Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
“Some people are surprised that I speak English and assume that I must be a foreigner,” says Gbenga Akinnagbe, 32, a Brooklyn resident. “When I was younger, my mother wanted me to change it because she worried that I wouldn’t be able to find employment. There was a time I wanted to change my name and I was ashamed of it and I’d have people call me DJ. But I do love it now.”
Eden Sher does such a good job portraying Patricia Heaton’s awkward teenage daughter Sue Heck on the ABC series “The Middle” that people often don’t recognize her in public. “That’s good, right?” says the 19-year-old actress. “On a good day, I probably look about 16, but when the makeup and wardrobe folks are done with me, I probably look about 13.”
On his latest project “Sinbad: It’s Just Family,” the comedian takes a stab at reality television. The 54-year-old actor let the WE tv cameras into his home to tape the reality of life in his household. The stars of the show also include his wife Meredith Fuller (whom he divorced and remarried) and their two grown children.
I feel a surge of gratitude when I look in on my children fast asleep. Penny, with her arms splayed, as if to embrace the universe … William, curled on his side and cuddling his giraffes … Marilee, swaddled tight with only her round face in view … And yet learning how to care for them comes when they are not nearly so adorable. It comes when I am willing to offer myself as a calming presence, willing to sing one more lullaby or change one more diaper or kiss a forehead one more time. Love is not an emotion so much as it is a series of actions.
With multiple best-selling books under the belt, Kyung-sook Shin has rock star status in her native South Korea. Now the 48-year-old author is ready to enter the international market with her latest book, “Please Look After Mom” (Knopf, $24.95). The touching novel — about a family that doesn’t appreciate their mother until after she has mysteriously disappeared — sold more than a million copies in Korea. It has since been released in more than 20 countries and debuted May 1 at number 14 on the New York Times Best Sellers list.
Every now and then, I get an e-mail that I like to share with my readers. This is actually a letter from a reader who doesn’t like my work. And who said as much in an e-mail to one of the travel editors who runs my syndicated column. I’ve changed the names because it seems the right thing to do.
The customer is always right, especially on eBay. Thanks to eBay’s desire to attract more buyers, it’s become a perfect way for dishonest buyers to order an item, claim they never received it, complain to eBay and have the online company mediate between the buyer and the seller. And guess what? The buyer almost always wins.
Raymond J. Barry has one of those faces that people recognize. It’s the name that sometimes draws a blank. “I was shooting a movie in Spokane, Wash., and a woman came up to me and asked if I was her favorite father from ‘Justified,’” says the 72-year-old actor, laughing. “That’s not atypical. I was doing theater in my 20s and 30s and didn’t start making movies or acting on TV until I was 44. And I’m a character actor. But I’m very grateful. It’s a nice way to make a living and I don’t have to deal with some of the craziness that the younger actors do.”
When author Dan Brown visited Rosslyn Chapel four years ago, the small working church wasn’t on any tourist maps. Though located just seven miles south of Edinburgh, Rosslyn didn’t have the same cachet, as say, the more famous and majestic Edinburgh Castle. But thanks to Brown’s international bestseller, “The Da Vinci Code” — in which Rosslyn is prominently featured — the little chapel that no one expected to become a tourist attraction has become one of the country’s most coveted sites.
Claire Forlani played Sean Connery’s daughter in “The Rock,” was Brad Pitt’s love interest in “Meet Joe Black” and starred opposite Gary Sinise in “CSI: New York.” On the new Starz series “Camelot,” the 38-year-old actress reigns supreme as the beautiful and complicated Queen Igraine.