to personally connect with everyone who walks in the door. That way, everybody is a part of this place.”
Overscene
Poncey-Highland resident Jane Fonda, her daughter Vanessa Vadim and the Oscar winner’s grandchildren, dining safely a few feet away from Anderson’s party Tuesday night at Nam in Midtown Promenade. After dinner, the family took in a film at Midtown Art Cinema.
Celebrity birthdays
Comedian-activist Dick Gregory is 74. Singer Sam Moore of Sam and Dave is 71. Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti is 71. News correspondent Chris Wallace is 59. Actor Hugh Jackman (“The X-Men”) is 38.
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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‘Truth is, there’s a little Sawyer in all of us’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Apparently Georgia native and “Lost” actor Josh Holloway is still blissfully unaware that he inspires a significant portion of the population to drool in front of their televisions each Wednesday night. The former Cherokee County resident, who plays Sawyer on the hit ABC drama series, tells Men’s Journal in the November issue that he’s still concerned about job security.
“Everybody in the cast worries about being killed off, and we wouldn’t know until they handed us the script — three days before shooting,” the 37-year-old actor says in the mag.
“It’s a sensitive issue. People have houses here, kids in school. Most of us aren’t in our 20s anymore.”
But Holloway’s Sawyer has developed into both a villain and a fan favorite.
“It still shocks me how people love him,” he says. “But my take on guys like him is they’re just dudes who have a different perspective on how to survive. Truth is, there’s a little Sawyer in all of us, and that’s why people get into him.”
The fictional Sawyer spills that he’s now set to play another bad boy — a kidnapper — in the thriller “The Whisper,” slated for release next year.
“It’s a fun movie, but I’m looking to do a really different role next, more of a character who maybe even keeps his shirt on most of the time.”
Yeah, and we’re paid to keep to ourselves at parties …
Battling Babs at the Garden
Ticket-holders for the upcoming Barbra Streisand concert at Philips Arena, take note. Apparently, verbal abuse is included in the $800 ticket price. At her concert Monday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the “Yentl” actress got heckled after she made derogatory remarks about the current president. According to the New York Post, one audience member shouted, “What is this, a fund-raiser?” to which Babs replied, “Why don’t you shut the [expletive] up?! If you can’t take a joke, why don’t you leave and get your money back.” The gentleman did precisely that.
The Donald on K-Fed
Since we’re not yet 90 or a shut-in, Buzz will admit to missing Monday night’s riveting “Larry King Live” with Donald Trump on CNN.
Leave it to our favorite wizened relic to somehow bring the conversation around to the Donald’s thoughts on Britney Spears’ house hubby Kevin Federline. Trump admitted that he initially blamed K-Fed for the pop princess’s decline. “Hey, look what happened to her, she’s a mess,” Trump told King. “So, what happens now is I heard the other day that his all-time hero is Donald Trump. So, now I think he’s a great guy. He’s fantastic. I totally changed my mind. I think Kevin Federline is fantastic.” We really gotta stay home more …
A nuclear-powered ‘View’
Naturally, “The View,” on the other hand, continues to be appointment television. Without den mother Barbara Walters riding herd, Monday’s edition got especially juicy when “Hot Topics” included North Korea’s dubious nuclear test.
Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck defended the troops and the war on terror while co-worker Joy Behar argued that the United States is mimicking the marionettes from “Team America: World Police.” When moderator Rosie O’Donnell tried to cut off the pair to give away a prize, Behar waved her hand menacingly and yelled, “Screw that!” before continuing her tirade. That crusty little black thing beating in our chest, however, went out to fill-in co-host Susan Lucci, who remained silent, nervously sipping her water while no doubt thinking that even Erica Kane is incapable of such dramatics …
Sick bay
Alpharetta resident Usher may not get to finish his stint as Billy Flynn in “Chicago” on Broadway after all.
You’ll recall that the pop star recently extended his run in the show until Saturday, his birthday. Online gossip Web site Tmz.com is now reporting that the singer has missed several performances in the past week due to a bout with the flu. There’s no immediate word on whether the run would be extended again.
Paris, Nicole BFF again!
It would appear that the producers of “The Simple Life” needed more than a big pink house in Candler Park to ensure the future of the Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie reality TV franchise. In a particularly biting ironic twist, the estranged friends publicly made up Sunday at Dan Tana’s Steakhouse in Los Angeles (if recent bikini-clad photos in the Buzz Central copy of In Touch magazine are accurate, Richie’s last meal was a Tic Tac somewhere around the time of Ronald Reagan’s second term). After a yearlong public feud that nearly killed their show, Hilton and Richie have agreed to film a fifth chapter of “Life” together, executive producer Jon Murray tells The Associated Press.
“The thing the viewers love is the two girls together,” he said.
The 25-year-old celebutantes will be camp counselors in the newest “Simple Life” adventure, set to begin production next month, Murray said. The show will air on E! next spring, he added.
The show will delve into “what led to the breakdown in the friendship and maybe some of the misunderstandings and things that got in the way,” he said.
We’re praying that includes the obscenity-laced cellphone conversation we witnessed at Elton John’s Oscar party this year. That’s when the heiress learned her ex-BFF had been admitted to the Vanity Fair party across the street, a gathering that banned Hilton.
Celebrity birthdays
Actor Ron Leibman is 69. Singer Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates is 57. Actress Joan Cusack is 44. Actor Luke Perry is 40. Actor Jane Krakowski (“30 Rock”) is 38. Rapper MC Lyte 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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Arts patrons show love for the Louvre at High
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A harvest moon hovering overhead and a cool evening provided the perfect backdrop for the High Museum’s “Louvre Atlanta” Opening Fete party in Midtown Saturday night. The advance peek at the “Kings as Collectors” and “The King’s Drawings” collections on loan from the Louvre in Paris drew hundreds of colorfully attired attendees consisting of both High members and younger nonmembers eager to see the artwork.
As we passed “The Shade,” the High Museum’s sculpture by Auguste Rodin on the public piazza, we paused to reflect on the considerable contributions made by the 106 Atlanta arts patrons who were killed in that Air France crash near Paris in 1962. The tragedy forever solidified a bond between Paris and Atlanta. The sculpture was donated to the city by the French government as a tribute.
