It was all bear hugs and laughs when we had a seaside lunch with Indiana Jones himself, Harrison Ford, and his new co-star, Shia LaBeouf, for this week’s cover story (that's the cover at left, but there's a cool poster inside too). Even though you’ll start seeing the stars pop up on TV and elsewhere to promote the newest installment of the famed Indiana Jones series, we met up with guys first for our exclusive chat. Cleary, there’s a bond between the veteran actor and newcomer, who teased each other about women and work and ordered the same fancy steak. Still, they tried not to spill the beans about their relationship in the movie (are they father and long lost son?) In fact, director Steven Spielberg has been so secretive about movie details that a rep from the studio flew to our Virginia offices from San Francisco just to show us some pictures from it — and then whisked them away! Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens May 22.
Major League Baseball players around the country will be hitting with pink bats Sunday, doing their part on Mother's Day to draw attention to the fight against breast cancer with Going to Bat. And just for our readers, New York Yankees mega-stars Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, as well as Good Morning America person
alities Robin Roberts, Diane Sawyer, Chris Cuomo and Sam Champion, have signed pink bats to put up for auction. Roberts, as her loyal fans know, just finished treatment for breast cancer. "It’s fantastic that you’re having these world-class athletes involved in an initiative like this," says Roberts, who participated in our photo shoot with A-Rod and Jeter. "It just helps bring attention to a much needed problem."
If you would like to have one of those signed bats, click here to bid.
Some of my favorite celebs have birthdays today. Rosario Dawson turns 29. John Corbett of Sex and the City fame turns 47. The Piano Man Billy Joel turns 59. And Candice Bergen, of Murphy Brown and Boston Legal fame, turns 62.
Mario Lopez took the Broadway cast of A Chorus Line to Dancing with the Stars earlier this week. This weekend he hosts the taping of a line-up of performances from all of the musicals from the 2007-2008 Broadway season. Casts will perform numbers from A Catered Affair, Cry-Baby, Grease, Gypsy, In The Heights, Passing Strange, South Pacific, Sunday in the Park with George, The Little Mermaid, Xanadu and Young Frankenstein. The Tony Awards preview concert will air on CBS affiliates between May 26 and June 7 so you'll have to check local listings.
On Tuesday we'll get the actual Tony nominations. Actor David Hyde Pierce, of Frasier fame and a Tony winner last year for Curtains, and actress Sara Ramirez, of Grey's Anatomy fame and a Tony winner for Spamalot, will do the honor of announcing them.
Did you get your mom's Mothers' Day gift yet? If not, you might consider Rose Rock's new book Mama Rock’s Rules. R
ose is the mother of gifted comedian Chris Rock, but she raised 10 children of her own (including Chris) and 17 foster children. In other words, she knows a few things. We got her to talk with us about rearing Chris (she said she mostly had to reign him in to keep him from killing himself). But we also focused on the the difference she sees between parenting today and when she first began. Read on for her thoughts:
When Whoopi Goldberg announced on The View this morning that she will be hosting (though she doesn't want us to call it that) the Tony Awards on June 15, our Who's News writer (and loyal View watcher) Gayle Carter immediately sent an email to Whoopi's publicist asking if Whoopi could spare 10 minutes after today's show to talk about the Tony gig. No problem. Within the hour Ms. Goldberg, herself a Tony winner, got on the phone to share with Gayle why she said yes to what she calls "the storyteller" spot.
The upshot is, Whoopi wants to make New York theater more accessible to the rest of the country and sees the televised award show - it will air on CBS from 8 to 11 p.m - as a way to do that. You'll recall that Goldberg has hosted the Oscars, quite successfully. She also is the winner of an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy and a Golden Globe in addition to her Tony. We'll feature her in the magazine's third annual special report on the Tony's in our June 15 issue.
Toni Tennille, of The Captain and Tenille fame, turns 65 today. Wow. Seems like just yesterday I could sing along to Love Will Keep Us Together. Melissa Gilbert, former Screen Actors Guild president, turns 44 and the handsome Enrique Iglesias is 33.
