Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
For all the hammering that boy bands get, the Backstreet Boys were the perfect group to see Saturday night. Just a couple weeks after the terrorist attacks on the United States and talks of impending war, it was a relief to lose yourself in a two-hour show where all you had to worry about was not getting hit with a flying stuffed animal. The Backstreet Boys show was all about fun.
“China: The Panda Adventure” won’t tell you anything about the giant panda that a Discovery Channel special doesn’t do better. But what the IMAX picture can do is present the magnificent beauty of China and its gorgeous giant pandas on a 6-story, 80-foot screen.
“You know the part in scary movies where somebody does something really stupid and everybody hates them for it?,” Trish says to her thrill-seeking brother, Darry, in the horror film “Jeepers Creepers.” “Well, this is it.” Right on cue, lil’ bro’ falls down a drainage pipe that leads to a deserted church basement decorated in tacky 1970s gore. There are a few hundred dead (but incredibly well-preserved) bodies here, a sutured stomach or neck part there. Nothing he can’t handle. Yet.
But make no mistake: Though Beyonce Knowles and Kelly Rowland may have started the group, Knowles is the primary destined child. The trio knows it, too. The women recently appeared on the cover of Vibe magazine made up like vintage Supremes. Guess who got to be Diana Ross?
These are fighting times for Kevin Smith, the director and star of “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” First the gay and lesbian anti-defamation organization GLAAD had a bone to pick with him. Then Tim Burton got into the act.
You’ve got to feel a little bad for the Chicago cast of “The Real World.” The seven young ‘uns probably thought they’d get to live rent-free for the summer in a way-cool house in way-cool Wicker Park, hang with a Pumpkin or two and use the MTV soap opera-style documentary to launch their 15 minutes of fame.
He came out in a thong and little else. Unfortunately for the capacity crowd of (predominantly) women who came Monday night to see actor Russell Crowe in the first of two sold-out House of Blues shows, the thong wasn’t on the studly Oscar winner. It was worn by an aboriginal dancer who seemed to scare some members of the audience with his jolting moves.
Ho-Sung Pak went from portraying a Ninja Turtle to choreographing the kung fu segments for Madonna’s current tour. As co-owner of martial arts gym Pow! in the West Loop, Pak splits his time between L.A. and Chicago.
Wanna meet the woman behind Sex & the City? Meet Candace Bushnell at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Barnes & Noble, 1441 W. Webster, when she’ll read from her latest book Four Blondes (Atlantic Monthly Press, $12). Meanwhile, she opens up about nagging, her boyfriend and the contents of her purse.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to make love with your partner three to five times a week. Now if you’re wondering how the heck you’re going to squeeze all that nooky into your busy schedule–the kids, the job, the social and community duties–perhaps you need to go on a diet, a sex diet. This concept is designed to let you have more, not less, whoopee, according to Laura Corn, in her new book.
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.