Inside, High development manager Michele Egan said the initial response to the show has been incredible. In lieu of the museum’s sluggish elevator, we opted for the stairs in order to take in the busts, the drawings and the paintings on various levels of the museum.
An advance warning: You may find yourself standing helplessly transfixed in front of Rembrandt’s “Saint Matthew and the Angel” until you begin to draw suspicious stares from security. And yes: We did spot the angel’s newly discovered wings in the 1661 painting.
Back out on the piazza, the live DJ even inspired dancing from formally attired couples when he played the Funky Lowlives’ remix of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Manteca.”
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Losing our heads
As Saturday night became Sunday morning, the party shifted a block over to the Four Seasons hotel. Inside Park 75 restaurant, the PaperCity magazine-sponsored “Louvre Atlanta” after-party inspired about 300 night owls to cram into the eatery for bubbly and some Marie Antoinette-inspired cake nibbling. The dining space had been almost instantly — and seductively — re-imagined by designer and florist Robert Long, who waited in the kitchen until the last of the Park 75’s late diners finished lingering over dessert.
“We wouldn’t have missed this,” said PaperCity Editor in Chief Holly Moore, who flew in from Houston for the occasion. “This is such an exciting time for the city of Atlanta. We’re happy to be a part of it.”
A $360,000 ‘Timeless Affair’
Earlier on Saturday night, skeletons of two of the world’s largest dinosaurs loomed dramatically over the heads of guests at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s gala, “A Night in Ancient Rome: A Timeless Affair 2006.” But that didn’t stop the 400 black tie- clad partygoers from enjoying the feast fit for an emperor — tenderloin and halibut plus chocolate fudge cake or vanilla bean gelato with port wine syrup.
After dinner — catered by Affairs to Remember — many of the guests toured the world premiere of the exhibit “Imperial Rome,” in place until Jan. 3.
Those at the party included doctors Nancy and Jeffrey Gallups, Carey Carter, Steve and Kathleen de Groot, event co-chairs Paula Dickey and sister Kim Lape, and corporate chair John R. Holder. Honorary chair Dorothy M. McClatchey was unable to attend. Next year, Jack Sawyer and Bill Torres will chair the annual fund-raiser. Nearly $360,000 was raised at the event. The funds will support special exhibitions plus family and educational programs at the museum.
‘Status Sundays’ debut
On Sunday night, Brad Senesac’s Brainstorm Design Works’ company used its impressive e-mail mailing list to invite gay professionals to the launch of Status Sundays at the InterContinental hotel in Buckhead.
Senesac told us the weekly social gathering, sponsored by Status Vodka with food by Au Pied de Cochon and spirits from XO Bar, is designed to provide a networking session for “the gays” (and yes, air quotes are apparently mandatory).
By 8:45 p.m., the non-TiVo-teched-out, however, were checking their watches. (After all, Gabby and her former hot gardener boy toy were reconnecting on Sunday night’s episode of “Desperate Housewives,” we were told.)
Lending their heterosexual support at the inaugural gathering were WXIA-TV’s Evelyn Mims and veteran city politico and columnist Tom Houck.
Sick bay
Since he always knows way more dirt than we do, we enjoy picking Houck’s brain for a scoop or two. Alas, on Sunday night, the news was not entirely good. We learned that Tony La Rocco, the man who graced the city with Fratelli Di Napoli and the Tap Room, was recently surprised with a leukemia diagnosis. Late in the last millennium, La Rocco earned our never-ending respect when he invented the perfectly chilled martini machine at the downtown Tap Room.
Naturally, Houck had La Rocco on speed dial and we were almost instantly connected with the restaurateur at his Emory University Hospital room. “Don’t listen to Houck, Rich,” he told us. “Everything’s gonna be fine.” He promised to join us for a drink at one of his fave watering holes soon.
Overscene
Atlanta Thrashers goalies Fred Brathwaite and Kari Lehtonen dining on Friday night at Morton’s Steakhouse in Buckhead. On Saturday night, Atlanta Falcons fullback Fred McCrary fueled up at the steak spot. … Rapper Bow Wow making his annual trick-or-treat trek to Netherworld Haunted House last week in Gwinnett County.
Celebrity birthdays
Actor Peter Coyote is 64. Singer John Prine is 60. Actor-dancer Ben Vereen is 60. Country singer Tanya Tucker is 48. Actor Bradley Whitford (“Studio 60”) is 47. Drummer Mike Malinin of the Goo Goo Dolls is 39. Actor Mario Lopez (“Dancing With the Stars,” “Saved by the Bell”) is 33. Singer Mya is 27.
Contributing: 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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Mr. T lends his hand in new ‘reali-T’ show
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mr. T said he was offered a spot three years ago on WB’s “The Surreal Life,” featuring the likes of MC Hammer and Corey Feldman.
“Everybody on there, their careers were over,” Mr. T told Buzz recently by phone. “Sure, I hadn’t been on TV for a long time. But I do personal appearances. I did a London play. It insulted me to get me on that show.” So he just said no.
But when TVLand pitched the idea of “I Pity the Fool,” in which Mr. T does his own version of Dr. Phil to help out businesses such as a family farm and a dance studio, he didn’t jibba jabba. He said yes to his own “reali-T” show, as it’s called.
In the hilarious first episode, which debuts Wednesday, the seemingly ageless Mohawked man from “The A-Team” revs up a car dealership. Dressed in a business suit, he plays up his nonstop need to “teach fools my basic rules.”
“As old folks say, this is right up my alley,” Mr. T said. “It’s not negative. It’s positive. This is my thing. It’s about inspiring people, motivating them. This fame game has allowed me to do that with kids, with prisoners, with the homeless.”
After Hurricane Katrina, he ditched his signature gold chains, feeling that opulent displays of wealth were inappropriate. “I’ll never wear them again,” Mr. T declared. “I only have a heart of gold.” And even better, he noted, “I don’t have to be hassled at the airport.”
As for the title of the new show, he said he doesn’t mind folks coming up to him and intoning his signature line “I pity the fool!” to his face. “It’s only in fun,” he said. “It’s in love. I say to kids, ‘I pity the fools who don’t stay in school or learn the Golden Rule.’ If I couldn’t read, I wouldn’t be on TV. You don’t get on TV cursing and grabbing your crotch.”
Well, at least that’s not how Mr. T does it, fool!