Happy birthday to NBC's Meet the Press host, Tim Russert (at right), who turns 58 today. Director Amy Heckerling turns 54, and stuntman Robbie Knievel turns 46.
(photo courtesy NBC)
The elimination of R&B singer Mario - the youngest competitor ever - on Dancing with the Stars Tuesday night broke my heart. I have to admit he stole it from me during my week in L.A. with all the contestants. No, not like that. I'm old enough to be his mom, and I would be proud to have a son like him. Mario is a consummate performer and was a gentleman throughout the competition. He made dancing cool for young people and, at 21, broke DWTS ground for future young competitors. Mario may not have bonded with a fellow contestant in the way Jason Taylor and Cristian de la Fuente have, but he was well thought of by his colleagues and certainly by his partner, the beautiful Karina Smirnoff. Next up for Mario will be getting ready for his summer tour, which will promote his new album Go and his Do Right foundation.
Just got off the phone with Cristian de la Fuente's publicist who filled me in on just how good Cristian and partner Cheryl Burke (both are pictured at right) were feeling after last night's Dancing with the Stars. There was a little celebrating involving dinner and a club, but they are mindful that things can change in a night on DWTS. In fact, on the off chance that Cristian should be eliminated tonight, he'll have surgery on his ruptured arm tendon tomorrow. Cristian's doctor is also the team doctor for the L.A. Dodgers, but the doc was in the house at DWTS last night while Cristian danced. Ah, the perks of being the doc to a Dancing celeb.
(photo by Kelsey McNeal/ABC)
Just got off the phone with Bill Engvall, whose family sitcom The Bill Engvall Show will return to TBS next month for a second season. Because Bill is part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour I asked what he thinks of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton attempting to woo non-elite, beer-drinking bowlers in states like Indiana. Says Engvall: "If I could tell the candidates how to appeal to my fan base - because that's who it is - I'd say just tell them the truth. Don't dance around the answers. I watch the debates and I see them. Sometimes it's like when you ask your kids something and they dance around the answer."
Pete Sampras is enjoying retirement, but it's not like he's just sitting on his couch watching TV (although he was on his couch when he called to chat with our Kathy Rowings). He's got an autobiographical book, A Champion's Mind: Lessons from a Life in Tennis, coming out in June, he's signed up to play in a Masters tennis tournament in London this winter, he's got two young kids and an actress wife, and he runs a sports management company with his brother. Whew. He did take some time off, though, after he decided to retire in 2003. Click on "Read More" below to find out how he dealt with going from the top tennis player in the world to being just a regular guy, in his own words.
(photo courtesy allposters.com)
I was inspired by my travels to Dancing with the Stars, and my attempt at Louis van Amstel's dance class last week, to try out Zumba - a very fun and funky dance class at my gym - last night. Then I watched DWTS and Cristian de la Fuente's big comeback. He and Cheryl Burke (they're both pictured at right) took the number one spot with the judges scores last night, in spite of his arm injury. I'm waiting to hear today from professional dancer Kym Johnson, who will share her opinion on last night's performances. But I was disappointed with some of the judges' scores and comments. Perhaps, with just two weeks left to go the judges are trying to shake it up and supply some surprises, because it still looks to me like Jason Taylor and Kristi Yamaguchi are the top dancers of the season. What did you think? Post comments below.
(photo by Kelsey McNeal/ABC)
When I first saw Evan Rachel Wood in the old ABC drama Once and Again, I remember thinking, "That girl has a big future." And indeed she has. She's in The Life Before Her Eyes, opening around the country this month, playing the younger version of Uma Thurman, a woman with a seemingly idyllic life until she starts flashing back to a high school shooting she witnessed years earlier. “I loved that character because she’s got big dreams,” Wood says. “She does what she wants to do. She wants to beat her own drum. She lives in a strict, religious town, so she’s labeled a slut. But she’s not. She’s just different. It was a hard movie to make because everything has a deeper meaning.” Watch her in the clip below.
