BITS AND PIECES 06/04
PUSSSYKATT
--Tiger Woods is so focused on becoming the best golfer ever that marriage
might have to wait, his father says. "I don't see Tiger marrying before 30, if
then. Because he has a lot to accomplish in the game of golf," Earl Woods told
TV Guide for its June 9 issue. "And let's face it, a wife can sometimes be a
deterrent to a good game of golf," he adds. "The level he's at, the finite
little problems like that would destroy him." Woods, 25, is single again after
a recent break-up with his girlfriend of two years. He goes for his fifth
straight major golf championship when the U.S. Open begins June 14.
NY POST/MICHAEL STARR...
--Some big changes are in store for Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants." The
animated series will move to prime time for the first time ever beginning July
2 - attesting to its ranking as the second-most-watched kid's show behind
sister Nick series "Rugrats." "SpongeBob" will air at 8 p.m., followed by "U
Pick Nick." "The Wild Thornberrys," which currently airs at 8, will most likely
be moved to 7 p.m., leading into "Rugrats" at 7:30. "SpongeBob" will continue
airing at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. More news: SpongeBob himself, with his pal
Patrick (the starfish), will host Nick's summer-long weekday animation
marathon, "Summer Splash," comprised of a three-hour block of cartoons.
SpongeBob and Patrick will host from SpongeBob's two-story, undersea pineapple
abode. And starting July 2, Nickelodeon will extend its kids' programming an
additional 30 minutes, to 9 p.m. weekdays.
--It's amazing how much one successful TV season can mean to an actor's career.
The (largely) unknown cast of Showtime's "Queer as Folk" have all snagged
impressive projects since their debut on the show, which returns June 10 after
a four-week hiatus leading into its June 24 finale. Hal Sparks is in Toronto
shooting "Bleacher Bums" with Brad Garrett ("Everybody Loves Raymond") for
Showtime; Gale Harold finished his off-Broadway run in "Uncle Bob" and is now
shooting an independent film in Maine; and Randy Harrison just wrapped "Bang
Bang You're Dead" for Showtime. Meanwhile, Peter Paige is in L.A., doing a play
called "Secret Agent," while Scott Lowell just finished shooting wraparounds
for Showtime's celebrity-directors series, "On the Edge." And while Thea Gill
shoots a Showtime movie up in Calgary, Sharon Gless (San Diego) and Michelle
Clunie (San Francisco) are headlining productions of "The Vagina Monologues."
--VH1 airing "Aerosmith's Greatest TV Moments" Wednesday at 8 p.m., with live
reports from Rebecca Rankin in Hartford, Ct., where Aerosmith is playing that
night. At 9, VH1 goes live with the band's first two songs. VH1 is sponsoring
the band's "Just Push Play" world tour.
--On tonight's "48 Hours": Troy Roberts on whether accused poisoner Stella
Nickell (cyanide-laced Excedrin) is really innocent.
NY POST/PAGE SIX...
--Elaine Del Valle is trying hard not to be typecast. The sultry star of
"Requiem" goes from motorcycle-riding mob moll in the upcoming film "Ten-13" to
Italian-American "dream girl next door" in the pilot "Hey, Paison," while
squeezing in a regular gig as the voice for an animated octopus in the kid's
show "Dora, the Explorer." If that's not enough, you can catch a glimpse of the
brown-haired beauty next month on the small screen in ads for Ford Explorer and
Dos Equis beer.
--ADAM Sandler at Suite 16 sharing a banquette with "Traffic" co-stars Erika
Christensen and Luis Guzman.
--A NEW illustrated version of the bible will feature Claudia Schiffer (above)
and Marcus Schenkenberg as a modern-day Adam and Eve. "Instead of a boring
drawing of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we may well have a couple
walking down a New York street kissing," Gustaf-Wilhelm Hellstedt, who's behind
the project, told British Vogue online. Fashion photog Paolo Roversi, known for
his nudes, is expected to lens the book. "Most of the models, who will earn up
to $15,000 a day, will keep their clothes on," Hellstedt says, "but there will
be some nudity because the Bible is very sensual and we are going to exploit
that."
