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UGA grad gets tough, survives second shot
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After 16 cycles, CBS’ aging reality show “Survivor” Sunday finally crowned a winner with Atlanta ties: Parvati Shallow.
Known on the show as “Parv,” the 25-year-old won with a mix of smart, strategic play and social skills honed at Sprayberry High School (2000) and the University of Georgia (2004). She’s now running a charity to teach boxing to underprivileged kids in Los Angeles.
This edition of “Survivor” distinguished itself via a series of blindsides and stupid moves. In the end, Shallow beat Amanda Kimmel five votes to three. She swayed the jury, including all the women, with a more straightforward argument why she deserved the $1 million.
“I think those girls appreciated that I played a very aggressive game and I didn’t make any apologizes for the moves I made,” she told Buzz Monday. She thinks the ladies didn’t buy Kimmel’s tears when she chose to nix wily Cirie Fields. And after playing back-to-back “Survivor” games, Kimmel was just emotionally exhausted by that point, Shallow said.
After Shallow came in sixth on “Survivor: Cook Islands,” producers gave her a second shot as part of a group of 10 returning “fan favorites” competing against 10 fans. This time, Shallow decided to play tougher.
She made an alliance early on with Fields and Kimmel, then helped blindside the show’s biggest threat, Ozzy Lusth. She and the other women also guilted doe-eyed Erik Reichenbach into giving up his Immunity Idol last week. “Dumbest move in Idol history!” Shallow said to the cameras as she voted him off.
Shallow, who was in metro Atlanta last Thursday for her sister’s college graduation, watched the second-to-last show with her family and friends in Alpharetta.
She said Micronesia was much harsher than Cook Islands: “It rained all the time. There were bugs, bats, rats everywhere. My legs were full of bug bites. The cameras panned up my legs on Exile Island. It was so gross!” But those battle scars earned her a boatload of cash.
SICK BAY UPDATE
Toni Braxton’s return to the stage on the Las Vegas strip has been pushed back for at least another month.
A spokeswoman for Harrah’s Entertainment says the target date to resume “Toni Braxton: Revealed” at the Flamingo Las Vegas hotel is now June 6.
The part-time Alpharetta resident’s show has been dark since the singer was hospitalized overnight for chest pain on April 7.
The spokeswoman says she can’t comment about Braxton’s medical condition. The 40-year-old entertainer has been treated in the past for pericarditis, a viral inflammation of the heart.
Braxton’s two-year run at the Flamingo Las Vegas is scheduled to end in August.
CELEBRITY DOCKET
Last we reported on Atlanta rapper Baby D, it was about him being in an Ohio jail — without bond — following his arrest for allegedly trafficking cocaine.
Well, he’s still there.
But at least now he sees a bit of daylight.
Baby D rang his mother, who in turn rang us, to let his Atlanta fans know, “I’m cool, cool. Just holding it down until my court date, May 20. Hopefully I can get a bond. … I will be exonerated on all charges.”
(D also has three pending assault charges in Tennessee, according to his Koch Records label).
“It’s just a little misconception,” he said. “We’ll be able to answer to that, and the other one. People just try to make you guilty by association. And it’s all about the facts.”
The member of Atlanta’s Big Oomp camp noted that he’s been reading a lot since he was locked up on March 26. “Sometimes if you disappear for a minute it makes people anticipate you’re coming back. So maybe this is a blessing in disguise.”
D also added that his latest CD, “A-Town Secret Weapon” — released this month — “is doing really well. … My fans stick by me and have stayed loyal.”
FALLON BACK UP ‘LATE’ ON NBC
Former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Jimmy Fallon is succeeding Conan O’Brien as the host of NBC’s “Late Night” sometime next year.
“I’ve been doing a monologue in my living room the last three years and it was embarrassing,” Fallon joked at a news conference.
NBC’s plan is to have O’Brien move west to take over for Jay Leno at the “Tonight” show next year. After a break to refurbish the Rockefeller Center studio where O’Brien now works, the 33-year-old Fallon will take over.
The Fallon transition is being managed by his former “Saturday Night Live” boss, Lorne Michaels.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actress Bea Arthur is 86. Actor Harvey Keitel is 69. Singer Stevie Wonder is 58. Comedian Stephen Colbert “The Colbert Report”) is 44. Singer Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish is 42. Drummer Andy Williams of Casting Crowns is 36. Bassist Mickey Madden of Maroon 5 is 29.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
‘Now, he’ll be accused of elder abuse.’
— “View” co-host Joy Behar on Alec Baldwin’s sometimes fractious interview with Morley Safer on “60 Minutes” Sunday after the 76-year-old interviewer used a “judgmental tone” with the “30 Rock” actor while asking about his now-infamous voice mail message to his daughter Ireland in 2006.
Contributing: Rodney Ho, Sonia Murray and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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