Wood, whose parents are actors, made her stage debut as a baby in a North Carolina theater production of A Christmas Carol. After her parents split up when she was nine, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and older brother Ira. She was soon playing Jessie, a troubled girl who suffered from anorexia, in the aforementioned Once and Again. Since then, Wood, now 20, has played teenagers in such films as Thirteen, Down in the Valley, Running with Scissors and last year’s Across the Universe. But she may now be moving into adult roles. Woody Allen cast her in his new untitled film, now shooting in New York. Woody likes to keep his film plots secret, though, so we won’t know what she plays until the movie comes out next year.
Happy birthday to a personal favorite star and notorious practical joker, George Clooney, who turns 47 today. Also celebrating birthdays today are Bob Seger, 63, Roma Downey, 48, and Tony Blair, 55.
You now know how much we love Frank Sinatra, but we're not alone. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has a month-ong tribute to Frank. On Sundays and Wednesdays all month we can see Frank movies like From Here to Eternity, Pal Joey and the original (some would say real) Ocean's Eleven. And in conjunction with the movie tribute, TCM has launched a Web site that features more than 100 exclusive video clips and other Frank-related elements, like a video widget that plays songs from Sinatra movies. Check it out here.
My friend and L.A. writer Nancy Mills tells me that women who are tired of teen comedies and would like a little grown-up romance should look out for A Previous Engagement, opening in Los Angeles and New York on May 9 and around the country later this spring. Here’s the film’s premise: “Do you remember your first great love? The one you thought you would love forever? What would happen if you met again…” Made in 2005 but just now getting an American release, the romantic comedy stars Juliet Stevenson (Bend It Like Beckham, Truly Madly Deeply) and Tcheky Karyo (The Good Thief, The Patriot) as the lovers who haven’t seen each other in 25 years. Daniel Stern (Home Alone, City Slickers) plays Stevenson’s husband and Emmy-winner Valerie Mahaffey (Desperate Housewives) is a divorcee on the make. It’s fun to see Stern move from baggy shorts to a dashing white suit. Check out the trailer below.
Wow. As of this morning 160 of you have shared personal stories of your connection with Frank Sinatra in response to the cover story in the magazine this weekend. (Click here to read our original blog post and share your own memories, or here to read the cover story in the magazine.) It's amazing how many of you saw him personally, or included his music in special moments in your lives. I understand completely. I was born in Kearny, N.J. — not far from Hoboken, Sinatra's home. My mother tells tales of being in high school, waiting in long lines to get tickets to see Sinatra at venues in New York when he was a teen hearthrob. My father, born and raised in Jersey City, had blue eyes and perfect pitch and could sing all of Sinatra's songs without missing a lyric, I swear, from memory. So it was fitting that we played nothing but Sinatra at my father's memorial service. I grew up with Sinatra on the hi-fi and, later, the stereo; I could sing High Hopes at the age of 6. I never met Sinatra, but I did interview his Rat-Pack buddy, the now deceased Joey Bishop, whose stories of their time together were fascinating.
Click here to add your comments to the original Who's News Sinatra remembrances posting
I
'm back on the East Coast today, but that doesn't mean our Dancing with the Stars coverage will wane. Like you, I'll be watching the shows at home, but with newfound appreciation for those quick-steps and turns. On Tuesdays, from now through the finale, we'll have pro Kym Johnson give us her assessment of Monday night's show, so be sure to check for that tomorrow afternoon. And chief costumer Randall Christensen promises to share with us some of his favorite costumes from the season, as well as all-time favorites. That is, if he can find a few moments to think in between the work he is doing each week (I'll tell you more on that in later posts.)
Tonight we'll see if Cheryl Burke, Cristian de la Fuente's partner (they're both pictured at right), choreographed a dance around his injured arm. Cristian and football player Jason Taylor, who have become tight friends, really would like to make it to the finale together. We're down to five couples now. Who do you want to see make it to the final three? Tell us in the comments area below.
(photo by Kelsey McNeal/ABC)
Happy birthday to two faces you may remember from TV in the 90s. Boy Meets World's Danielle Fishel turns 27 today, and MTV's Kurt Loder turns 63.
