Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Eric Stoltz has it made. He’s a movie star (“Pulp Fiction,” “Mask,” “Rob Roy”) who has no problems making TV guest appearances (“Mad About You,” “Partners”). He’s an actor with leading-man looks who hasn’t been hampered with pretty-boy roles (OK, he did do “Some Kind of Wonderful,” but he was really young then). And his girlfriend is Bridget Fonda.
A tiny voice with a thick Scottish brogue answers the phone at the London home of singer Edwyn Collins. William, 5, has temporarily taken over his father’s public relations duties and is screening the calls. Edwyn probably needs the help just about now.
Aesop Rhim’s love affair with Chicago began 30 years ago when he immigrated from Seoul, South Korea, to earn his master’s degree at IIT’s Institute of Design. Since then, he has had six one-man shows, all about Chicago. “I strive to express my love and vision of Chicago,” said Rhim, who cites Picasso as his biggest influence. “The uniqueness of my work is the interchange of my profession (commercial art) and my expressionist art.” Rhim’s abstract silk-screened work has won the 60-year-old artist some high-powered supporters. Former Gov. Jim Thompson is a fan, as is Mayor Daley, who proclaimed Sept. 20, 1995, “Aesop Rhim Day.”
Urge Overkill is at a precarious point in its career. The Chicago-based trio got a taste of stardom with the one-two punch of its last album, “Saturation,” and the inclusion of its cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” on the “Pulp Fiction” soundtrack. Finally, the flamboyant band that dressed for success was dressed appropriately. They made TV appearances. They not only had fans, they had a celebrity fan (Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders).
Shannen Doherty and Jeremy London (“I’ll Fly Away”) are the two big names in Kevin Smith’s latest movie, “Mallrats.” But Jason Lee is the star. Jason who? “That’s OK,” Lee said, dining on a light lunch of chicken and pasta during a recent visit to Chicago. “I haven’t been in anything.”
When Jim Ho decided to open Pacific Cafe during the Around the Coyote weekend, he knew his Asian eatery would get good exposure. What he didn’t realize was that his restaurant would go over so well that there literally would be no food left in his restaurant at closing time Sunday.
The one-two punch of the “Mortal Kombat” video game and the film of the same name – the nation’s No. 1 movie – is being followed with a live tour that zeroes in on martial artistry. “When we did the movie, only one of the actors (Robin Shou) was a champion martial artist, so there were limitations as to what could be done,” said fight choreographer Pat Johnson.
Playing the superhuman son of Zeus in “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,” Kevin Sorbo is winning some godlike adulation these days. Besides getting write-ups in all the major publications, his series made Rolling Stone’s annual “Hot List.”
“Arabian Knight” is no worse than your standard Saturday-morning cartoon fare. Unfortunately, it’s also no better.
The producers of “Mortal Kombat” know that the strength of their movie is based on the actors’ abilities to execute awesome roundhouse kicks, not soliloquies. So it’s not surprising that the sci-fi action-adventure, which opened Friday and totaled $23 million nationwide over the weekend, is heavy on fight scenes, low on plot.
It took a three-year-old song with a questionable title to win Sublime both notoriety and heavy rotation on radio stations across the country. A more appropriate title for the Orange County, Calif., trio’s hit single “Date Rape” actually would be “Anti Date Rape,” since the rapist ends up in prison – where he becomes a victim of rape himself.
People who question whether the Man of Steel is invincible have to check out “Off Camera With Dean Cain” at 7 tonight; on WLS-Channel 7. It’s not kryptonite that foils Cain – the man in tights on ABC’s “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” which airs at 7 p.m. Sundays on WLS-Channel 7 – but rather a quick soccer shootout with Andrew Shue. That’s right – the milquetoast Billy on “Melrose Place.” “Soccer is not my forte,” said Cain, laughing. “Even if it was, Andrew still probably would’ve kicked my butt.”
After a two-year battle with lymphoma – a cancer of the lymph glands – Chicago-based performance artist Brigid Murphy is enjoying her recovery. In a big way. To celebrate her health and to thank her friends and fans for their support, Murphy is bringing back her vaudevillian “Milly’s Orchid Show,” which she has staged since 1987.
There’s a new improv play in town called “Sue Your Ex” that just might be the cure if you’ve been dumped and want revenge. There are lots of things we can do to make ourselves feel better after a relationship sours. But remember – stalking’s illegal. “Sue Your Ex” provides an alternative. There’s nothing quite like having the support of a rapt audience as your love life is played out before you by an ensemble cast.
Ashley Judd is talking to her mother, Naomi (yes, that Naomi), on the phone when a reporter arrives for an interview at her Schiller Park hotel suite. Suffering from a sinus infection that she hasn’t been able to shake for the past week, Judd apologizes for her appearance.
I had passed by Pasta Cucina many times on my way to the Three Penny Theatre. But because I was always late, I never stepped in until a friend told me that the food there was out of this world.
In “Party Girl,” director Daisy von Scherler Mayer introduces viewers to Mary – a gorgeous club kid who gets the designer clothes she wants, but can’t afford, by stealing them from her friends’ closets. It quickly becomes apparent that besides throwing bitchin’ “rent” parties to fund her hedonistic lifestyle, Mary has no other visible
means of income.
In 1958, comedian Carl Reiner wrote his first novel, Enter Laughing. Now, thirty-seven years later, the sequel Continue Laughing (Birch Lane Press, $19.95) arrives. That’s quite a gap, but Reiner hasn’t exactly been lying low in the intervening years.
It’s difficult to believe it has been three years since the Gin Blossoms released their breakthrough album “New Miserable Experience” – until you attend their concert and realize you know just about every song. Nonetheless, the familiarity of the Blossoms’ music did nothing to detract from the enjoyment of their well-crafted pop-rock songs when the musicians headlined Sunday at the Taste of Chicago.
