New url for Peach Buzz
Bookmark this new url for Peach Buzz.. We have moved to Wordpress!
Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 16 > Entry
Have trunk, will travel: Elephant for sale
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Want to get our attention on a frigid Friday afternoon while we’re busy sweeping up those last Godiva wrappers and deflating those heart-shaped Mylar balloons still hovering around at Buzz Central?
Two words: elephant robot.
That’s what the always interesting Atlanta auctioneer Bob Brown has on the block at 2 p.m. today at his Red Baron Antiques on Roswell Road. The 20-foot-tall mechanical elephant was built in 1947 by Englishman Frank Stuart, whose family still owns it. It’s one of only three ever made (the others are in museums in Austria and Chicago), and it was most notably ridden by Dwight D. Eisenhower at the 1952 Republican National Convention in Chicago and later at his inaugural. The gasoline-powered pachyderm is actually registered and licensed as an automobile. “It works good,” Red Baron owner Brown told Buzz on Friday. “We’ve driven it down Roswell Road, and people just freak out. It can get up to 20 miles per hour. It kind of handles like a bulldozer. It’s sort of a mechanical nightmare.” Still, folks are lined up from around the globe to bid on the oddity, including Ripley’s Believe It or Not and a small slew of private collectors. Brown says the opening bid on the (oh, heck, we’ve got to use it one more time) elephant robot will be $100,000, and bidding could go as high as half a million dollars. Only in-person bidders and phone bidders who call 404-252-3770 can get in on the auction action. As for our obvious question, Brown informed Buzz: “She actually gets pretty good gas mileage. The thing’s got a 3 1/2 gallon tank. She’s never run out of gas on us.” For hostessing only
It’s probably a positive thing that the champagne will be flowing today at the closing soiree for the collection of aprons by Atlanta designer Eve Mannes hanging at Uri Vaknin gallery in Midtown. The frilly kitchen staples range from $45 to $400. “The price usually relates to the level of workmanship and fabrics like silk used,” Vaknin gallery’s Pam Moore told us Friday. “And these are more like the hostess aprons your mother wore. You don’t really cook in them.” Well, unless a gravy splotch on a $400 apron doesn’t put a ruffle in your pleats, that is. The reception runs from 2 to 5 p.m. Call: 404-513-0169. An unexpected ‘Ugly’ vote
B98.5 FM Kelly and Alpha morning show producer/human piñata Will Gara got an unexpected endorsement as he competes with 23 other DJs across the country for a trip to Los Angeles to meet the cast of “Ugly Betty” on the set of the comedy. ABC’s “Ugly Betty: A Face for Radio DJ Contest” asks listeners to go to www.pciasp.com/uglybettycontest/selectphoto.aspx and vote on which radio guy is the most hideous in his cross-dressing Betty garb. Listeners can win a vacation to Cancun, Mexico. Gara has risen to the fifth spot in the contest that ends Feb. 28. E-mailed Gara to Buzz Central: “I got a ‘I voted for you’ e-mail from my ex-wife, who I haven’t talked to or seen in 15 years.” Gara theorized that someone e-mailed our previous item on the contest to her in Connecticut. Cracked Gara: “You know how you always hope to look your best before bumping into an ex? Well, so much for that.” Very bad hair day
For scribblers like us, rapper Foxy Brown is a gift that keeps on giving. Brown spent a night in jail after police said she threw hair glue at a Florida beauty shop employee and later swatted an officer, her second legal problem stemming from a salon-related scuffle. The rapper, 27, was expected to leave jail Friday after a $1,500 bond was posted for her, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said. She was charged with battery and resisting an officer with violence. Brown’s lawyer, John Sampson, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear how the arrest would affect her sentence of three years’ probation and anger management classes for attacking a pair of manicurists in New York City in 2004. According to the Florida arrest report, Brown was applying beauty products in the bathroom when a Queen Beauty Supply employee told her the business was closed and it was time to leave. She refused and threw hair glue at the employee, the report said. Brown then spat on the man as he called 911, staining his shirt. A police officer had to “use a takedown maneuver to gain control” of Brown, according to the report. At press time Friday, Buzz was still preoccupied with visualizing what that particular hot mess looked like.…
UNCOUPLING
Singer Chris Cornell is leaving rock group Audioslave, citing “irresolvable personality conflicts as well as musical differences” in a statement. “I wish the other three members nothing but the best in all of their future endeavors.” Cornell, 42, said he’ll release a solo album May 1 called “Carry On.”
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Saturday: Actor Hal Holbrook is 82. Comedian Larry the Cable Guy (above) is 44. Actor Dominic Purcell (“Prison Break”) is 37.
Sunday: Author Toni Morrison is 76. Vocalist Yoko Ono is 74. Actress Cybill Shepherd is 57. Actor John Travolta is 53. Actor Matt Dillon is 43. Rapper Dr. Dre is 42.
Contributing: News services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By jonny5
February 17, 2007 9:55 PM | Link to this
jonny10