Brad, Angelina turn back
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, in India to shoot scenes for a movie about slain journalist Daniel Pearl, went on an auto-rickshaw ride with their 5-year-old son, Maddox, on Sunday. The celebrity couple were chased by photographers, cameramen and reporters, forcing them to turn back after a 20-minute ride in Pune, in western India.
Several traffic signals slowed the short rickshaw ride. At every red light, security men traveling in a rickshaw behind them jumped out and surrounded the three-wheeler to prevent the media from snapping pictures of Pitt and Jolie.
Security for the star couple has been tight since their arrival Thursday in Pune by private jet along with their children Maddox, 18-month-old Zahara and 4-month-old Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt.
Brawny, sensitive house calls
Brawny Man is the kind of guy who can throw hatchets, split wood and still whip up a tasty meal for the woman he loves. He’s tough but sensitive, just like the paper towel with his likeness on the front.
This summer, Brawny Man, brought to three-dimensional life by Navy pilot turned actor John Brennan, took eight former slobs to boot camp in a California redwood forest, teaching them how real men can also cook, dance and bring on the romance. The adventures of these real-life Joes were documented on the BrawnyAcademy Web site (www.BrawnyAcademy.com), in a sort of reality television ad that was at once a winking ironic put-on, elaborate product placement and oddly touching.
Brennan sends his pupils back to their wives and girlfriends newly sensitized. “At the end they’re breaking down and telling their girlfriends and wives how much they care for them; that’s not acting,” Brennan told Buzz on Friday.
And now you can send your husband to a personalized Brawny makeover. On eBay, Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific is offering a one-day training session with its spokes-lumberjack. He’ll travel to the home of the high bidder and teach the man of the house how to put the toilet lid down, presumably. To bid, go to www.ebay.com, Specialty Services, and search for “Brawny.”
Shanice: I’m finally me
Nineteen years in the business, and R&B singer Shanice still hasn’t had the string of drug arrests, bankruptcies or breakdowns to merit a VH1 “Behind the Music” special. What kind of former teen star is she?
Actually, the kind that made her debut at age 14, made a name for herself with the 1991 hit single “I Love Your Smile,” had a quick stint at Atlanta’s now-closed LaFace Records, became a wife (to TV star Flex Alexander) and mother and, yes, is still singing.
Her latest independent record release is titled “Every Woman Dreams,” and she’ll perform from it Oct. 13 at Center Stage. (Eric Benét, Halle Berry’s ex, will headline.)
“This is the best time I’ve ever had in my whole career,” Shanice told Buzz. “I feel I can finally be me. I co-wrote 12 songs. Co-produced. I A&R’d the whole project, meaning I determined what my direction should be.”
Not that she doesn’t appreciate having others weigh in on her music. “It’s funny,” Shanice said. “I’ve been doing a lot of radio dates recently, and at first I didn’t include
‘I Love Your Smile’ in my show. I was thinking, ‘Come on, that was the early ’90s. No one wants to hear that now.’ And people were angry. So now I do it — without that little corny rap, though. I can’t believe no one in my family, none of my friends, didn’t tell me not to do that!”
Celebrity birthdays
Trent Lott, Republican senator from Mississippi, is 65. Reality television mate Sharon Osbourne is 54. Actor Scott Bakula (“Quantum Leap”) is 52. Musician and famous son Sean Lennon is 31.
Contributing: Rodney Ho, Sonia Murray and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Country group was on the road to here, but …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the highlights of this year’s Atlantis Music Conference & Festival — four days of artist showcases, panels and parties in Atlanta — was supposed to be a Thursday evening talk and performance at Smith’s Olde Bar featuring Little Big Town. But the hit-making country quartet, which includes Cornelia’s Kimberly Roads and fellow one-time Georgian Karen Fairchild, got an offer it couldn’t refuse.
The group was in Nashville taping an episode of CMT’s “Crossroads,” a live showcase that puts country and rock acts together, with Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham. The Atlantis show went on, though, with a spirited discussion about the growing role of independent record labels in Nashville, featuring Mike Kraski, a former executive at Sony Music and co-founder with Clint Black of Equity Records, and North Georgia-bred country singer Mark Wills, now on the roster at Equity with Little Big Town. Wills talked about how the big labels tend to put artists in boxes.
“The label I was with before didn’t want to release ‘19 Something,’ which spent seven weeks at No. 1, because I’d never had an uptempo hit,” he said. He then took the stage to perform an acoustic version of the song. The Atlantis Music Conference & Festival wraps up today. Details can be found online at www.atlantismusic.com.
Suing to land J. Lo dollars
A private jet company has sued Jennifer Lopez, saying the singer and actress is late on payments for a pair of chartered flights.
Avjet Corp. of Burbank sued Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking nearly $35,000.
It claims Lopez has yet to pay for two flights on Gulfstream jets from Farmingdale, N.Y. — one to Puerto Rico on Jan. 26, and another to Burbank on May 25.
Each flight cost about $16,000, according to the lawsuit, and with interest the bill totals $34,241.
An invoice lists the passengers as Marco Muniz — the real name of her musician husband, Marc Anthony — and Lopez under the name Jennifer Muniz, along with four other guests.
Calls made after business hours Thursday to Lopez’s attorney and publicist were not immediately returned.
Eva Longoria injured on set
Who knew being a “Desperate Housewife” could be so dangerous? Eva Longoria, who plays saucy Gabrielle Solis on the ABC dramedy, was taken to the hospital after being injured on the set.
“Eva slipped on one of the stairs coming out of her trailer,” her publicist, Liza Anderson, said Thursday. “Nothing is broken, but her ribs are very bruised.”
The 31-year-old actress will not require any time off for the injury.
It was not the first time Longoria needed to be taken to the hospital from a “Housewives” set. In August 2005, she was hit in the head by a piece of equipment and needed emergency attention. Then, too, she didn’t miss any work.
Stronger than margaritas
French authorities reportedly seized more than 100 tabs of club drug Ecstasy from Jimmy Buffett’s luggage this week, according to the New York Post’s Page Six.
The Grammy-winning singer got into trouble when he flew into Toulon-Hyères International Airport in the south of France on a rented private jet and customs officials started poking around in his suitcases. According to press reports there, they uncovered more than 100 tablets of the mind-bending substance.
