Archive for January, 2007

« Older Entries

Whoopi Goldberg: Radio Star

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

Thanks to one of my loyal readers and a couple of phone calls, I was informed that my boss and co-worker forgot to mention the name of our weekday syndicated morning radio show when she was a guest Tuesday on The View. Wake Up With Whoopi airs in several cities from coast-to-coast. If it doesn’t air in your city here or abroad, you can hear it on your computer when you log onto www.Whoopi.com. Go to my homepage and you can link right into it. She’ll be on The View again this coming Friday. I love the Fridays. Why? Because I’m on the Friday shows. Also, I have my own movie review section on Whoopi’s website. Check it out.

On TV…did y’all see American Idol last night, shot in Alabama? That last contestant made me holler. The one who attempted to sing “Like a Virgin.” When she told off Randy and Simon, I couldn’t stop laughing. And neither could Simon. If I was a TV producer, I would have cameras follow those two as she and Simon had to drive cross country like Oprah and Gayle did. To me, that would be Must See TV.

Posted in Work | 3 Comments »

Programming Note

Tuesday, January 30th, 2007

Whoopi Goldberg, my boss and co-worker, will be on THE VIEW today (Tuesday). I have an appointment. I’ll be out. So, please, let me know if she remembers to plug our radio show, WAKE UP WITH WHOOPI. That’s a programming note. On a personal note, I really have to get out and try my luck at dating again. Over the weekend, I had another experience with my favorite solo Catholic male party game — “What Would Jesus Drink?” I sat home alone drinking a bottle of red wine and watching our local PBS station’s broadcast of Judy Garland’s A STAR IS BORN. Half-tanked in a studio apartment clutching a glass and shouting it “Work it, diva! You kick Madonna to the curb anyday. Work it!” as she concludes singing “The Man That Got Away.” How sad is that? Well…I guess the first step is admitting you need to change. Keep warm.

Posted in Friends & Family | 3 Comments »

King & Queen of SAG

Monday, January 29th, 2007

The Screen Actors Guild Awards were handed out live last night and telecast on cable. Helen Mirren was voted Best Actress for THE QUEEN and Forest Whitaker won Best Actor for THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. If you saw his acceptance speech on the Golden Globes, the one he made last night on the SAG awards had the same exact quality, bless his heart. He stammered and rambled. I pray that, before Oscar night, a quick-thinking publicist writes the actor a short speech to memorize. Just in case. He rambles so that broadcast news hookups, like NPR, can’t pull a soundbite from his speech. Some actors are just better when you put words in their mouths. That’s show biz.

Posted in TV | 1 Comment »

Prince of the City

Sunday, January 28th, 2007

Yesterday, Prince Charles and the Royal Mrs. were in Philadelphia. They visited inner city locations. Today, they’ll be here in New York City. Because of his dedication to environmental issues, he’ll be receiving an award. The royal couple will also be spending time with Manhattan’s inner city by visiting Harlem.

Gee…paying attention to the environment and the inner city. I wish the prince could teach our president how to do that. Know what I mean?

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

GI Jake Gyllenhaal

Saturday, January 27th, 2007

If you saw Jake Gyllenhaal host SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, you discovered that he can sing. If you see his movie JARHEAD tonight, premiering on HBO, you will see that JakeyG can dance. His scene as a GI in a G-string hit the big screen months before he was Jack Twist in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. I can’t remember one single entertainment reporter asking him about playing young men the same age at opposite ends of the scale, if you will. Jack had little education, grew up poor, was rejected by the Army because he was too beat up from rodeo riding and all he deeply wanted to do was to have a sweet, peaceful life working on a ranch with the man he loved. The character in JARHEAD had a college education, listened to Led Zeppelin, read Camus, grew up in a middle class home, had a girlfriend that he hoped to marry and all he wanted to do was become a Marine and shoot the enemy in the Persian Gulf War. Both characters had stern, detached fathers — and mothers with a voice that was silenced more and more as the years of a hard marriage worn on. Both young men deal with the emotional and sexual hunger of being separated from the ones they love. Jake is excellent as the GI. Everytime I saw a reporter talk to him about his film releases in 2005, the main — and sometimes only — question was “What was it like to kiss Heath Ledger?” That wasn’t the only thing the actor did that year. Why is a Marine dancing in a thong? Watch JARHEAD and see for yourself.

Posted in Entertainment | 1 Comment »

A Man of Letters

Saturday, January 27th, 2007

Recently, letters from Otto Frank were discovered. Otto was the father of Anne Frank, whose diary was published and became one of the most important books of the 20th Century. Young Anne lived with her family in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Her father tried to immigrate them and get his loved ones out of Holland. The Franks lived quietly, in hiding. Here is an excerpt from one of those letters:

“…Anne is fourteen. Like most girls her age, her mind is on other things like boys and parties. I love her but, if I’ve told her once, I have told her a million times, “Stop wearing clogs around the apartment at night! Are you nuts? Sit down in your stocking feet and read a book or write a journal or something. Oy.”

Letters will be released for public viewing in two weeks here in New York City.

Posted in Socially Speaking | 1 Comment »

Isaiah Washington News Update

Thursday, January 25th, 2007

My sources tell me today that Isaiah Washington of the ABC hit series Grey’s Anatomy will be leaving that show to star in a new series on another network. He will play an actor who completes his psychological rehab after having shouted sexual slurs at gay co-workers. As part of his community service, he has to go through West Hollywood, locate former workers he insulted and right the wrongs of his past — dressed like a drag queen. My Name Is Pearl is scheduled to debut this fall on NBC.

Posted in TV | 2 Comments »

Isaiah Washington News

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

My sources tell me that Isaiah Washington of the hit TV series Grey’s Anatomy will make his Broadway debut opposite RuPaul in the revival, Kiss of the Spider Woman: The Musical. Has anyone else heard that? Please confirm. My sources drink a lot.

Posted in Entertainment | 3 Comments »

State of the Union

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

Did you watch last night? W telling me that we consumers need to cut our addiction to foreign oil is like Bobby Brown telling Whitney Huston she had a crack problem. But that’s just me. What do you think?

Posted in Socially Speaking | 1 Comment »

Golden Boy

Monday, January 22nd, 2007

The Oscar nominations come out early Tuesday morning. Yep, it’s that time of year again — pushed up from March. Time for the Academy Awards. The Oscars. Hollywood Prom Night. The Gay Superbowl.

On my nominations wish list, I wish that the Academy would remember Ben Affleck and Diane Lane in HOLLYWOODLAND…Sandra Bullock as novelist Harper Lee in INFAMOUS (the second biopic on Truman Capote)…Jill Clayburgh in RUNNING WITH SCISSORS…the under-appreciated Mark Wahlberg in THE DEPARTED…Catherine O’Hara in FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION…and Alan Arkin in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. What names would you like to hear for what pics? And, yes, I still feel that BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN was robbed of the Oscar for Best Picture last year the same way Judy Garland was robbed of the Best Actress Academy Award for A STAR IS BORN in 1954. But that’s just me.

Posted in Big Screen, Friends & Family | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries