Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe are doing it. So are Tonya Harding and Barry Williams. And come to think of it, Danny Bonaduce and Long Island Lolita Amy Fisher are doing it, too. Hey now, get your minds out of the gutter. We’re talking about that other contact sport– boxing.
Ryan DeFord is smiling ear-to-ear. The 15-year-old guitarist has just finished auditioning for Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, who critiqued his performance with an enthusiastic, “Man, you rock!”
Lady Madonna is no stranger to Chicago. She got a good dose of the city when she filmed “A League of Their Own” here in 1991. But when she hits town this time, it’ll be her first concert tour stop as a married mother of two young’uns. Think that’ll cramp her style when she’s here next week for her two sold-out concerts? We doubt it very much.
For years, Christina Aguilera had tried to prevent the release of “Just Be Free,” a collection of recordings Aguilera made when she was 14 and 15 years old. The diva-in-training, now 20, recently settled with Warlock Records on the condition that the album would contain a message that says in part: “I made the recordings as a possible stepping stone to a career in music, which is my ultimate passion. They were made just so that I could get my foot in the door of the music business. I did not intend that the recordings would be widely released, especially after I signed with a major record label.
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.
Those shiny, pristine CD-like discs are my obsession. Each time I get a new one, it’s like I’m getting a sweet gift. Besides their affordable price, they are a movie buff’s dream. Sure, there’s the prime attraction of the movie. But most discs contain myriad treats, such as the director’s commentary, alternate endings, the option to watch the film with subtitles or listen to it in a foreign language, interviews with the cast and so on.
See Tarzan skate. See Jane swoon. See Tarzan and Jane swing on vines through the air . . . with their ice skates on. “Disney’s Jungle Adventures on Ice” takes three beloved Disney stories–“The Jungle Book,” “Tarzan” and “The Lion King”–and gives them a twist for the 21st century. The vignette for “The Jungle Book,” for instance, incorporates hip-hop beats into the remastered score.
So you wouldn’t know Pokemon from Gumby’s pal Pokey. That’s OK. The producers of “Pokemon-Live!” promise that even adults will understand the concept of the stage production, which is based on the Japanese video game phenomenon that spawned an animated TV series as well as a couple of feature films.
The first time we got a look at Madonna in a wedding dress, she was writhing around onstage in a PG-13 performance of “Like a Virgin” at the 1984 MTV Music Awards. A year later, she donned a wedding gown for real when she married actor Sean Penn.
What the Spice Girls want–what they really, really want–is another hit album. But if early sales reports are any indication, their latest record “Forever” isn’t going to cut it.
It’s fitting that the art of Jerry Garcia is on a national tour. After all, Garcia spent a good chunk of his life on the road with the Grateful Dead before he died of a heart attack Aug. 5, 1995.
We asked our readers to tell us which Beatles love song was the most romantic. We wanted to know, in 100 words or less, what special memories you might have attached to that song.
Of the many readers who entered, 10 of the best responses garnered copies of “The Beatles Anthology.” But the best and most charming entry came from Judy “Jude” Finkel of Chicago, who told us how “Hey Jude” brought her and her husband, Harvey, together.
Here’s what the Internet buzz was Monday about Madonna’s “Music.” All spelling and grammar are as the fans intended:
Thirty years after the Fab Four broke up, Paul McCartney has put together a “new” Beatles single. McCartney announced Tuesday that the new single, “Free Now,” offers snippets from the band’s recording sessions in the 1960s.
The song doesn’t always remain the same on Radio Disney. For instance, Lou Bega’s sexually charged “Mambo No. 5” was re-worked–with the artist’s cooperation–so that it is no longer about a string of one-night-stands, and now includes popular Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and his girlfriend Minnie.
Will the real Slim Shady please shut up? That’s the request a Christina Aguilera clone raps on “No Reply.” Sung from Aguilera’s perspective, the parody of Eminem’s hit single “Real Slim Shady” is enjoying its 15 minutes of fame, thanks to a singer who sounds young enough to be Aguilera and some funny lyrics that mock the controversial rap star.
After building an empire as a celebrity shoe designer, Steve Madden finds himself in a precarious situation, teetering like someone in the platform shoes that earned him fame and $163 million in sales for his company in 1999.
Come July 8, 12-year-old Allie Greenberg will be one of the first kids in Chicago to own the new Harry Potter book. Allie, who’ll be in seventh grade at the University of Chicago Lab School this fall, put her name on the pre-order list at Barbara’s Bookstore in Old Town, oh, a year ago.
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.”