Buffett, who was on his way to chill out in the ritzy resort town of St. Tropez, was detained, but not arrested, and allowed to go free after paying a fine of 300 euros — about $380. That prompted one local newspaper editorial to term the slap-on-the-wrist punishment “a small amount for a man who makes $70 million a year.”
A spokeswoman for Buffett — whose hits include “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and “Margaritaville” — denied he’d had any Ecstasy in the luggage. The rep insisted, “It was medicine prescribed by his doctor.” But she wouldn’t name the medicine or what ailment Buffett was using it for. She also refused to comment on why, if the substance was legally prescribed, Buffett agreed to pay the fine.
“I don’t have any additional information,” the flack said. Asked to contact Buffett to ask him about the incident, she said, “It’s not going to be possible.” She also insisted the authorities seized only 20 tablets, not the reported 100-plus.
Celebrity birthdays
Today: Musician John Mellencamp is 55. Guitarist Ricky Phillips of Styx is 55. Drummer Tico Torres of Bon Jovi is 53. Gospel singer Michael W. Smith is 49. “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell is 47. Singer Toni Braxton is 39. Singer Taylor Hicks (“American Idol”) is 30.
Sunday: Actor Paul Hogan is 67. Actor-comedian Chevy Chase is 63. Actress Sigourney Weaver is 57. Singer Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool and the Gang is 56. Comedian Darrell Hammond (“Saturday Night Live”) is 51. Bassist C.J. Ramone of the Ramones is 41. Actor-screenwriter Matt Damon is 36.
Contributing: Shane Harrison and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749 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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‘Runway’ fans like Atlanta designer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Although the winner of Bravo’s reality series, “Project Runway,” won’t be revealed until the finale on Oct. 18, Atlantan Michael Knight did pull off a victory Wednesday night — as the fans’ favorite designer.
“I appreciate the fans very much,” said the low-key Knight, after taking the top honor and a check for $10,000. Fans voted electronically.
The latest “Runway” episode was billed as a reunion for this season’s competitors. Even Keith Michael, who had been disqualified for bringing fashion how-to books, returned for the reunion. While Michael dodged responsibility for the incident, he did admit that his “image has been tarnished forever.”
Asked to name the challenge they most enjoyed, designing for dogs garnered most votes. And the most challenging assignment? Designing for real women.
The final four contestants, including Knight, will compete again next week.
Celebrity docket
Georgia native Kim Basinger will go to trial after pleading not guilty to charges of disregarding court orders concerning ex-husband Alec Baldwin’s visitation rights with their daughter.
Court papers filed by Baldwin allege that in 2005, the Academy Award-winning actress ignored court orders by not letting her ex-husband know she would be out of town working so that he could take care of their 10-year-old daughter until she returned.
On one occasion, Basinger also did not tell Baldwin their daughter, Ireland, was injured and required medical help, according to the court papers.
Basinger’s attorney entered the pleas Wednesday on her behalf to 12 misdemeanor counts of criminal contempt. The actress faces up to 60 days in jail and a $12,000 fine if convicted of all counts.
Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Maren E. Nelson set a tentative Jan. 15 date for the trial.
Basinger’s attorney, Neal R. Hersh, waived her right to be present during the trial. Baldwin, who lives in New York, will be among the witnesses at the bench trial, said his attorney, Vicki Greene.
Baldwin, 48, and Basinger, 52, separated in 2000 after seven years of marriage. In March 2004, the two agreed to share custody.
Script sold this actor on ‘We Are Marshall’
Matthew McConaughey says he committed to a role in the locally shot film “We Are Marshall” right after reading the script.
McConaughey plays coach Jack Lengyel, who took over the Marshall University football team after a plane crash killed 75 players, coaches and community members in November 1970.
“There’s two scripts I’ve read in my career — I’ve made 37 films — that as soon as I finished the last page, I said, ‘I’m in, no matter what,’ ” McConaughey said Wednesday.
He named “We Are Marshall” and his first film, 1993’s stoner comedy “Dazed and Confused.”
“I finished the script, and I couldn’t get it off my mind,” he said of “We Are Marshall.” “I had emotions that I haven’t had in a while. I didn’t know this story.”
The film tells the story of the football program’s rebuilding.
The sports flick, due in theaters this holiday season, was shot here and in West Virginia this summer.
Lengyel was hired in March 1971, four months after the team’s chartered jet crashed into a hill in rain and fog short of Huntington, W.Va.’s Tri-State Airport.
Stork report
It’s a girl for film thespians Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard.
The couple welcomed Ramona into the world on Tuesday, Gyllenhaal’s representative, Amanda Silverman, said in a statement. “Mom, dad and baby are healthy and happy,” Silverman said.
In April, Silverman told The Associated Press that Gyllenhaal, 28, and Sarsgaard, 35, were engaged and expecting a baby. It will be the first marriage for both. …
“NoTORIous” star Tori Spelling and her husband, actor Dean McDermott, are, meanwhile, expecting their first child together.
The 33-year-old Spelling, daughter of the late producer Aaron Spelling, will give birth in the spring, Spelling’s representative, Jill Fritzo, told the AP. Buzz readers will recall that the former “Beverly Hills 90210” Donna Martin Silver and hubby were seated several miles apart from her estranged mother, Candy, at this year’s Emmys, when the late “Charlie’s Angels” producer was memorialized. Mother and daughter have been waging a nasty battle over the TV icon’s estate.
At press time, it could not immediately be determined when the happy couple could expect a tastefully wrapped Molotov cocktail through their picture window. …
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Britt Ekland is 64. Singer-songwriter Matthew Sweet is 42. Country singer Tim Rushlow (Little Texas) is 40. Bassist Tommy Stinson (the Replacements, Guns N’ Roses) is 40. Actor Ioan Gruffudd (“Horatio Hornblower”) is 33.
Contributing: 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.
Leon ready for full set of August Wilson plays
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kenny Leon says August Wilson has been on his mind this week. Monday was the first anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist’s death, and on Wednesday, the Kennedy Center in Washington announced that it will stage the entirety of Wilson’s 10-play cycle in 2008.
Leon will serve as artistic director and also stage some of the works.
“It’s been a year since he passed away,” Leon said Wednesday from New York, where he is mounting a show at the Public Theater. “I went by the August Wilson Theater and said a prayer for him, to him. It’s ironic that we are finally doing all 10 of his plays under one roof.”