NY POST/NEAL TRAVIS...
--FAME and fortune heal all wounds, so I wasn't surprised to hear at the "First
Friday" literary lunch at Langan's the other day that Frank and Malachy McCourt
are being honored by Limerick, that gritty place that spawned the McCourts and
Richard Harris, among other talents. When Frank's huge hit, "Angela's Ashes,"
was published, most Limerickians (including Harris) attacked him for painting
such a bleak picture of the burg. But literary fans have been flocking to
Limerick, and now the Irish Tourist Board is spending something like $100,000
to restore the original McCourt slum and its foul outside privy to a glory it
never had. The "First Friday" club members were highly amused at the news.
NY DAILY NEWS/MITCHELL FINK...
--The kind of events model Kylie Bax attends usually entail burly doormen and a
velvet rope. Not so on Wednesday, when the New Zealand-born beauty showed up at
a bris. As a rule, circumcisions don't rank up there with high-profile events,
so the father of the infant at the center of the ritual, Sony Music exec
Charlie Walk, must have been thrilled she was there. Still, the last thing the
mohel, or ritual surgeon, needs is someone like Bax, who usually wears as
little as possible, watching over his shoulder while he works.
USA TODAY...
--Janet Jackson will donate a portion of the proceeds from her "All for You
Tour 2001" to support the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The North American leg
of her tour will open July 5 in Vancouver. It will include nearly 60
performances, with stops in Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, New York and Boston,
before ending in Denver on Oct. 13. More than 2,800 Boys & Girls Clubs serve
more than 3.3 million teens and children nationwide, according to the
Atlanta-based organization. "These children are our future," Jackson said in a
statement last week. "I am just so proud to be involved with helping such a
wonderful organization that not only looks after, but nurtures, educates and
enriches the lives of so many."
--A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys has launched the JNN Foundation, named for
his alter ego Johnny No-Name, to help raise funds for the VH1 Save the Music
Foundation and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. McLean will make a $1
million personal donation to the foundation, it was announced last week. In
addition, Hardrock.com, in association with eBay, is the host of a monthlong
series of auctions featuring autographed Johnny No-Name items, including a
suit, a fedora-style hat and autographed Hard Rock Cafe leather jacket. VH1's
Save the Music Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving
the quality of education in America's public schools.
--Anthony Rudolph Oaxaca Quinn, the Oscar-winning star whose bravura screen
presence often was bigger than the movies in which he acted, died Sunday at a
Boston hospital. He was 86 and had been living in Bristol, near Providence.
Quinn died of respiratory failure, Providence Mayor Vincent ''Buddy'' Cianci
said. Quinn led a roguish life and was as devoted to his many lovers as he was
to his acting, which included varied title characters, from Zorba the Greek to
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and from the painter Gauguin in Lust for Life to a
pope in 1968's The Shoes of the Fisherman.
--Movie critic David Manning of The Ridgefield Press loved The Animal, A
Knight's Tale, Hollow Man and Vertical Limit. But like the films' characters,
Manning never existed. After being challenged by Newsweek, Sony Pictures, which
distributed all four movies, has admitted Manning is a fake, concocted by the
studio's advertising department. Sony has now pulled ads containing the
fabricated quotes. "We're horrified that this happened," says Sony spokeswoman
Susan Tick. "Clearly it will not happen again. We're looking into the
circumstances, and because it's an act of incredibly bad judgment on somebody's
part, we're taking the appropriate steps."
--Sidney Poitier won two trophies Friday at the 2001 Audie Awards for his
autobiographical recording, The Measure of a Man. Other Audies went to Chris
VanAllsburgh's The Polar Express, read by Liam Neeson; and Peter Moore Smith's
Raveling, read by Eric Stoltz.
--Prince will once again host an open house at his Paisley Park studios in
Minneapolis. The weeklong festivities, June 11-17, will include performances by
Prince, Erykah Badu, Common, Alicia Keys and Nikka Costa. For details, visit
www.NPGOnlineLTD.com.
