Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
The Friends of the James Jordan Boys and Girls Club made quite the splash with their first Beach Blast. Held at Phil Stefani’s kicky Castaways Restaurant at the North Avenue Beach–a favorite hangout for the Chicago cast of this season’s “The Real World”–the benefit attracted almost 200 revelers wearing their best casual beach attire. Surveying the crowd, Deloris Jordan appeared particularly chic and cool in a crisp summer suit.
Aging gracefully can be pretty … if you’re Tina Turner. But for the rest of us who never foresaw a future of thinning hair, wrinkles and expanding feet, growing older might be easier to deal with if we knew what we were in for. With that in mind, we asked some experts to warn us about what we may expect as we approach middle age.
Though his publicist warned that Clint Black might call a few minutes earlier or later than our scheduled appointment, the country music star phones exactly on time. To the second. “My stomach starts to hurt if I’m late,” Black says during a conversation from Nashville, Tenn. “I don’t like wasting other people’s time by making them wait for me.”
Eight hundred million dollars just doesn’t stretch as far these days. Just ask Michael Jackson. The self-proclaimed King of Pop may not yet be headed for the poor house, but some experts estimate that the litigious singer is at least $200 million in debt.
“The Rising” is making a strong move toward the top. By early afternoon Tuesday, fans had snapped up about 100 copies of Bruce Springsteen’s new CD at Tower Records, 2301 N. Clark. Two dozen or so were purchased in the wee hours.
Five years ago, Susan McLaughlin Karp delivered a stillborn baby. On the first anniversary of her child’s death, Karp wrote the play she will perform at this year’s seventh annual Fillet of Solo Festival. A miscarriage isn’t exactly the best source for a one-woman show, but Karp handles her subject matter evenly in “Still.” She shares her experience in a way that won’t leave her or the audience drained.
“Stuart Little 2” tackled the big boys at the box office and almost beat “Road to Perdition” for the No. 1 spot last weekend. Michael J. Fox–who voices the congenial little mouse who knows how to drive, fly and play soccer–called from New York Thursday to fill GLARE in on the film and his co-stars.
Pamela Anderson plans to be injected with powerful antiviral drugs to treat hepatitis C–a sometimes fatal liver disease she blames on a tattoo needle she shared with ex-husband Tommy Lee.
“If I’m gonna go around one more time, it better be good,” Cher said Thursday in the first of two consecutive nights at the United Center. “I have to raise the bar for a lot of these young girls coming up.” Without missing a beat, Cher jokingly challenged, “All right, follow this, you bitches.”
Jewel may have been nursing a broken collarbone and ribs, but there was nothing ailing her voice Sunday night at the Chicago Theatre. Backed by a five-piece band, the singer-songwriter captivated the sold-out crowd with a two-hour plus concert that showed off her flexible range. She sang all the expected hits from her three studio albums (excluding her Christmas CD, for obvious reasons).
When Jewel performs cuts from her latest album, “This Way,” at the Chicago Theatre this Sunday, don’t expect the singer to strap on her electric guitar. Her collarbone and ribs are still tender from when she was thrown from a colt at her boyfriend’s ranch in April. “[The accident] hasn’t really inhibited my show a lot,” Jewel says. “Touring Europe was a little painful ’cause the ribs were still tender. But it didn’t get in the way of the show. It just wasn’t a lot of fun.”
All the trendy fashionistas have a taste for Juicy Couture. The eight-year-old line of casual wear recently got the kind of publicity money can’t buy when Hollywood hotties such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz and Gwen Stefani were photographed wearing their favorite Juicy pieces. Lara Flynn Boyle has proclaimed Juicy her preferred comfort-wear. And Sarah Michelle Gellar went so far as to say Juicy is the only thing she’ll wear to her early morning calls on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Summer finally is here and we’re ready to hit the road. Whether it’s a drive to the Wisconsin Dells with the kids or a flight to Paris with the main squeeze, there’s one thing we’ll all pack for the trip: a camera (or two). With so many options to choose from, we decided to test some of this summer’s most popular cameras. Our operatives? Some of the winners of the Van Kampen Funds’ Portraits of True Wealth student photography competition.
Call it poetic justice. In “Without Me,” Eminem brags, “I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley/to do black music so selfishly/and use it to get myself wealth.” The controversial rapper has been displaced by Nelly to No. 2 on the album charts, but the best-selling single in America belongs to none other than Presley.
At the best spots where singles mingle, people are focused on something besides meeting a date. With something (ostensibly) in the air besides romance, sparks can fly as if by serendipity. Here are some fresh ideas for getting out and about, along with some hints about who’s there and what to wear. The rest is up to you.
If you were to believe the songs Chris Isaak sings, he is one unlucky son of a gun when it comes to love. “Wicked Game” is about a tortured love affair. He wrote “Forever Blue” after his fiancee broke up with him. And in his latest single, “Let Me Down Easy,” Isaak pleads with his latest lover to go easy with his heart.
By Jae-Ha Kim Chicago Sun-Times June 28, 2002 Since tackling his Showtime series “The Chris Isaak Show”–a thinly veiled version of his life–Chris Isaak has had little time to do nothing. Currently on tour supporting his latest album “Always Got […]
Loosen your belts. It’s that time of year again. Starting today at 11 a.m. and continuing for the next 10 days, we’ll all be in a feeding frenzy at the 22nd annual Taste of Chicago. “We’re very excited about this year’s Taste,” says Cindy Gatziolis, director of public relations for the Mayor’s Office of Special Events. “We’ve got some great restaurants serving all different kinds of food, from Italian to Jamaican to Korean to Thai.
Who says Americans are done playing soccer? Whether you’ve just discovered the sport or are a lifelong fan, there are plenty of video games to help you get your fix–even after the final World Cup match on Sunday. Here’s a look at some of the more colorful titles.
When Tom O’Brien crossed the U.S. border into Canada to pick up a copy of a new game called Trivial Pursuit, he had no idea it would help him win major bucks nearly two decades later. “Before Trivial Pursuit came out in America [in 1982], it was released in Canada,” says O’Brien, 46, of the Loop. “I was living in Seattle at the time and remember running up to Vancouver to get the game. I thought it was great and loved it. It got to the point where I got so good no one would play with me anymore.”