The artistic director of Atlanta-based True Colors Theatre says he’s figured out a way to do the entire opus with a core repertory group of about 20 actors.
Meanwhile, Leon’s production of “Radio Golf,” the final play in Wilson’s epic cycle, just opened at Boston’s Huntington Theatre and begins its Broadway run May 3. On Nov. 23, Leon starts filming his Tony Award-winning revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” in Toronto. Broadway cast members Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald and Sanaa Lathan will star in the three-hour ABC special.
Beyond Santa’s budget
If you want to buy a holiday gift that’s truly out of this world, look no further than the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book, which hits mailboxes this week.
The 2006 übercatalog offers a cool $1.76 million space charter flight for six that includes a view of Earth and a chance to experience weightlessness. It’s courtesy of Virgin Galactic airline, owned by billionaire Richard Branson.
Or buy your kids their own backyard water park from Waterplay, starting at $100,000. And if you have a fashionista in the family, opt for the archives of the late French couturier Jacques Fath. For $3.5 million, a lucky recipient receives 26 volumes of original sketches, plus three original dresses.
Not everything in this wish book will break the bank. A tin of chocolate chip cookies is $20. A Scottie salt and pepper set is $35, while a Burberry golf cap for him goes for $50.
Didn’t get a Christmas Book? Go online to www.neimanmarcus.com and order your gifts directly from the site. Or you can order the catalog for $15 by calling Neiman Marcus at 1-800-634-6267.
A different kind of tony
Buckhead could soon be in the same neighborhood as “The Sopranos” — on HBO.
The cable network and playwright Beth Henley (“Crimes of the Heart”) are teaming to create a half-hour pilot called “Buckhead Betties.” According to the Hollywood Reporter, the show will focus on four women raising their families in the upscale Atlanta neighborhood. Executive producer Gary Randall described the project as a “social satire comedy.”
“We’ll be dealing with the debutante set and country club charity balls and all of the whimsy, romance and humor of the upper crust of Atlanta society,” Randall told the trade paper. “Beth has a terrific perspective on the world of Southern gentility. We want to shine a spotlight on the fun and insanity of that life.”
And in this corner …
Can Travis Barker really have this effect on women? His estranged wife, Shanna Moakler, was involved in a Los Angeles nightclub fracas with Paris Hilton early Wednesday.
Barker, the drummer for Blink-182, filed for divorce in August from Moakler, a former beauty queen who was recently voted off “Dancing With the Stars.” In September, Barker was videotaped kissing Hilton.
Then Hilton encountered Moakler at the Hyde club in Hollywood. The following is based on reports by police and publicists for both women:
Hilton says Moakler walked up to her, “used the most vile of language” and punched her in her jaw.
Moakler contends she exchanged mere profanities with Hilton, at which point Hilton’s ex-boyfriend Stavros Niarchos emerged, bent Moakler’s wrists, poured a drink on her and shoved her down some stairs.
Hilton, 25, and Moakler, 31, both filed police reports alleging battery. Officer Karen Smith said police took pictures of Moakler and Hilton at the station, and police plan to speak with witnesses at the club.
AC/DC and Air Supply?
For an hour Wednesday, the usually tightly formatted Dave FM took on the slightly more rebellious nature of a noncommercial college radio station. When midday host Mara Davis and Indigo Gal Emily Saliers teamed up for the “Radio Free Lunch” show, listeners didn’t know what to expect next.
Before previewing “I Believe in Love,” from the new Indigo Girls album “Despite Our Differences,” Saliers confessed to writing the love song on the ukulele. Saliers also managed to persuade Davis to play her fave AC/DC track, “Back in Black,” and her cheesy pick, “Lost in Love” by Air Supply. The two then began singing along.
Celebrity birthdays
Cartoonist Bil Keane (“Family Circus”) is 84. Comedian Bill Dana is 82. Singer Richard Street (the Temptations) is 64. Singer-guitarist Steve Miller is 63. Singer Brian Johnson of AC/DC is 59. Actor Jeff Conaway (“Taxi”) is 56. Actress Karen Allen is 55. Author Clive Barker is 54. Singer Bob Geldof is 52. Comedian Bernie Mac is 49. Actress Parminder Nagra (“ER,” “Bend It Like Beckham”) is 31. Actress Kate Winslet (“Titanic”) is 31.
Contributing: Wendell Brock, Marylin Johnson, Tom Sabulis 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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An old problem returns for Bobby Brown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Tuesday, just for kicks, we typed the words “Bobby Brown” and “nonpayment of child support” into the Buzz Central database to see precisely how many times we’ve written about that topic in the past five years. We came up with seven.
Make that eight.
In Massachusetts, Norfolk Probate and Family Court Judge Paula Carey once again has ordered the Alpharetta-based singer arrested if he steps foot in her state after Brown failed to show for a hearing Monday over delinquent child-support payments.
Phaedra Parks, Brown’s Atlanta attorney, explained to The Associated Press that it’s a “very difficult time” for Brown, 37, whose Grimms’ fairy tale marriage to Whitney Houston is coming to an end. She filed for a legal separation last month.
“Whether or not he’s going through a divorce doesn’t negate the fact that he still owes child support relative to his two children that he had prior to his marriage,” Carey said.
Kim Ward, the mother of two of Brown’s children, daughter LaPrincia and son Bobby Jr. (both of whom were prominently featured on the reality series “Being Bobby Brown”), says Brown owes two months’ support, or $11,000.
In June 2004, Brown was sentenced to 90 days in prison for missing three months of payments. That sentence was immediately suspended after Brown made back payments totaling about $15,000.
“It’s just a very difficult time for him, as you can well imagine,” Parks said. “It’s unfortunate we find ourselves back in Boston on this matter.”
In September of last year, Brown assured Carey that he was up to date with his monthly child-support payments and contributions to his children’s educational fund. Carey admonished the singer, calling his earlier excuses “unacceptable.” Carey had issued a warrant for Brown’s arrest in June 2005 after he failed to appear for a compliance hearing. Brown had claimed a stomach virus prevented him from attending that hearing. In 2004, the singer was jailed twice for nonpayment.
We rang Parks on Tuesday to inquire about her client’s plans to address the outstanding payments. At deadline, we were still awaiting an answer.
