Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
You know Jeremy Piven. Or at least you think you do. Chances are you attended Evanston Township High School with him, or were in acting classes with him at his parents’ Piven Theatre Workshop, or knew someone who knew someone who did.
The first film ever released on DVD was the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.” When it came out in the mid-1990s, it was an anomaly. Gadget geeks were attracted to the shiny new format that promised to replace bulky videocassettes, but the public wasn’t so sure. They remembered the fate of laser discs, Beta tapes and 8-track cartridges.
Winter break is upon us and the kids already are complaining, “I’m bored.” After you’ve run the gamut of reading together, baking cookies and playing board games, how about treating them to a kid-friendly DVD or video? Need suggestions? Read on for some of our holiday-favorite picks.
“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.