Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
See Tarzan skate. See Jane swoon. See Tarzan and Jane swing on vines through the air . . . with their ice skates on. “Disney’s Jungle Adventures on Ice” takes three beloved Disney stories–“The Jungle Book,” “Tarzan” and “The Lion King”–and gives them a twist for the 21st century. The vignette for “The Jungle Book,” for instance, incorporates hip-hop beats into the remastered score.
So you wouldn’t know Pokemon from Gumby’s pal Pokey. That’s OK. The producers of “Pokemon-Live!” promise that even adults will understand the concept of the stage production, which is based on the Japanese video game phenomenon that spawned an animated TV series as well as a couple of feature films.
Nina Gordon talks about her support for her former Veruca Salt bandmate Louise Post, her childhood fascination with Scott Baio and her impending tour to promote “Tonight and the Rest of My Life.”
The first time we got a look at Madonna in a wedding dress, she was writhing around onstage in a PG-13 performance of “Like a Virgin” at the 1984 MTV Music Awards. A year later, she donned a wedding gown for real when she married actor Sean Penn.
Lil’ Bow Wow is 13, loves basketball and has gone on tour with ‘N Sync. And when he made an appearance at Evergreen Plaza in southwest suburban Evergreen Park recently for a CD signing, more than 10,000 fans showed up. Not bad for a kid still in grammar school.
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!
There are times when Amy Morton would rather not be directing_like when she perceives that her actors don’t like her. Never mind that it’s all in her head.
Brian Liesegang, front man for American Sunshine and former member of Nine Inch Nails and Filter, lives in Lincoln Park.
What the Spice Girls want–what they really, really want–is another hit album. But if early sales reports are any indication, their latest record “Forever” isn’t going to cut it.
As a 12-year-old in 1952, Bernard Shaw already was honing the skills that would make him one of the country’s top journalists. With his polite demeanor, intelligence and persistence, the scrappy kid from Chicago finessed his way into the Democratic Party convention_a feat he repeated four years later.
Karen Duffy is digging around her purse. She isn’t looking for lipstick, mints or a comb. She is looking for morphine. The raven-haired former MTV veejay suffers from sarcoidosis, an incurable disease that attacks the central nervous system.
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.”
It’s fitting that the art of Jerry Garcia is on a national tour. After all, Garcia spent a good chunk of his life on the road with the Grateful Dead before he died of a heart attack Aug. 5, 1995.
We asked our readers to tell us which Beatles love song was the most romantic. We wanted to know, in 100 words or less, what special memories you might have attached to that song.
Of the many readers who entered, 10 of the best responses garnered copies of “The Beatles Anthology.” But the best and most charming entry came from Judy “Jude” Finkel of Chicago, who told us how “Hey Jude” brought her and her husband, Harvey, together.
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.”
“We did ‘Breach’ as quickly as we could,” says Jakob Dylan, phoning from Los Angeles last week. “The last record came out in 1996, but we were [on tour] until the middle of 1998. I was aware of a lot of time going by [between albums] and I wasn’t happy with that. I took some time off to rest when we got home from touring. But other than that, we got back to work right away.”
Back in the day, celebrity chefs started and ended with Julia Child and her messy but amusing style. But thanks to the advent of cable television in general and the Food Network in particular, the faces of a new breed of hot-shot chefs are becoming familiar. Joining the ranks of Emeril Lagasse, Ming Tsai and those poker-faced Iron Chefs are a couple of young guns–Tyler Florence and Bob Blumer.
Here’s what the Internet buzz was Monday about Madonna’s “Music.” All spelling and grammar are as the fans intended:
“The Watcher,” America’s No. 1 film, isn’t the the only project where Keanu Reeves shuns top billing.
He’s been doing it for years in the rock band Dogstar. The star of “The Matrix” is very aware that his status as an actor will overpower anything that his formidable band Dogstar accomplishes.
