By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
December 22, 1998
Need a New Year’s Eve date? Then check out the January issue of Cosmopolitan. Chicagoan Shawn McClain is featured as “Cosmo’s Single Guy” of the month.
The 31-year-old bachelor – executive chef and part owner of Trio restaurant – says, “I love the passion of cooking. It’s very tactile and sensual, and the pace is nonstop.” Other things he reveals in the column: “I like a woman with self-confidence and an optimistic outlook. A great smile doesn’t hurt either.”
The savvy January/February issue of Saveur is a food lover’s delight. Besides the usual recipes for desserts, there’s a nice article about how to make authentic dim sum. There’s also a fun read about a man who is such a fan of the banana that he founded the International Banana Club, which boasts 9,500 members. “Not to knock Mom’s apple pie, but we are a banana-eating nation,” or so the story goes. “Americans consume an average of 29 pounds of bananas per capita per year (compared with a mere 18 pounds of apples).”
Most often aligned with designer Calvin Klein, Gwyneth Paltrow graces the January cover of In Style wearing a luminous pink-and-gold number by Versace. The trendy design house most likely will be shipping boxes of clothes to the willowy actress after reading her quote: “I’d like to wear one of John Galliano’s things. I just need to find a coronation. And I’d love to try Donatella Versace’s clothes.”
Personally, I like the fashion approach of her boyfriend, actor Ben Affleck. “He’s never given much attention to clothes, and now all these people are trying to dress him,” Paltrow says in the article.
“He’s like, `Pardon me? I dress myself.’ ”
The year-end issue of Mad touts “Monicagate” in its list of 20 dumbest people, events and things of 1998. Coming in at No. 2 is “Titanic” director James Cameron’s “I’m the king of the world!” speech at the Oscars. Other highlights include the debut of Windows ’98, which crashed that same day, and Ginger Spice’s decision to quit the Spice Girls.
This week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly has a nice article and photo spread on “The Women of WB,” focusing on young stars such as Sarah Michelle Gellar (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Keri Russell (“Felicity”) and Katie Holmes (“Dawson’s Creek”), who all have carved out nice niches for themselves as leading women. Writer Bruce Fretts points out that while Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt – the foxy female stars on Fox’s “Party of Five” – also have made the leap to television and film stardom, “their TV aliases continue to mope.”
“Let’s Talk About Sex,” declares this week’s Newsweek. Surprise. The “Perspectives ’98” recap of the year details the nation’s lust for everything from Viagra and Monica’s blue dress mess, to Marilyn Manson’s prosthetic breasts and Alanis Morissette’s video sans clothes.
