George Lopez on late night, Ed Begley Jr. on green living
In this week's issue, we're spotlighting two longtime TV actors and their newest projects on the small screen. First, we talk with George Lopez, the popular standup comedian and star of The George Lopez Show, about his new Lopez Tonight talk show airing on TBS Mondays through Thursdays on late night. It started this past Monday (watch a clip of him and Ellen DeGeneres below), and in the feature, Lopez chats about how his show is different from the likes of David Letterman's and Jay Leno's, and what it's like playing golf with Clint Eastwood. Also, we tracked down former St. Elsewhere star Ed Begley Jr. about his latest passion: the environment. You can see him with wife Rachelle Carson on the Planet Green channel's Living with Ed, but just for our readers, the author of Ed Begley Jr.'s Guide to Sustainable Living gives some of his best tips on how to live eco-friendly and "off the grid."
Photo by Gavin Bond
October 23, 2009
Check out our special 'Twilight' cover, featuring Robert Pattinson
You can’t read a book, watch a movie, hunt for a Halloween costume or tune into TV these days without running into vampires, and our cover story this weekend takes a look at why bloodsuckers — with franchises such as Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries — are so hot in pop culture right now. In addition to interviewing True Blood book author Charlaine Harris and Dacre Stoker, Dracula author Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew, our Brian Truitt had the chance to talk with cover boy Robert Pattinson, the popular star of Twilight and the upcoming sequel New Moon (in theaters Nov. 20). Pattinson, who plays the vampire Edward Cullen, was up in Vancouver filming Eclipse, the third adaptation from Stephenie Meyer’s book series coming out next year. “Almost every scene is a fight scene at the moment — for the last couple of weeks anyway,” he reports. “We’ve been doing splits for the past week and a half.” Read below for some of Pattinson’s thoughts on Eclipse and making the Twilight movies, and check out this new clip from New Moon featuring his co-stars, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. (Also, to find a newspaper near you that carries USA WEEKEND, click here.)
October 19, 2009
Alicia Silverstone touts her new vegan diet book
Alicia Silverstone, who rose to fame in the 1995 teen movie Clueless, was making the media circuit last week promoting her new vegan diet and cookbook, The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet. She's quite the ad for her kind of eating, beautiful at 33. She's been vegan for 11 years and she says she wanted to share her experience with others. I will feature Silverstone in a print Who's News column next month, but in the meantime she had plenty to say, so see her chatting in the video here and read below for a quick Q and A,
George Wendt reflects on beer-filled days in 'Drinking With George'
Say what you will about George Wendt, the Second City comedy legend and beloved Cheers star who once had a 0.0 semester GPA at the University of Notre Dame, the man knows his beer. His book Drinking With George (in stores tomorrow) intersperses his love for the suds with stories from when he was a kid growing up in Chicago, his bohemian adventures during and after college, and tales from his later stints on screen, most notably as fan-favorite bar patron Norm Peterson. Currently, Wendt, who turned 61 on Saturday, admits that he’s learning how to be an author on the fly. “This is all very new to me. I don’t think I ever wrote a term paper, let alone a book.” Our Brian Truitt caught up with Wendt recently when he was New York City promoting his beer-filled tome so read below for the Q&A, click here for an excerpt from the book, and check out a classic clip from Wendt’s time on the NBC hit Cheers.
Photos courtesy of Simon & Schuster, Sony
October 09, 2009
Robert Englund talks Freddy, famous friends and 'Hollywood Monster'
Although most moviegoers know him as the scarred, claw-gloved and sweater-loving Freddy Krueger, who menaced a young Johnny Depp and many other dreaming teenagers in the Nightmare on Elm Street horror flicks of the 1980s and ‘90s, Robert Englund has had a long history in Hollywood, dating back to the mid-1970s. The 62-year-old actor chronicles many of his stories growing up in California and moving up in show business in his new biography, Hollywood Monster, in bookstores Tuesday. He offers many tales featuring stars such as Richard Dreyfus, Sally Field, Henry Fonda and Lillian Gish, but he spends a good amount of the book on his days in and out of the makeup chair as Freddy, too. “I don’t sleep with my father, and I can’t see Russia from my backyard, but other than that, it’s a pretty good ride,” says Englund, who starts a book tour next week and appears on Fear Clinic — a horror Web series airing at Fearnet.com and on demand — beginning Oct. 26 (check out a trailer below). I interviewed the talkative horror icon yesterday about his famous friends and pop-culture franchises (Englund also played the fan-favorite Willie on the original V miniseries), so read below for our conversation.