UPI....
--Former child film star Macaulay Culkin ("Home Alone"), now 20, has returned
to acting after a six-year hiatus in a play set in 1960s Paris about a
15-year-old boy's willing seduction by a woman teacher twice his age. Culkin
shares the stage with Joely Richardson, a daughter of Vanessa Redgrave, and
Robin Weigert in "Madame Melville," at the Off-Broadway Promenade Theater. The
play is by Richard Nelson who wrote the book for "James Joyce's The Dead,"
which won a Tony Award last year for best musical book of the Broadway season.
Culkin first played the role of Carl in "Madame Melville" in London. "At last
I'm having a really good time," he told an interviewer recently. "A better time
than I ever thought I would when I was younger. I didn't know this kind of
thing existed, working and being happy." Culkin will be in "Madame Melville"
through Aug 24, his 21st birthday, and then may make a film adaptation of a
book titled "Disco Blood Bath", playing a homicidal denizen of a disco club.
--Destiny's Child, Macy Gray, 98 Degrees and Eve, with special guest 'N Sync,
will headline a benefit concert in New York City Tuesday. The event -- at the
Roseland Ballroom -- will officially launch The Candie's Foundation. The goal
for the evening is to raise awareness about teenage pregnancy prevention. The
fundraising event is being hosted by Jenny McCarthy. (Web site:
http://www.candiesfoundation.org)
--Brand New Immortals -- headed by former Black Crowe Johnny Colt and Kenny
Cresswell -- are taking to the road in support of their first major label
release (on Elektra), which hits stores June 26. Colt and Cresswell, along with
business partner Chris Conner, recently unveiled their new corporate identity,
Avatar Events Group. The Atlanta-based company handles all backline,
production, rehearsal, cartage and storage needs and has begun line producing
as well as full event production management. Clients include: REM, Indigo
Girls, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, matchbox twenty, Poe, Jill Scott, Sevendust,
Gov't Mule, Lincoln Park, Fuel, Tony Bennett, Keith Sweat, Prince, Oleander,
Wallflowers, Vertical Horizon, Toni Braxton and Johnny Lang. (Web site:
www.avatareventsgroup.com)
--Hanson is working with legendary songwriter Carole King. Rolling Stone
reports the brothers -- Isaac, Taylor and Zac -- have just returned from
mega-manager Miles Copeland's annual "songwriting bootcamp" at Chateau de
Marouatte in France, where they penned and demoed two tracks, "Let You Go" and
"One More Time" with King. While at Copeland's chateau, the trio also co-wrote
a number, "Never Love Again," with Barenaked Ladies' Ed Robertson and Donny
Brown of Verve Pipe. "It was scary," Zac said of working with King.
"Afterwards, I was talking to Tay and I was like, 'You know, when I was writing
with Carole . . .' and then I sat down and thought, 'What am I doing? I'm
calling Carole King by her first name!'" The next giant on the Hanson's docket
is producer/arranger Glen Ballard, whom the boys will be working with sometime
in the coming weeks -- sizing him up as a potential producer for the follow-up
to last year's "This Time Around." The threesome plan on taking nearly 40 songs
-- including those written with King, Robertson, and others written with
Fastball's Miles Zuniga and Semisonic's Dan Wilson -- into a Los Angeles studio
later this month.
--Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas is among the speakers scheduled
to appear at Monterey Pop Revisited, June 15-17, in Monterey, Calif. The
Monterey History & Art Association is sponsoring the three-day symposium
celebrating the legendary Monterey International Pop Festival of 1967. A photo
and graphic exhibit enhanced with artifacts from the original event will debut
at the Monterey History Center during the symposium. Country Joe McDonald and
Mark Naftalin will perform live at the opening and other musicians will
perform during the weekend. Also slated to attend: Stephen Katz, Roy Blumenfeld
and Andy Kulberg of The Blues Project; Mark Naftalin of the Paul Butterfield
Blues Band; and Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane.
