Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Jarvis Cocker is a tall, stick of a man who doesn’t look as if he could possibly possess the deep, rich, resonating voice he has. At Pulp’s sold-out concert Tuesday night at Metro, the gangly, twitching front man for the British sextet could’ve been a laughingstock if his strange antics were all he had to offer. But as with most great performers, he used his body to accentuate the positive, which in this case is the band’s superbly lyrical songs.
“Ed” is a cute movie about a minor league baseball player who learns about love, respect and self-confidence from his chimpanzee teammate. If you can’t get past this premise, don’t bother going to see the comedy, featuring “Friends” star Matt LeBlanc (as the pitcher, not the chimp), ’cause it doesn’t get any more real than that.
It wasn’t until recently that the five young actor/filmmakers who made the clever and hilarious “Bottle Rocket” learned that their producer, James L. Brooks, hated their first presentation to him. “I asked Jim, `So, what did you think of that reading we gave?’ ” said co-writer and co-star Owen Wilson, 27, one of three brothers involved in the project. “He said, `It was the worst one I ever heard in my whole life.’ ”
Jackie Chan’s stunt man has the easiest job in film. All of Chan’s action films are full of dangerous free falls, explosions and rapid-fire kung fu fighting, but the stunt man doesn’t have to participate in any of them. Chan insists on doing all the stunts himself and uses his stunt man more as a double. “I believe all the people who come to my movies buy tickets not to see the double,” said Chan. “They want to see me do everything, which is why I do all my own stunts. My double does things like run from a car into a store.”
Chita Rivera made a triumphant return Wednesday evening when “Kiss of the Spider Woman” opened a five-night run at the Chicago Theatre. Dancing up a storm and singing in perfect voice, the 63-year-old Broadway star gave a smoldering performance that made all the difference in the world. Last year when the musical opened at the same theater, Rivera’s understudy took her place on opening night after Rivera injured her leg. And while all the actors did a fine job, the show was lackluster and I left feeling bored. Not so this night. Regal and poised, Rivera (who won a 1993 Tony Award for her role) started and closed the show with a standing ovation.
Kravitz fares best when he sticks to four-minute rock songs. The lengthy jams have got to go. Unlike some of his critics, Lenny Kravitz doesn’t view it as a problem that some of his music is reminiscent of songs by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Smokey Robinson or Led Zeppelin. Rather, the sinewy musician flicks away any comparisons – good or bad – as easily as he tosses aside his long dreadlocks and keeps writing songs with strong backbeats and deliciously catchy pop hooks.
Julia, Jean-Claude, Chris and Brooke joined Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Ross and Joey in a special “Friends” Sunday night, and the high-profile guest stars proved a hilarious addition to the cast. The one-hour episode, titled “The One After the Super Bowl,” compared to the best of “Friends” – and that includes last season’s hourlong sweeps special where Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) tried to one-up each other on a double date with guest stars George Clooney and Noah Wyle from “E.R.,” and the episode where all the pals made and broke a pact to spend New Year’s Eve dateless.
The stars of “Friends” were happy to welcome all the guests on Sunday’s celebrity-studded special episode — except one. Julia Roberts, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chris Isaak and Brooke Shields all reportedly received adoring, excited welcomes on the set of NBC’s hit sitcom. But not so for Marcel, the temperamental monkey who hurled feces at the cast last season.
Tonight’s wedding episode of “Party of Five” is a must-see for fans of this struggling Fox series. While TV nuptials generally are ploys to boost sagging ratings, this episode stands out for the way it handles the complex relationship between Charlie Salinger (Matthew Fox) and Kirsten Bennett (Paula Devicq).
It’s not coincidental that actor Stephen Caffrey is sporting a George Clooney-ish look these days. The star of Paul Rudnick’s play “I Hate Hamlet” portrays a character who used to be an actor on a popular series set in a hospital. “I don’t want to make it sound like I’m basing it on him, but the character in the play is an actor who was on a television series called `L.A. Medical,’ ” Caffrey said. “And he leaves the series after five years and goes back to New York. So it was sort of like what would be the contemporary version of `L.A. Medical,’ and it was `ER,’ right? And George Clooney seemed like a good prototype?”