Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
The best reason to subscribe to cable television is “La Femme Nikita.” Well-written, suspenseful and sexy, the superb drama kicks off its second season Sunday on the USA Network with an engrossing episode that reveals a turning point in the title character’s life. Based on the 1991 Luc Besson film of the same name, “La Femme Nikita” focuses on a beautiful, young woman sentenced to prison for a crime she didn’t commit.
There’s a lot to be said for staying home and curling up in front of the TV on New Year’s Eve. You don’t have to deal with traffic jams, snooty waiters or drunken strangers puckering up in your vicinity. And, if you happen to get a tad tipsy, you’re already home.
If the tenants at “Melrose Place” decided to become entertainers, their lives would pretty much resemble the ones on “Fame L.A.” Loosely based on the 1980 film “Fame,” this syndicated series revolves around a group of young actors, singers, dancers and comics – all hoping to make names for themselves in Hollywood. The repeat airing Saturday is the second show of the series’ three-part opener, first seen in September.
I was almost 5 years old when my family moved from Seoul, South Korea, to Chicago. Language barrier aside, I couldn’t figure out why some of my new pals were so excited about the arrival of an old man they didn’t know, who would slide down chimneys that some of them didn’t have, to drop off presents under decorated trees in their living rooms. Couldn’t this Santa person just use the door like everyone else?
There isn’t much that hasn’t happened to the orphaned siblings on “Party of Five.” Death, infidelity, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, mental illness and alcoholism all have been dealt with responsibly on the Fox drama. On tonight’s episode, from 8 to 9 on Channel 32, the family faces another blow when eldest brother Charlie Salinger reveals that he has Hodgkin’s disease.
If you can’t find something fun to do on a Chicago weekend, then you’re an idiot. So says Mancow Muller, the popular, outspoken morning drive radio personality at WRCX-FM (103.5). For the uninitiated, Muller, 30, is a man who doesn’t weather boredom well either on his radio show or his live rock ‘n’ roll extravaganzas. For instance, at his “Hell-O-Ween Spectacular” last month at the United Center, his sideshow included dozens of lap dancers who took their acts to audience members. Then there was the little matter of feeding time for the 600-pound snake and a little donkey named Danny, but we won’t go there for a bit. So it was with curiosity that the Sun-Times set out to chronicle a typical night out with the popular shock jock.
Goldie and Bush’s Gavin Rossdale are an unlikely combination. But the trip-hop God is among a handful of artists who remix the band on Deconstructed. Phillip Steir’s ”Synapse” oozes breathy seduction, while Fabio Paris’ pulsating ”Personal Holloway” induces dancing, rather than moshing. It’s Goldie’s fussy ”Swallowed” that’s a clunker.
Novelist Judith Rossner admits that her characters’ antics often get so violent that they frighten her out of her own house. “The violence and the plots I come up with sometimes scare me,” Rossner said.
Walking around Jamie Weiss’ loft, guests are hard-pressed to find anything black. And with good reason. “I used to have all black lacquer furniture,” said the makeup artist and silverware designer. “After I gave all that away, I wanted to try something bright and different.”
Mark Harmon is hovering by the juniors department at Carson Pirie Scott downtown, but he’s not shopping. The star of “Chicago Hope” is preparing for his next scene, which is being filmed in an unused section of the department store’s second floor. The cast and crew of the fictional Chicago Hope Hospital fly to the Windy City two to three times each year to shoot on location.