Bon Jovi and Matthew McConaughey also in SF
First lady Michelle Obama is all the buzz here in San Francisco but she isn't the only celebrity talking about service and good works here today. Among the other high profile speakers conference goers will hear from are Maria Shriver and husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (who was a USA WEEKEND fitness columnist some years ago), plus rocker Jon Bon Jovi (at right) and actor Matthew McConaughey, who represent the Entertainment Industry Foundation, but who also have foundations of their own. Bon Jovi will play a set and McConaughey will introduce a video about EIF's plans for an unprecedented campaign using television shows and personalities we know well to promote volunteerism beginning in October. Stay tuned to the blog for more on that effort as they talk details.
Photo by Todd Plitt
June 19, 2009
Who's News this week? Lindsay Lohan, for one
Lindsay Lohan is always news, but read my Who's News column in the magazine this weekend to get Lilo's latest professional doings. Also this week we talk to:
• Thea Andrews, the Entertainment Tonight reporter who can't think of any other job she'd rather do.
• The incredible Trudie Styler, actress, activist and wife of Sting, who produced the new movie, Moon.
• Anton Yelchin, who is featured in two of summer's biggest movies. (You have to read to find out which ones.)
• CBS correspondent Jim Axelrod, who is often asked about his relationship to Obama adviser David Axelrod.
Want to get your question in my Who's News column? Click here.
June 16, 2009
Michelle Obama talks volunteerism in D.C.
First Lady Michelle Obama has been making a splash on the international stage, but here in Washington, D.C. she's been an active community member who has invited D.C. school children to help plant a garden, visited schools to read to kids, spoken at a high school graduation ceremony, and more. Tuesday, the first lady was the speaker at the Greater D.C. Cares Business & Nonprofit Philanthropy Summit and Awards luncheon so I sent our latest staff addition, intern Steve Thompson, to the event to give us an insider's view on how the wife of the president rolls. Here's his report:
"Getting inside the event was not as easy as it sounds. After all, Mrs. Obama has celebrity status with government protection. I, and the 25 other members of the press who were at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown D.C. for the event, had to arrive at least an hour and 35 minutes before the first lady was set to take the stage. After a check of my media credentials (a card with my goofy smile and the word 'intern' in bold red letters) and a search of my bag (which I mainly use for carrying copious amounts of Orbit gum), I had the pleasure of standing spread eagle in front of a Secret Service agent so he could give me a full body scan with a hand-held metal detector. I felt like an unwanted relative at the family reunion. We were then led down a smelly back stairwell into a ballroom full of neatly set tables. I skipped breakfast and it was all I could to do to not snag a roll from one of the bread baskets. A few rows of chairs were reserved for us at the back of the room, caged in by a velvet rope. It was definitely not preferred seating.
"Many members of the press are old time pals so they could pass the time by chatting while we sat there to wait, and wait. I, however, passed the time by sending text messages to my old time pal Alex in between failed attempts to raise my BrickBreaker score. Unlike most celebrities, the first lady has security that even controls when you go to the bathroom. If I needed to use the facilities, or even leave my seat, I had to be escorted by a White House staffer named Ann, who was about 105 pounds of anal retentive. The first lady wasn't the only speaker but those who preceeded her got nowhere near the attention Mrs. O commands. When the President and CEO of Greater DC Cares introduced her, all eyes were on the stage, and the first lady strode onto it to a standing ovation. Sporting a hot pink shirt and a black and white cardigan, she smiled but seemed embarrassed that everyone was standing for her and quickly told everyone to please sit down. A proponent of service to others, she spoke to the audience about the need for volunteerism — a theme she is expected to call upon again next week when she addresses a national convention on volunteering in San Francisco. At the end of her speech, Mrs. Obama took time to shake hands with attendees. Then, in a flash (literally, there were flashing lights around her), she was ushered away."
Photo by Richard Termine
June 03, 2009
Efron on 'Entourage', Miley stays with 'Hannah'
E! Online is reporting today that Zac Efron will appear on Entourage when it returns in July. The High School Musical cutie is one of a number of stars who will do some guest spots on the HBO show. Also among them is Autumn Reeser, formerly of Fox's The O.C., who talked with our Brian Truitt last week....Meanwhile, Chace Crawford — an Efron look-alike and heartthrob of Gossip Girl — will play the Kevin Bacon part in a remake of Footloose and Bacon's wife Kyra Sedgwick says Crawford has some very big dancing shoes to fill. Sedgwick will be back on TNT Monday in her hit show The Closer where this season's theme is change. We got that from Sedgwick's on-screen husband Jon Tenney as well as her right hand man Corey Reynolds....Uh-oh. Talk about bad luck. Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas, winners of the most recent Dancing With The Stars competition, opened the boxes with their separate mirror ball trophies to find them broken....Have you heard that singer-actress Jennifer Hudson is pregnant? The Chicago Tribune got the details after a baby shower friends gave Hudson last weekend in Chicago. She's engaged but not yet married. ... And speaking of children, is it just me or does anyone else think that Kate Gosselin — the already overexposed mom in Jon & Kate Plus 8 — has an exhibitionist tendency given her beach wear (an orange bikini) for her North Carolina vacation with the children?...Miley Cyrus has resigned with Disney so there will be fresh episodes of Hannah Montana early next year. I have to go alert my 7-year-old niece.
Photo courtesy USA TODAY
May 28, 2009
'ER' star welcomes a new baby boy
Parminder Nagra, who we will be featuring on our upcoming June 12-14 Who’s News page, gave birth to a son, Kai David Singh Stenson, on May 19. It’s the 33-year-old ER star’s first child with husband James Stenson. Nagra spent six seasons on the NBC medical drama, which ended its 15-year-old run last month, and also starred alongside Keira Knightley in Bend It Like Beckham.
Photo by Spiros Poros
Star sightings in Beverly Hills
I travel to L.A. fairly regularly for my job so I'm not usually surprised when I catch a celebrity sighting in an unexpected place. Wednesday afternoon at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills I caught two celebs, in addition to the one I was there to meet, the very charming Dennis Quaid. While waiting for Quaid, I spied America's most famous doctor, Mehmet Oz — barely recognizable out of those doc scrubs he always wore on Oprah. And after my date with Dennis, who should appear in the patio area of the lounge but his one-time screen daughter Lindsay Lohan? Lindz is ultra-thin and traveled in a big group but looked to be having a good time.
Photo courtesy of Fox
May 01, 2009
Who's News this week? Vanessa Carlton for one
Don't forget to check out my Who's News column in print this weekend. Here's a taste of what you'll learn:
• Singer Vanessa Carlton says she might like to score a film.
• Criminal Minds star Shemar Moore says he'd need a shrink if he actually did the job he has on TV.
• Veteran TV journalist Lesley Stahl admits she wants grandchildren.
• Gretchen Mol would have liked a longer run on Life on Mars.
• House's Dr. Taub, Peter Jacobson, quips that character actors are hitting their stride.
• Stephen Colbert has 10 siblings.
And though I didn't write it, I don't want you to miss our story on the very hot Jonas Brothers. Their new show Jonas on Disney premieres Saturday.
To leave a question for me about your favorite entertainer or newsmaker click here.
April 24, 2009
Who's News this week
Here’s a look at what’s on my Who’s News page in the current USA WEEKEND:
• My friend and Access Hollywood anchor Nancy O'Dell is full of tips from her new book on pregnancy.
• Bob Saget tells us how much he's like his character in the new Surviving Suburbia.
• Tween heartthrobs the Wolf brothers of The Naked Brothers Band talk about life off the TV screen.
• Hilary Swank has a few new movies up her sleeve.
• Sorry Sisters lovers, there are no DVD plans.
• Director Richard Linklater has no new Before movie coming, with or without Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke.
And don't forget, I welcome your question for my weekly column. Leave one right here.
April 23, 2009
Six degrees of separation from Sam Jackson
Senior Writer Dennis McCafferty and Senior Photo Editor David Baratz just got back from Pittsburgh, where they wrapped up interviews and a photo shoot Wednesday with Samuel L. Jackson and “Big” Ben Roethlisberger. The shoot was for our July 19 cover on the ESPYs, the star-studded award show that airs that night on ESPN. Jackson is hosting and, as quarterback for the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, Roethlisberger will be part of the festivities. "They got on really well, talking about golf and mutual stars they knew," Dennis tells me. "We even tried to play Six Degrees of Samuel Jackson and Jackson could not be stumped! He didn't even need six degrees to connect himself with anybody in the business. It didn’t matter if the star was a new one like Megan Fox, or older ones like Pacino, Brando or even Charles Chaplin. He usually just needed one or two degrees. 'I've made a ton of movies!' he told us. Boy, he's not kidding. We even tried to stump him with non-acting people, like Shaq and the Jonas Brothers, and he STILL was able to nail it. ‘I did a parody film for the ESPYs where I coached Shaq, so that’s one degree. I presented on the same Grammy Awards show where the Jonas Brothers performed, so that’s one degree, too.' " Anyway, I'll remind you, but look for the cover story on that date.
April 21, 2009
One director's dish on Lindsay Lohan
It's rare but refreshing when someone in Hollywood speaks the truth about an actor clearly in trouble. But that's what director Mark Waters did when he commented on the life of his Freaky Friday and Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan.
At a press conference for his new film, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, opening May 1, a reporter asked Waters about his role in launching Lohan’s career, and he responded: “I didn’t launch her high enough. Did you see her eHarmony ad? It was awesome!”
Not following the typical Hollywood practice of only saying nice things about people, Waters said, “The interesting thing about Lindsay is that she has unbelievable raw talent. You could ask her to do a triple jump, land it and be crying when she’s doing it, and she could. She’s got this natural instinct for what she does. She’s naturally charismatic with this great voice, and she’s beautiful. But she has always been more interested in the celebrity that comes from the work, as opposed to the work itself, even though she’s really good at it.
“But she’s incredibly young. When I was 22 and 23, I was drunk all the time. But no one was photographing me stumbling home. If she comes around to the idea, ‘Oh, I’m going to focus on this work, this acting thing I’m really good at,’ she’ll eventually come back because she’s got talent. But she’s going to need to prove herself, prove that she’s actually serious about getting back to work. If she has one movie where people say, ‘She came to set every day and she worked really hard and she was amazing’—as soon as that word gets out, and if the movie is successful…. Hollywood is very interested in giving people a second chance if they can prove they’re ready to play. All it takes is one success, one professional performance, and she’ll be back.”
Photo by Ron Batzdorff