(Information on the symposium may be found at www.popfestmonterey.com, by
calling 866/POP-FEST or via e-mail at in...@popfestmonterey.com)
--A tuneful thaw has broken out across the Taiwan Straits. Pop star A-Mei --
Taiwan's Madonna -- had been banned from China since she sang the Taiwanese
national anthem at last year's Inauguration of President Chen Shui-bian. And
Coca-Cola had to suspend a $10 million ad campaign on the mainland featuring
the pint-sized young star. Now all is forgiven. A-Mei has been invited to
perform at a big medical charity gala in Hong Kong, with Beijing ministers in
the audience. No anthems, by request.
ASSOCIATED PRESS...
--JACKSON, Mich. - The Vacuum Cleaner Hospital here might not top many
vacationers' itineraries. But to Michigan actor and filmmaker Jeff Daniels it's
a "dream location" for "Super Sucker," his new film about dueling vacuum
cleaner salesmen. "This place is great. We couldn't have built something like
this," Daniels said after seeing the business's basement, which is littered
with ancient upright vacuums. "This is the kind of stuff you'd have to build in
Hollywood, but we don't have to - it's right here." Daniels, who lives 15 miles
east of Jackson, wrote and directed "Super Sucker," which is filming here this
month. He also filmed the deer-hunting comedy "Escanaba in da Moonlight" in the
Upper Peninsula last summer.
--MASON CITY, Iowa - Shirley Jones was signing autographs in this northern Iowa
town when a man presented her with a champagne glass. It was the glass, he
said, that she used to toast fellow cast members after the 1962 premiere of
"The Music Man" at the Palace Theater in Mason City. Hank Motter Jr. and his
father were working at the theater that night and after the toast Motter
approached Jones and asked if he could have the glass. "Oh, my gosh," Jones
said when she saw the glass Thursday. She promptly signed the base. Motter
plans to donate the glass to the Mason City Foundation, which is building a
museum to honor Mason City native Meredith Willson, who wrote "The Music Man."
"It's one of a kind," Motter said. "I've had it for more than 30 years and now
it's coming home, where it should be."
--COLUMBUS, Ohio - Eric Clapton says his current world tour will be his last,
due in part to the pregnancy of his 25-year-old girlfriend. Clapton, in the
city Friday for a stop on his Reptile Tour, said Melia McEnery of Columbus is
due to deliver the child - his third - this month. McEnery met the 56-year-old
musician while she was living in Los Angeles with a former boyfriend. The
British press has reported that Clapton is building a nursery in his mansion
near London, where the couple plans to raise the child. There's no word on
whether Clapton and McEnery plan to marry. Clapton has a daughter, Ruth. His
4-year-old son Conor died 10 years ago in a fall from a New York skyscraper.
His death inspired Clapton's "Tears in Heaven." Clapton's last scheduled tour
date is Aug. 18 in Los Angeles.
--Taking a break from his band's "Elevation" tour, Bono stopped at the White
House to speak with a presidential adviser about AIDS in Africa and the debt of
the world's poorest countries. The lead singer of the Irish rock band U2
praised congressional support for efforts to cancel debts of poor countries
around the world. "The most extraordinary thing about debt cancellation is that
it was a bipartisan effort," Bono said Friday after meeting with White House
deputy chief of staff Joshua Bolten. "We have an ongoing discussion here with
people in the White House about the AIDS issue and Africa. It's very, very
important to this president and the administration," said Bono, whose real name
is Paul Hewson. "I just thought I would throw my tuppence in." Secretary of
State Colin Powell, who just returned from a trip to Africa, has said the
administration's priorities for the continent are to provide relief to HIV-AIDS
victims. Bono, 41, was in Washington to speak at a conference on AIDS. He will
return with his band in two weeks as part of U2's U.S. concert tour that kicked
off in March.
--Is it live or is it Memorex? Some people watch the Superbowl for the
commercials, and some might be tuning into the NBA finals on NBC next Wednesday
(June 6) strictly for the halftime show. In addition to Destiny's Child, U2
will be performing a two-song set that will be beamed in directly from where
they are performing at a sold out show in Boston.
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