Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Margaret Cho has more than a few reasons to be bitter: At 8, Margaret Cho’s classmates dubbed her “Pee Girl.” At 12, she was ostracized by kids at church. At 14, she was raped by a 22-year-old man she met at a party. And at 16, Cho began a year-long relationship with a 26-year-old who tried to convince her to engage in a threesome.
Those shiny, pristine CD-like discs are my obsession. Each time I get a new one, it’s like I’m getting a sweet gift. Besides their affordable price, they are a movie buff’s dream. Sure, there’s the prime attraction of the movie. But most discs contain myriad treats, such as the director’s commentary, alternate endings, the option to watch the film with subtitles or listen to it in a foreign language, interviews with the cast and so on.
Harry Potter fans got a sneak peek at the highly anticipated movie Thursday when Warner Bros. put up the film’s first trailer on the Internet. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” won’t be in theaters until Nov. 16, but fans may catch the nearly two-minute trailer at www.warnerbros.com.
There was a little of everything at the Backstreet Boys’ concert Monday night at the Allstate Arena, from pyrotechnics to druids to ballerinas. But for the youngsters who filled the venue to capacity, all that could have disappeared, and they still would have been happy just to see–and, I guess, hear–Nick Carter, Brian Littrell, Kevin Richardson, A.J. McLean and Howie Dorough do what they do.
In the last few seconds of 2000, Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins was in a friendly frenzy at the House of Blues. He had picked out a young woman from the audience whom he wanted onstage NOW to help him count down to the new year. The timing wasn’t perfect, but his efforts didn’t go unappreciated by the capacity crowd of revelers–or the beaming fan who got to hug and briefly chat with all the members of the band–who joined in the countdown, clinked their champagne glasses together and kissed their dates as colorful balloons fell from the rafters.
Six years ago, I fell in love. Hard. Not with a man, but with a television sitcom called “Friends.” I loved it so much that in 1995, I wrote a book about the series called Best of Friends (HarperPerennial). For the record, I never wrote a book about any of my ex-boyfriends.
I narrate the show and it’s a very sexually oriented series. And I do start the show saying, “It’s all about sex.” But it’s also very relationship driven. We deal with a lot of other issues besides sex. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’re not just a gay show. I think it’d be funny if we were a gay version of the “Sopranos.” We bring a guy in who thinks he’s going to get a makeover and instead, we whack him!
“God, Sex & Apple Pie” is being marketed as the next “Big Chill.” “Little Shiver” is more like it.
Two bicyclists, a chair and a tightrope. No, that’s not the name of a new ABC sitcom, but the components of the most thrilling act at this year’s Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, which opened Wednesday night at Allstate Arena. Madrid’s Quiros High Wire troupe easily stole the show–not a simple feat considering the competition, which included dancing horses, impeccably trained elephants and the freakishly talented acrobat who, suspended from the ceiling by just her hair, juggled flaming batons.
A model stares at the camera. She is beautiful and her expression is blank. “It was fun,” she says of her life. “It was all fun, until it was not fun.” For the viewer, “Stardom” is not so much fun.
One out of every four homes in North America has a first-generation PlayStation. And it looks like a good chunk of those households are jonesing to get their hands on the new version of game console. PS2, which doubles as an entertainment center (it can play audio CDs and DVDs), promises mind-blowing graphics and sound.
Who would’ve thought that a turtle could go up against Jackie Chan and hold his own? Not long after battling evil as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, former Chicagoan Ho-Sung Pak found himself playing the heavy opposite Jackie Chan in “The Legend of Drunken Master.”
In “MVP,” the hero is an adorable little chimp named Jack who lives at a university. We are told that he is a genius. He certainly is clever and can in-line skate with the best of them, but he doesn’t exhibit any signs of true genius. Compared to most of the adults in the film, sure he’s bright. But then again, most of the kids in the movie are smarter than them, too.
Jakob Dylan’s best songs capture the frailties of human nature. On “Breach”–the latest album by his band, the Wallflowers–Dylan goes a step further, allowing fans to explore all the things he was reticent to talk about in the past (e.g. his famous dad, Bob). At a sold-out concert Thursday night at Metro, Dylan led the group through a superb set that showcased the new, paid homage to the old with a faithful rendition of their breakthrough hit “6th Avenue Heartache,” and included a dead-on cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes.”
Candace Bushnell is walking down Michigan Avenue smoking a Merit. She is chic, blond and a dead ringer for Peggy Lipton during her “Mod Squad” heyday. A woman walks by pushing a pram occupied by a tiny baby and an equally small dog. Bushnell sneaks a quick peek and says, “It makes me want to have a baby just so that I could accessorize it with a dog.”
“Toy Story” begins in a young boy’s bedroom. When the household isn’t looking, the toys come to life. Their feelings mirror that of human beings. They get jealous, flirt and long for home. All the favorites from the movie version are here, though Woody the cowboy is more loose limbed and fey than his big-screen counterpart. His rival, Buzz Lightyear, doesn’t realize that he’s a toy and believes that he actually is a space ranger. Had he looked in the mirror, the big-chinned toy would’ve realized that he really was Jay Leno’s doppelganger.
A youngster, a stripper and gangsters galore mix things up in the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s latest production, “Jazz Triple,” the uniquely inventive ballet program that will be presented Tuesday through Oct. 7 at the Auditorium Theatre.
“Heard any good stories lately? I’ve got a good one. And this one really happened.” And so begins “Urbania,” a superbly crafted film that will leave moviegoers both unsettled and captivated by the time the closing credits roll.
As Galileo Galilei once described it, the sun is as spotty as a teenager. And the general audience gets a chance to see the sun in all its magnificence and fury in “Solarmax”–the latest giant-screen IMAX film to screen at the Museum of Science and Industry’s Omnimax Theater.
A couple of words about Dogstar. No, Keanu Reeves doesn’t sing. And yes, the band can play. At a free, 45-minute concert at the House of Blues Monday night, the three-man group rocked hard onstage, lending a punky edge to the material. Much of Dogstar’s set list was culled from “Happy Ending,” its newly released U.S. debut album.