Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Journalist Jeff Glor is the anchor of the “CBS Evening News” — a spot once occupied by the iconic Walter Cronkite. He has traveled the world for his job, interviewing President Emmanuel Macron in France, President Donald Trump in Scotland and covering the U.S. military in Iraq. But his most memorable destination stands out for personal reasons: He was married in Mexico.
I was going to review “Pinocchio” simply as I would any other K-Drama. But I started to write this at the same time that Soon-Yi Previn broke her silence about her relationship with Woody Allen (her husband) and Mia Farrow (her adoptive mother, and Allen’s former long-time girlfriend) — and that affected my take on this Korean drama. Is it wrong for family members who aren’t biologically-related to have a romantic relationship? If you condemn Allen and Previn, can you condone the two lead characters in this series?
Tiffany Young is the new face and voice of H&M’s Divided Music campaign. Born and raised in California, Young spent more than a decade in South Korea as a member of the band Girls’ Generation, before moving back to Los Angeles to study acting. “I just finished shooting this video for (my new solo single) ‘Teach You,’” says Young. “And I get to tell you first: My bandmates (Hyo-yeon Kim and Soo-young Choi) make cameos in it!”
I finished watching “I Hear Your Voice” around the same time that I started “Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food.” Both deal with older women/younger men plots, where the woman is about eight years older than her partner. The problem I had with “I Hear Your Voice,” though, is that the boy is a high school senior when the relationship begins. And while Soo-Ha certainly is more mature than Hye-Sung in many ways, he is still a teenager.
“Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food” is sold as a May-December romance. That may be one reason I wasn’t eager to watch this series. While the central storyline delves into the relationship between the pretty noona and her childhood friend’s younger brother, the most compelling subplot — that wasn’t really fleshed out — was workplace sexual harassment. By the way, this isn’t a May-December romance.
“I’ve been going to Lake Powell since I started to walk,” says “The Fosters” actress Meg DeLacy. “It was a very special place for me growing up and still is. For four or five days you are off the grid beach-camping, water skiing, taking your boat through the canyons of the lake and finding swimming holes and places to read a book and just be lazy. You wake up when the sun comes up and wind down when the sun goes down. It’s the best to just be on the lake and do nothing or do a whole bunch of things. There are a million stars to see every night.”
As the son of Bob and Rita Marley, Ziggy Marley grew up in Jamaica surrounded by music. “Jamaica is the root of my music,” says the Grammy Award-winning musician. “I was born there, I was raised there and Jamaica is always inside of me. It’s an impactful place in general for many people. For example, Ian Fleming wrote several James Bond novels in Jamaica at Goldeneye near Ocho Rios.”
When “W” begins, we meet Chul, who is a 17-year-old wunderkind who wins a gold medal in the Air Pistol Shooting competition at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Not long afterwards, he is framed for murdering his parents and two younger siblings.
Formerly part of Emblem3, Wesley Stromberg has reinvented himself as a solo artist known simply as WESLEY. A resident of Valencia, California, his singles include, “Remedy,” “1000 Ways” and “One Shot.” “My first trip as a child was a road trip with my grandparents to Whistler Mountain in Canada,” says WESLEY, 24. “This trip was magical. I went snowboarding for the first time and saw a giant mountain for the first time. It was breathtaking. Mountains are so incredibly powerful just towering over you.”
Singer-songwriter Charli XCX (“5 in the Morning”) is earning rave reviews as Taylor Swift’s opening act. The English star also is a headliner at W Hollywood’s Wake Up Call music festival. Born Charlotte Emma Aitchison, she spends so much of her life on the road that she has a fool-proof plan for dealing with dateline changes: “Party through the jet lag. Or, if you’re not up to that, enjoy a spa day as soon as you get there and really let your body bounce back so you can make the most out of your trip.”
“Lawless Lawyer” is the first Lee Joong-Gi drama that I watched. And I can understand what all the fuss is about. Even in a drama where the plot falls apart several times, he is magnetic on screen.
Comedian Ronny Chieng makes his movie debut in “Crazy Rich Asians,” where he portrays wealthy investment banker Edison Cheng. “This is my first film project, so I don’t have anything to compare it with,” says Chieng, 32, who’s based out of New York. “But the cast got along really well. One of the greatest things about Singapore and Malaysia is the food culture. The cast would meet up on our nights off and go out for the local food and then go for karaoke. It was the best! I also got to see my parents, grandmother and old high school friends, who all live in Singapore. It was also super hot. In fact, I think the crazy in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ refers to us wearing three-piece suits in the tropics.”
“Mansplaining is, at its core, a very specific thing. It’s what occurs when a man talks condescendingly to someone (especially a woman) about something he has incomplete knowledge of, with the mistaken assumption that he knows more about it than the person he’s talking to does.” — Merriam-Webster
Not long after James Lee celebrated his 27th birthday, the Royal Pirates bassist was involved in a freak accident in Seoul that nearly severed his hand and left it permanently damaged. No longer able to feel the strings of his bass, he quit his band and returned home to California, where he was born and raised. Lee, 30, is celebrating his burgeoning solo career, which includes performances at KCON LA, a premiere party for his EP “The Light” and an acoustic duet of “Let’s Get Away” with his good friend Sooyoung (of Girls’ Generation).
A month ago, KPop For Thought contacted me, asking if I would like to answer a question for her online newsletter about K-Pop. And this is the question she sent me: “I always see you bonding with your son through K-pop on Twitter, and it’s such an amazing thing. In times where some people say that being over 18 is too old to like pop music, could you talk a bit about your experience as a K-pop fan and mother?”
There’s very little wrong with the chemistry in the Korean series, “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim.” The attraction between the main characters is so strong that (of course) the off-screen dating rumors have surfaced. Both Park Seo-Joon and Park Min-Young deny they are anything more than friends, but you almost can’t blame netizens for their wishful thinking.
“Every time I go to Capri in Italy, I have the best time,” says composer David Foster. “I just love it there every time. I’ve been at least a dozen times, Of course, you can’t ever really go wrong anywhere in Italy. The people just know how to navigate life and squeeze the best out of every day.”
Rosanna Arquette says she feels grateful when people recognize her for her activism as much as for her acting (“Desperately Seeking Susan,” “Pulp Fiction”). Her latest role is as Mary on the new YouTube Premium series, “Sideswiped.” “While I was shooting this show, which I’m very excited about, I was dealing with all of the Harvey Weinstein stuff,” says Arquette, who was one of the first women to publicly talk about how the film producer threatened to sink her career after she says she refused his demands for sex. “Shooting the series was such a good distraction during that time. And with all the things going on (in politics now), I hope that people will watch the show and laugh.”
Musician Russell Dickerson says one of the perks of touring is getting to explore. “I’ve learned so much about history on my travels, even to smaller towns around America,” says the Nashville resident. “Whenever we pull into a new city, we usually look up a little history on that place. It’s cool to learn why this town came to be, like was it coal or oil or a certain good that made this city what it is today? I’ve definitely been getting some history lessons.” Dickerson, who is part of the Summer Plays On Tour with Lady Antebellum and Darius Rucker — is promoting his album “Yours” and his single, “Blue Tacoma.”
“The K2” is billed as an action thriller, but it’s really a story about people who are so thoroughly broken that their sense of morality and justice is skewed to an absurd level.