People & Celebrities
Bet on big comebacks for Urban, Evans
By SAMANTHA ETTUS
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
If you were to tell me you were taking money out of the stock market and investing in celebrities instead, I would advise you to stake your cash on country crooners Sara Evans and Keith Urban.
You don't need a tarot card to guess that Evans and Urban will be making colossal comebacks in the wake of their current battles.
Andy Serkis 'Flushed' with succcess
By BETSY PICKLE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
1930s movie villains would have nothing to fear from the "dirty rat" Andy Serkis voices in the animated film "Flushed Away."
"He's hopeless really," Serkis says of Spike, a rat who works for the crime boss of underground London's underworld in "Flushed Away." "He thinks he's a really big gangster.
Pop culture has long been the home of ... hoaxes
By RACHEL LEIBROCK
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
There's a sucker born every minute _ or so the adage goes.
But sometimes being a sucker is fun, or, at the very least, offers a revealing glimpse into who we as a society are today.
After all, in an era of YouTube, runaway bloggers and 24/7 celebrity gossip _ we can't even determine if Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn's relationship is real or simply a marketing campaign, and really, why do we care?
The question must be posed: Are we gullible or just looking for ways to be amused?
Both, experts say.
"We're easily fooled, but we just move on to the next thing," says Tracy Langlands, who teaches marketing at the University of Phoenix in Sacramento.
"Our attention span is small because there's such a mass of information available."
Alex Boese, author of "Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes," agrees.
"(Mass media) makes this a ripe time for getting fooled," Boese says, on the phone recently from San Diego.
The good news?
Mass media "also makes it easier for us to debunk (hoaxes)," he says.
So, here are six of our picks for top pop-culture hoaxes, from alien invasions to lonely girls to _ gasp! _ Paul is dead?, and how we were tricked and occasionally treated by them.
"War of the Worlds"
_ The story: On Oct.
Lunch leads to 55-year marriage for Eva Marie Saint
By PATRICIA SHERIDAN
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Her Oscar-winning performance in "On the Waterfront" (her first film) with Marlon Brando in 1954 established Eva Marie Saint as a talent to watch.
Shooting 'Fire' in S. Africa a profound experience for Luke
By BETSY PICKLE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The names people know best from the years of struggle against apartheid in South Africa are Nelson Mandela and Stephen Biko. Actor Derek Luke wants moviegoers to discover a new hero, Patrick Chamusso.
"I love that he's not a Stephen Biko or Nelson Mandela because many of those guys seem unreachable," says Luke.
Blue and on the road
By ERIKA GONZALEZ
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Less than a month after graduating from college, Wes Day entered a brave blue world.
Armed with a degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts, Day landed in New York ready to conquer the world of acting.
Very public breakups get nasty
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Breaking up was a very public thing to do in the last couple of weeks, and things got ugly for the beautiful people.
Few got uglier than the Paul McCartney-Heather Mills and Sara Evans-Craig Schelske divorce filings and accusations.
Creating work with substance trumps technique for Frisell
By WAYNE BLEDSOE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Guitarist Bill Frisell doesn't refer to a pivotal moment in his art as an epiphany. Instead, he points to it as one of several "moments of despair that ended up being good for me."
Frisell says that years ago he went to see guitarist John McLaughlin in concert.
"I just loved his playing," says Frisell in a call from his home in Seattle.
Babs, at 64, remains a force of nature
By JON BREAM
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Singer, actress, comedian, director, activist, control freak. Reflect on the memories of movies, songs and TV moments, and maybe you'll agree that Barbra Streisand is the singular performer of the baby-boom generation.
Elvis was too old to be a baby boomer.
Celebrity adoptions ... and agendas
By ANITA CREAMER
Sunday, November 19, 2006
It took the Madonna factor to make human-rights groups begin questioning the growing trend of celebrity adoptions from Third World countries. But some adoption experts have been concerned for a while.
"It's sad that people look at international adoption as a something that's a vogue," says Shaila Rao, the Sacramento, Calif.-based foreign-adoptions director for Family Connections Christian Adoption.