Rosie-Elisabeth: Round One
Well, it took weeks longer than we would have expected, but the first official live smackdown between new co-workers Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck finally happened on “The View” Tuesday. Alas for Hasselbeck, against the backdrop of Monday’s Amish schoolhouse murders, the conservative ex-“Survivor” bug-eater’s defense of the right to bear arms was perhaps ill-timed.
When O’Donnell raised the topic of the grisly murders by a crazed gunman, Hasselbeck loudly countered: “It’s a constitutional right to bear arms.” O’Donnell snapped back: “Let’s talk instead of yelling.” Hasselbeck replied: “Why does everyone always think I’m yelling?!”
She then went on to ramble about guns helping to protect minorities during segregation “against racist officers.” (All together now: What?) O’Donnell delivered the knockout punch when she stated: “Bottom line is, if that guy didn’t have a gun, those adult women in that schoolhouse never would have left those children alone with him.” The studio audience applauded wildly.
Great Pumpkin checks in
The lobby inside the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Cobb County gets a little less roomy this time of year. We received word Tuesday that the hotel’s annual Great Pumpkin has been selected and arrived in the metro area Monday.
Hotel rep Lisa Hester informs Buzz that this year’s overgrown gourd weighs in at more than 900 pounds. It was raised by a Canadian farmer who took to nourishing the inflated fruit with milk to help increase its size.
The Great Pumpkin should be in the hotel lobby today. Look quick. In mid-November, the over-sized orb gets carved up to make hundreds of pies for local families in need.
A homecoming for Valentino
Well, look at what that flirt Bobby Valentino has become. The R&B singer will be part of the homecoming concert at his alma mater, Clark Atlanta University. It wasn’t that long ago that the mass communications major was earning the attention of the instructors — and causing a little havoc with the female students.
“What I knew about Bobby is that he was in the talent shows,” CAU radio TV and film instructor Andrew Will told Buzz. “He was the type of person that had the personality and energy to actually make it. He was always around, sitting in my office, joking. And he was that ‘player’ type, in a sense. The female students used to say ‘Bobby always hits on me.’ At the same time, he did get his work done.”
Now, Valentino has enjoyed a No. 1 single (“Slow Down”) and has a sophomore CD due in stores Nov. 14. “Oh I’m sure the reaction will be a little different,” the vocalist said slyly. “I’ve always dreamed of doing something like this. And I’m going to have a lot of fun. When I was in school, there was a lot of rap concerts during homecoming. I’m glad they decided to let a singer in the mix. Their own singer.”
Valentino will join Yung Joc, Disturbing Tha Peace labelmate Shareefa and others tonight at Panther Stadium.
Celebrity birthdays
Actor Charlton Heston is 82. Author Anne Rice is 65. Actress Susan Sarandon is 60. Rap producer Russell Simmons is 49. Country singer-guitarist Heidi Newfield of Trick Pony is 36. Singer Jessica Benson of 3LW is 18.
Contributing: Sonia Murray and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Picture this: Packed new gallery
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When we emerge at our final destination somewhere south of the Earth’s crust, chances are excellent it will closely resemble Saturday night’s grand opening of Vaknin at 905 Juniper St. in Midtown.
The debut of the latest art gallery from real estate agent Uri Vaknin featured a wall-to-wall smorgasbord of the city’s notable partygoers all neatly wedged in place, a hearing-impaired DJ, a serious scarcity of flow and approximately 200 people standing between you and a plastic cup of pinot grigio.
Still, the reason to endure all these social not-so-niceties was the gallery’s opening exhibition artist, acclaimed Atlanta photographer Harriet Leibowitz. The longtime shutterbug’s latest show, “Visceral Beauty,” represents a skin-filled, edgy departure for Leibowitz, featuring showering male nudes, tatted-up toughs and some boy-on-boy bedroom action.
Leibowitz told us she shot the series of color photographs at the Clermont Lounge on Ponce de Leon Avenue and a vacant warehouse space on MLK Drive.
“For a middle-aged grandmother, showing this work took a lot of courage,” she explained. “Before this, all my work has been so idealized and controlled. It was time to depict those more visceral images that transfix us all.”
Adding to the impact, Leibowitz invited all of the exhibit’s models to the opening. All of her subjects remained clothed in person.
The gallery’s fedora-festooned owner, meanwhile, kept busy greeting old friends at his new space.
Attendees included hairstylists Carey Carter and Richie Arpino, photographer Jeff Slate, Atlanta Peach editor Elizabeth Roth, Pecan Pie Couture owner Clint Zeagler and charitable fund-raiser Elizabeth Morgan Spiegel.
From our preferred perch out on the sidewalk near the gallery’s plate-glass windows, we asked Spiegel for her reaction to the exhibit.
“Believe it or not, I have seen some racier things in my life,” she quipped. “I thought it was all quite nice.”
Just then, perhaps fearing the crowd had somehow been underexposed to Justin Timberlake’s omnipresent single “SexyBack,” a helpful gallery worker arrived outside to crank up the DJ’s external speaker.
One curious absence at the gathering? Vaknin’s über-publicist, Liz Lapidus. We were told that she was in Portland, Ore., for the weekend. In response to our logical follow-up, yes, Lapidus’ assistant assured us, the trip was indeed voluntary.
Ex-DJ back at 99X
“I’m Sean Demery, and I’m back to haunt you again.”
99X turned back the clock Monday morning by bringing back Demery, the station’s afternoon jock from the 1990s, and making him the lead host on “The New Morning X” show.
The rock station is hoping Demery will help resurrect its ratings, which have slipped markedly over the past five years.
Rumors of Demery’s return started in early August on the AJC Radio Talk board. At the time, he said he wasn’t interested. But a few weeks later, he quit his job as program director at Live 105 in San Francisco and rejoined his old friend Leslie Fram in Atlanta.
Cumulus Media, the Atlanta broadcasters who purchased 99X this year, wanted an older-sounding, more female-friendly morning show, leading to the departure of Fred Toucher in the spring.
The two newcomers on the show are Rob Jenners, 28, who last worked at a “Regular Guys”-style morning show in Miami, and Monti Carlo, a 31-year-old standup comic who used to do traffic for Z93 (now Dave FM) from 2000 to 2002. Having never worked as a quartet before, they did trial runs last week to get used to each other.
