Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
“If someone gave me the option of staying this age forever, I’d say no,” says Jonathan Jackson, who stars in the love story “Tuck Everlasting”–which opens Friday in local theaters. “Just thinking about staying the same age forever and seeing everyone else grow old and die would be depressing. I’d rather die and go to heaven.”
Piper Perabo doesn’t look like the type of woman who could take on The Rock. But the big-time wrestler had nothing on the diminutive actress when he accidentally spilled a glass of champagne on her mother. “I looked at him and said, ‘You’re huge. You shouldn’t be going around bumping into people and spilling things on them,'” says Perabo, laughing.
“My father happened to be over the day that I was sent the script [for ‘The Vagina Monologues,'” says McCormick, 46. “He read the whole play and said, ‘Every gal and guy should go see this.’ He was so amazed by it. It’s such a well-written, well-crafted show. I have to say that when I read the script, I was like, ‘Yes, I’ll do it. This is so cool.’ ”
“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.
Oprah Winfrey had better start taking some tips from Suze Orman, the financial whiz who writes for Winfrey’s magazine. Seems our billionairess is so cautious about investing her own money in the stock market that she once hoarded $50 million in cash, calling it her personal “bag-lady fund.”
Jamie Kennedy is nowhere to be found. At first, you wonder whether he’s wandering around in disguise as a bellhop, waiting to fool you as he does on his TV series, “JKX: The Jamie Kennedy Experiment,” which airs at 7 p.m. Sundays on WGN-Channel 9. On this twisted homage to “Candid Camera,” Kennedy dresses up as different characters and fools people into thinking he’s some funky Valley Boy taking their daughter out on a blind date or an insensitive boss who makes his temp fire the entire staff.
Sitting in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Benjamin Bratt–who is polite, funny and easy on the eyes–isn’t oblivious to the effect he has on the women fluttering nearby. Dressed in grey trousers, a tight black pullover and black ankle boots, Bratt looks every bit the movie star he is about to become. His almond-shaped eyes are liquid and chocolate brown, and the few strands of grey hair flecking his sideburns are his only concession to age.
What’re you doing New Year’s Eve? Let’s take a guess. You don’t have a date for the big night. Or, if you do, the two of you are dreading the thought of dealing with booked restaurants, inebriated revelers and couples trying just a little too hard to prove they’re having the best night of their lives. Then again, who wants to spend $300 for a night on the town when the economy is so iffy?
As the star of “The Pretender,” Michael T. Weiss grew accustomed to wearing natty designer clothes. For his role as a corrupt, corpulent cop in the film “Bones”–which opens Wednesday–Weiss wore a different kind of suit: a fat suit. “People who haven’t seen me since ‘The Pretender’ are going to think, ‘Boy, he really let himself go,'” says the ordinarily lean 6-foot-3 actor.
You’ve got to feel a little bad for the Chicago cast of “The Real World.” The seven young ‘uns probably thought they’d get to live rent-free for the summer in a way-cool house in way-cool Wicker Park, hang with a Pumpkin or two and use the MTV soap opera-style documentary to launch their 15 minutes of fame.
Six years ago, I fell in love. Hard. Not with a man, but with a television sitcom called “Friends.” I loved it so much that in 1995, I wrote a book about the series called Best of Friends (HarperPerennial). For the record, I never wrote a book about any of my ex-boyfriends.
I narrate the show and it’s a very sexually oriented series. And I do start the show saying, “It’s all about sex.” But it’s also very relationship driven. We deal with a lot of other issues besides sex. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’re not just a gay show. I think it’d be funny if we were a gay version of the “Sopranos.” We bring a guy in who thinks he’s going to get a makeover and instead, we whack him!
It’s time to finalize phone-a-friend lifelines. We get to name up to five people, and may use one if we get to the hot seat and are stuck on a question. On the day I qualified, I’d asked Phil Blanchard, the Sun-Times telegraph editor on whom I plan to lean for geography, current events and general arcane knowledge. My others will be Darel Jevens and Jae-Ha Kim from the Sun-Times features staff, John Lavalie, a librarian friend in Des Plaines, and George Vass, an author and retired sportswriter and copy editor who is my backup on classical music, literature and history.
Richard Hatch walked around naked, caught a lot of fish and got on a lot of people’s nerves before winning the million-dollar prize on “Survivor.” And Chicago’s gay community is loving all of the attention being lavished on a man one of his cast mates referred to as “Darth Gaydar.”
A decade of despair, the heroes of “Beverly Hills, 90210” have endured every kind of trauma possible.
Directing Gary Hobson wasn’t difficult for Kyle Chandler. After all, Chandler has played Hobson on the CBS series “Early Edition” for four years. What did present a challenge for Chandler was shooting scenes that centered on Gary, without being able to view himself in action as it happened.
Former Chicagoan Bob Bass lost his chance to become a millionaire. And he wants a second shot at it. As a contestant on last week’s highly popular game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” Bass was asked which U.S. president was the youngest at his inauguration. He answered John F. Kennedy. The show maintains that the correct answer is Theodore Roosevelt.
It was a dog on a motorcycle that caught Kathryn Chandler’s eyes. The guy with the dog was Kyle Chandler, star of CBS’ “Early Edition” (which is filmed in Chicago). But back in 1993, there was no “Early Edition.” And Kathryn hadn’t seen Kyle in any of his other roles. All she knew was that any man giving a big dog a ride on his motorcycle was a little eccentric.
Outside Wrigley Field, surrounded by thousands of other Cubs fans, David Boreanaz hit the ground and bowed. “I’m not worthy,” he said, half-jokingly. “I’m totally in awe. I’m mesmerized right now.” The same could be said for the gaggle of teenagers nudging each other, asking, “Hey, isn’t that Angel?”
There is a nightly ritual to the “Tonight Show” at the Rosemont Theatre. Before the taping starts, the Freebie Guy arrives to pass out T-shirts and caps.