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).