“I want it to be a continuation of the original ‘Morning X,’ really topical, really pop culture oriented,” Fram told Buzz, referencing the popular 99X team that lasted from 1993 to 2003 with Jimmy Baron, Steve Barnes and Fram.
The first day on-air featured an interview with Kiefer Sutherland, a bit in which Monti Carlo quizzed drunk folks at Smith’s Olde Bar, a parody song about immigration and a new tune from the band Incubus.
Sick bay
On Friday, Q100 and Jezebel magazine shopping corespondent Jessica Dauler was jolted back to reality after a weekend spent at Diddy’s Hamptons house in New York.
Dauler was exiting an I-285 ramp in her 2006 Mercedes convertible when she looked in her rearview mirror. To her horror, there was a pickup headed straight for her.
“He didn’t even attempt to hit the brakes,” Dauler told us Monday. “I just braced myself for the impact. I don’t remember much. I’m lucky to be alive.” With the back of her car “gone,” Dauler told us she also sustained back and neck injuries and has a lingering headache.
Dauler had high praise for her decision to purchase a German-made automobile. Miraculously, at press time Monday, Dauler had not yet been offered a Mercedes endorsement deal. …
Celebrity birthdays
Singer Chubby Checker is 65. Magician Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy is 62. Singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac is 57. Drummer Tommy Lee (Motley Crue) is 44. Singer Gwen Stefani of No Doubt is 37. Actress Keiko Agena (“Gilmore Girls”) is 33. Stone Mountain-based singer India Arie is 31. Actor Seann William Scott (“Dukes of Hazzard,” “American Pie”) is 30. Singer Ashlee Simpson is 22.
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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Cross gets freaky in TV cartoon; is cuddly next?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Roswell native David Cross — a quirky, acerbic comic best known for his oddball character Tobias on the cult classic sitcom “Arrested Development” — has gotten into the cartoon business.
A few years ago, that might have been considered strange, but with the success of adult-oriented ‘toons such as “South Park,” “Family Guy” and the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup, Cross’ “Freak Show,” at 10:30 p.m. this Wednesday on Comedy Central, fits right in.
The premise: A group of carnival freaks (“and I don’t mean ‘freaks’ in a pejorative sense,” Cross told Buzz) do top-secret work for the Pentagon. The twist: They do menial jobs that the “Justice Squad” superheroes won’t deign to do. In the first episode, the freaks, including a Log Cabin Republican and a preemie baby whose power is projectile vomiting, get special nuts for the president from a Cubalike island where such nuts are embargoed. This is not “The Powerpuff Girls.”
“It’s how my mind works,” Cross said.
Cross and fellow comic H. Jon Benjamin picked Atlanta-based studio Radical Axis to do the “Freak Show” animation. (Visually, the show evokes a bit of the Adult Swim classic “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”) Using Radical Axis, Cross said jokingly, saved him money because he stayed with his sister instead of at a hotel when in Atlanta from New York. While here, he also hangs with old buddies at the EARL, Smith’s Olde Bar or the Star Bar.
Random question: What adjective has never been used to describe Cross in a news story? “Cuddly,” he replied. Most overused? “Edgy.” So, bottom line: He’s cuddly, not edgy!
Say goodbye to Mulligan’s
Mulligan’s, a nondescript Oakhurst tavern, briefly became Jay Leno’s favorite punch line last year with the Hamdog.
AJC scribe John Kessler described this culinary creation as “a hot dog padded with sliced cheese and a half pound of hamburger, dropped in the deep fryer, bedded like the reclining Olympia on a hoagie roll, then lavished with chili, bacon, onions and a fried egg.”
In other words, a gastronomical, artery-clogging nightmare.
The tavern got tons of press, fueling business for a while. But once the hype died down, it couldn’t sustain the momentum. Mulligan’s shut down Saturday night.
But manager Shawn “Smack” McElroy promised Buzz on Friday that “the Hamdog and the Luther won’t die,” referring to the Luther Vandross-inspired burger featuring a Krispy Kreme doughnut as the bun. “They’ll resurface somewhere else.”
With his five-year lease up, Chandler Goff said he had hoped to close on Friday the 13th of this month, but landlord Bruce Cohen closed him down Saturday. Cohen declined to comment Friday evening.
On Saturday, Buzz wanted to sample the Hamdog and the Luther, but in an unexpected twist, manager Smack gave Buzz a verbal smackdown and angrily kicked us out. Befuddled, Buzz reached Goff, who was out of town, by phone. Goff said it was a misunderstanding, that he merely had told his employees not to talk about the landlord. Smack, he said, overreacted.
Headed toward Bone-thin
Bone Crusher, the good-natured local rap star, is enjoying his newfound fame after losing 40-plus pounds on VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club 4,” which concluded last night.
“I’ve been taking pictures with elderly white people,” Bone told Buzz with a chuckle Sunday. “I’m in the Kroger. They come up to you. ‘Hey, aren’t you that young fella from “Celebrity Fit Club”?’ ‘Yah. That’s me.’ ‘Good job, man. I’m proud of you.’ It’s hilarious.”
Bone, who wasn’t suffering from any known medical problems despite his 424 pounds entering the competition, showed surprising dexterity climbing stairs and bicycling. Among his colleagues were ultracompetitive actors Nick Turturro and Ted Lange and often-difficult R&B singer Angie Stone.
“She was going through a lot with her career,” Bone said. “She’s a beautiful person. She just tried to do her thing.”
Now down to 371 pounds, Bone said he plans to do a fitness video for bigger folks who are intimidated or discouraged watching skinny-people videos. He’s also starting his own record label, judging a future episode of “Iron Chef America” and pondering a return to “Celebrity Fit Club.” “I’d like to get down to 300 pounds,” he said.
Putting worst foot forward
In a goofy 30-year tradition, members of the Atlanta Press Club gathered Saturday night to laugh at silly outtakes of local media snafus (CNN and the Weather Channel included). Fox affiliate WAGA-TV seems to take this exercise most seriously and won for best blooper reel for the fourth year in a row. (Judges included former Gov. Roy Barnes.) WAGA had plenty of fodder, thanks to “Good Day Atlanta.” This meant that the show’s hosts, Mark Hayes and Suchita Vadlamani, took the brunt of it, including Hayes dancing and Vadlamani flirting with Atlanta Braves second baseman Marcus Giles. Her colleagues on the air naturally teased about “going to second base” or even third.