Photos courtesy of Pocket Books, New Line Cinema and Fearnet
October 08, 2009
With 'Fierce Style,' Christian Siriano keeps you from being a hot mess
New York Fashion Week may have come and gone, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still look to the top designers for fashion tips. Christian Siriano, the charismatic fourth-season winner of Project Runway, is taking his passion to the masses with the new book, Fierce Style: How to Be Your Most Fabulous Self, in stores this week. “It’s very light-hearted, very kitschy, very fashion. It’s for that younger aspiring artist and fan,” says the 23-year-old Maryland native, who got Runway mentor Tim Gunn to write the foreward for his book. As for being a published author, Siriano says, “it’s a lot of people’s dream and aspiration. I didn’t take it so seriously – it’s not a novel.” He’s currently on a book tour and has stops coming up in New York, California, Minnesota and Washington, D.C. “I’ll have more of a chance to see the people and see what their lifestyle is like and definitely get a little fashion trend about where everyone shops and how they dress,” Siriano says. You can check out some exclusive fall fashion tips from him, current Project Runway contestant Christopher Straub and other Runway alums here.
Photo courtesy of Grand Central Publishing
October 07, 2009
'True Blood' boosts Charlaine Harris' starpower
Even if you’ve faithfully watched both seasons of HBO’s hit vampire series True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels, you’ve only seen a glimpse into the writer's colorful world. And keen TV watchers finally got to see the author on screen with her creations — she had a cameo in a bar scene during True Blood’s season finale last month. Long before Anna Paquin put on the Merlotte’s waitress uniform as the on-screen Sookie, Harris introduced the spunky Louisiana telepath in the 2001 novel Dead Until Dark. Many vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters and a fairy godmother later, her series is going strong, with a new short-story compilation A Touch of Dead in stores this week and the 11th Sookie novel, Dead in the Family, scheduled for a May release. In addition, the fourth book in her Harper Connelly Mysteries series, Grave Secret, comes out next month (read the first chapter here), and later this month Harris, 58, will be the official queen of New Orleans’ annual Vampire Ball. I caught up with the Arkansas-based author recently for an upcoming cover story about vampires, but read below about how Harris got into writing about the supernatural and what she thinks the next big thing involving the undead will be.
Photos courtesy of HBO, Ace Publishing
October 06, 2009
Audrey Niffenegger returns with her new book, 'Her Fearful Symmetry'
Audrey Niffenegger made waves in the literary world when her debut novel The Time Traveler’s Wife — featuring the love story of time-traveling Henry and his destined love, Clare — came out six years ago and was named Amazon’s best book of 2003. She’s traded in time travel for a multi-generational ensemble ghost story with her second book, Her Fearful Symmetry, which follows a pair of 21-year-old Illinois twin girls who inherit their dead aunt’s London flat — and their aunt’s spirit as well. One of the “characters” in the book is London’s famed Highgate Cemetery, where Karl Marx, Douglas Adams and many other notable figures are buried. Most of the book is set in and around it, so Niffenegger got a gig as a guide there while doing book research. I recently had the chance to talk with the 46-year-old author during her current book tour, which ends next month and will start back up on the West Coast in January. Read below for our conversation, and for a taste of Her Fearful Symmetry, check out this excerpt.
Photo by Stephen DeSantis
July 01, 2009
Armstrong on Tour with agenda, new book
Lance Armstrong starts riding in the Tour de France Saturday, his first since announcing his retirement in 2005. Wait, if he’s retired doesn’t that mean no more cycling? Most people would think so, but most people don’t beat cancer and then win the Tour a record-breaking seven consecutive times. Allegations that Armstrong used EPO, a performance-enhancing drug, are still haunting him and in a new biography, Lance: The Making of the World’s Greatest Champion, coincidentally out this week, Armstrong talks about those allegations — made in the book L.A. Confidential: Les Secrets de Lance Armstrong published in 2004 by two European sportswriters. “Extraordinary accusations must be followed up by extraordinary proof,” says Armstrong, who denies doping. “Mr. Walsh and Mr. Ballester worked four or five years and they have not come up with extraordinary proof.”
Lance also gives readers an intimate look into Armstrong’s relationships, including his friendship with Matthew McConaughey and his engagement to Sheryl Crow. Armstrong says, “The relationship was kind of a struggle for a while,” but also says Crow wanted to get married and have children, and he wasn’t ready to do that again. Armstrong has three children with first wife Kristin Armstrong and, although he has yet to remarry, girlfriend Anna Hansen gave birth to a son, Max, in June. (Oddly, all three women look remarkably similar). But Armstrong does seem to have something to prove in the 2009 Tour. “I’m doing this for my kids,” he says. “I don’t want them growing up and reading all of these things about me and doping.”
