Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
It’s not often an actor buys his co-star. But then again, Viggo Mortensen isn’t your average actor. And come to think of it, the co-star isn’t some hot young filly — it’s a real horse. “I just fell in love with him [on the set of ‘Hidalgo’],” Mortensen says. “He doesn’t live with me [in Venice, Calif.]. He stays at a friend’s house, and I go over to ride him as much as I can.”
Singer-songwriter Michael Tolcher is sated. After enjoying a nice sushi meal, the singer is ready to chat about his debut album, “I Am” (Octone Records), which will be in stores on April 6. He’s already opened for Maroon 5 and Gavin DeGraw and is anxious to get back on the road — even if that means climbing back into a cramped van. Tolcher phoned from his hometown of Atlanta to talk about the record-release shindig he’s planning, what he does to relax and why he’ll always have fond memories of Chicago.
It will be a bittersweet Valentine’s Day for Joseph Shabalala when his band Ladysmith Black Mambazo plays a sold-out show at the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory in west suburban Batavia. Touring to support the group’s recently released album “Raise Your Spirit Higher,” Ladysmith Black Mambazo will be performing many songs that Shabalala wrote for his wife, Nellie, who was murdered outside a church in South Africa two years ago.
Marc Maron is 40. Or, as he likes to say, 37 in show-biz years. Funny and sarcastic, he’ll be in Chicago this weekend to sign copies of his book, Jerusalem Syndrome: My Life as a Reluctant Messiah (Broadway, $12.95), at 6 tonight at Borders in Evanston (847-773-8852). And the comedian also will perform Saturday night at Skokie’s Centre East Theatre.
How do you successfully take a motion picture event and encapsulate it into a game for a GBA? Well, you really don’t. “Peter Pan” works on some levels; the storytelling is adorable — from Peter’s first meeting with Wendy through his final battle with Captain Hook.
Ask Jonny Lang about his favorite book or film and he’ll be hard-pressed to come up with an answer. But ask him about his favorite music and the guitarist-singer-songwriter can go on forever.
Oprah Winfrey’s impact extends to the nation and the world, but here at home, we claim her as a Chicagoan — a Garrett-popcorn-eating, lakefront-jogging, North Michigan-Avenue-shopping one.
Come Thursday, Oprah Winfrey turns the big 5-0. And if she’s to be believed — and why wouldn’t she be — the world’s most famous talk show host will be embracing her well-earned day. She’ll celebrate with a special birthday show Thursday in Chicago followed by a weekend bash in Santa Barbara for 50 of her closest friends.
At age 4, Mary Bryk began to suspect there was something seriously wrong with her mother. As Bryk recalls, her mother would meticulously tie Bryk’s hands together and bind her leg to a high chair. Then, she would strike the child’s foot with a hammer. “My mom was a nurse and would constantly tell me she was doing treatments and that the doctor knew what she was doing,” says Bryk, now 44. “But even at that age I knew something wasn’t right. When she fractured my hip while I was hospitalized, that’s when it hit me that what she was doing wasn’t normal.”
With her sallow complexion, sagging jowls and bloated body, the woman onscreen in “Monster” isn’t recognizable as Charlize Theron. Best known for her killer legs and babydoll face, the 28-year-old actress was an unlikely candidate to portray real-life serial killer Aileen Wournos. But when you look at side-by-side photos of the two, the likeness is uncanny.
Chicago’s Lovehammers have done the shed-tour thing with Nickelback, experienced life on the road (including the requisite broken-down bus) and worked with greats like Steve Albini.
New Year’s Eve concerts traditionally end some time after the clock strikes midnight. But when you’re the Queen of Soul, 2004 begins when you tell it to.
Preaching about how difficult it is to earn money is one thing. Actually putting yourself in the situation to experience it is another.
The average hetero man would say, “Hell, no!” if his wife asked him to go to Chippendales with her. But everyone from Naomi Campbell to Courtney Love to pensive Robin Wright Penn has been to strip clubs like Scores. Oh, wait, I believe they’re referred to as gentlemen’s clubs these days. I keep forgetting how classy these joints are now.
You’d think that tacking on an additional 43 minutes to the three-hour movie would be overkill. But the extended version actually feels shorter than the theatrical release — possibly because it tells a more thorough story. “Two Towers” continues where “The Fellowship of the Ring” left off. With the Fellowship splintered into two groups, Frodo and Sam head for Mordor to destroy the Ring.
Mark Ruffalo appears nude in “In the Cut.” Sean Penn bares all in “21 Grams.” And Ewan McGregor — Obi-Wan Kenobi himself — shows off his lightsaber in “Young Adam.” “It’s about time that men are stripping down,” Neve Campbell says in the current issue of In Style. “If we have to take it off, they should too.” Hallejuah, sister.
Twenty years after rising to fame on MTV — and 13 years after the same station refused to give the musicians tickets to its annual awards show — the original five members of Duran Duran are back with a vengeance.
Leaping and spinning her way through figure-skating routines at the 1976 Winter Olympics, 19-year-old Dorothy Hamill won hearts around the world as she won her prestigious gold medal. These days, that medal is a reminder to Hamill not of how great she once was, but of how much untapped potential she still has.
You got reamed at the office. The baby spit up on you. And you just spent the last two hours doing the kids’ chores. All you want to do is go to bed, but your husband wants to do more than sleep. If this situation could be rectified by an herbal supplement, would you snap it up? That’s what the makers of Avlimil are hoping with a flashy ad campaign that has some experts wondering whether there’s any substance to back up the glitz.
Former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Tracy Morgan likes Andrew Dice Clay, does a mean impersonation of Oprah Winfrey and more than held his own against camera-hogging guest stars like Britney Spears. He may be gone from the ensemble cast, but the Not Ready for Prime Time Players lost Morgan to prime time. He’s currently working on his own sitcom, “The Tracy Morgan Show” for NBC, which is scheduled to debut this winter.