Celebrity birthdays
Singer Don McLean is 61. Musician Sting is 55. Actress Lorraine Bracco (“The Sopranos”) is 52. Singer Freddie Jackson is 48. Actress and talk show host Kelly Ripa is 36. Singer Tiffany is 35.
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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Cooking-scene Deen brothers doing demos
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here at Buzz Central, we typically refer to breakfast as the last meal of our workday. On Friday morning, we made a notable exception for Jamie and Bobby Deen, the sons of Food Network goddess Paula Deen. The hosts of Food Network’s new “Road Tasted” prime-time series are in Atlanta this weekend to host cooking demonstrations at the Atlanta Home Show at Cobb Galleria Centre.
Over Corner Cafe omelets (Jamie automatically scored our approval by playfully mocking Bobby and Buzz for ordering the more health-conscious egg white varieties with dry wheat toast), Paula’s boys ribbed each other while discussing their new TV career. Both Deen brothers say they love the premise of the series, which chronicles the guys as they visit family-owned eateries around the country and meet the creators of some unique foodstuffs. While the popular show has been picked up for a second season, the Deens allowed that there was a learning curve while shooting the first season.
“We had to figure out the difference between being high energy and screaming!” Jamie, 39, said.
Added Bobby, 36: “By Episode 8, it was like, ‘Um, guys, you know, calm down.’ “
The pair just wrapped a “Road Tasted: Home for the Holidays” Christmas special in their hometown of Savannah, where the family business, the Lady and Sons, remains one of the port city’s biggest tourist draws.
“The city is about to install a stop sign in front of the restaurant for safety reasons,” Jamie explained.
“When fans of Mama’s TV show see it for the first time, it’s like they’re in a trance or something,” Bobby said.
Jamie also pulled out his cellphone to show us a photo of his adorable 5-week-old son, Jack, with his wife, Brooke. “I gained all this sympathy weight with Brooke while shooting the show last summer,” Jamie said. “But Brooke got to lose 20 pounds in one day. I didn’t!”
The Deen brothers also have “A Fork in the Road,” a travel/cookbook culled from their first season, coming in April. Around that time, their mama also will be on the road, promoting her inspirational memoir. She recently gave her sons advance copies to read for approval.
Running a hand over his temple, Jamie cracked: “See all this gray? That was caused by reading Mama’s memoirs.”
The Deens will host cooking demos at noon, 2 and 6 p.m. today at the Atlanta Home Show.
Before cleaning their breakfast plates, they also managed to pay Buzz the ultimate compliment in a week where we already received our own Woodruff Park chair and a nod in Creative Loafing.
Jamie told us: “You may not realize it, but for mom-and-pop restaurants like the Lady and Sons, getting a mention in Peach Buzz is a big deal.”
A surprise ‘Party’
Let’s hope that sentiment translates into tickets for Paula Deen’s new shot-in-Savannah, Food Network series, “Paula’s Party,” which was to debut at 10 p.m. Friday. Interestingly, the first show aired wasn’t the show sent out in advance to us scribbler types. So we actually have advance scoop for you on the “Lovin’ Spoonfuls” episode, now set to air Oct. 13. In it, Deen greets her audience, saying, “We’re gonna get romantical, y’all!” For the next hour, she makes cookies, kisses guests, mixes a wedding cake (with help from the audience) in three minutes and nearly sets the set on fire while grilling oysters with too much butter. Feeding oxtails to a female audience member, Paula coos, “Ooooh, look at your jewelry. You’ve been doing something right, girl!” While the production includes a high-tech hand-held camera for Deen to showcase food and photos on a large screen, “Party” producers wisely avoid slicking things up too much. Deen mixes dough with her wedding-ring-laden hands and utilizes heart-stopping amounts of butter. And at one point, this “Party” hostess tells her guests, while swiping her face: “I’m sweating like a fat girl writin’ a love letter, y’all!”
Overscene
It’s almost a given that a CD release party for a local background singer-turned-solo act would draw one or two fellow local musicians. But the artists that attended Anthony David’s party/performance this week at Center Stage could have made one or two remarkable CDs — at least. Singers India Arie, Laurnea, Slick & Rose, Algebra, Keisha Jackson, Nadirah Shakoor, Frank McComb, guitarist Earl Klugh, guitarist-producer Freddy Luster, DJs Cha Cha Jones, Applejack, Jamal Ahmad and Morris Baxter and — get this — Red from early-’90s teen rap group Another Bad Creation were spotted at David’s celebration of his second solo effort, “The Red Clay Chronicles.”
Atlanta R&B pinup Ciara, meanwhile, was spotted at Tower Records in Buckhead, where she was picking a handful of new CDs, including Janet Jackson, Ludacris and Fergie. Two of each, to be exact. “I just like to support other artists,” said the singer, adding she was headed to Nigeria for a performance this weekend. “I may not even get a chance to listen to all of the stuff I buy. But I always buy.”
‘Masquerade’-ing Minnelli
We didn’t believe that Liza Minnelli’s on-screen life could get any weirder than her real life. And then we got word Friday that the Oscar winner will be playing a decidedly Patsy Ramsey-inspired guest role on an upcoming episode of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”
Minnelli, 59, will play a former beauty queen whose daughter, an aspiring beauty queen, is found murdered on Halloween night, said Pam Golum, a spokeswoman for Wolf Films, which produces the NBC show.
The episode, called “Masquerade,” is filming now and will air during November sweeps, Golum said. At press time Friday, Buzz had already pulled out the martini shaker and the Jiffy Pop and was selecting a final design for invitations. …
Celebrity birthdays
Today: Actress Deborah Kerr is 85. Author Elie Wiesel is 78. Singer Cissy Houston is 73. Singer Johnny Mathis is 71. Actor Barry Williams (“The Brady Bunch”) is 52. Singer Trey Anastasio (Phish) is 42. Actress Jenna Elfman (“Dharma and Greg”) is 35.
Sunday: Actress-singer Julie Andrews is 71. Actor Stephen Collins (“7th Heaven”) is 59. Actor Randy Quaid is 56.
Contributing: Sonia Murray and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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