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Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

Usher

Don’t you wish Usher would conduct a seminar for celebrities titled How to be a Celebrity and Look Like One, too?

Lady GaGa

C’mon, tell the truth–she makes you smile. And anyone who can perform an unforgettable duet with Elton John deserves a “well done.”

Jay Manuel

And here’s the guy who dissects what’s fashionable and what’s not–I’m just sayin’.

What was Julia Roberts thinking when she wore a jersey dress to the Golden Globe Awards Ceremony?

Photo from The Find

I don’t know about you, but I watch the award shows to see the fashions. Julia certainly disappointed this year. Maybe she thought she was a big enough star to forgo the trouble of dressing up.

Perhaps she didn’t get the memo that the Globes are all about glitz, glamour and stardom. If you’re a star–you come looking like a star. It’s part of  “the job.”

The viewer tunes in to see “who is wearing what,” at least that’s why I watch. The awards are nice, but they’re secondary. Globe night is all about gowns and jewelry and the mystique of Hollywood.

Julia failed miserably. So did Kristin Bell for that matter, but Julia should know better. Perhaps she just didn’t care.

Julia Roberts – The Find didn’t think much of the dress, either.

You have to hand it to Julia Roberts to showing up to the Globes in what is essentially a black jersey day dress (albeit an Yves Saint Laurent one). Then again, this is a woman who let her unshaven armpit hair dangle from a sleeveless top at a movie premiere several years back. The woman does not. Give. A. Fuck. That said, her hair looked great, her legs looked even better, and she seemed totally at ease. I’ll have what she’s having.

Diary of a Mad Fashionista found Julia’s outfit–well, read for yourself.

Julia Roberts was a stand-out for all the wrong reasons. She made many Worst Dressed lists by seeming as if she had just run out of the house without changing her clothes.

Sorry, Julia, you’ll have to step up your game.

Even before you read one word of Barbara’s book, you understand what a remarkable life she has led. Printed inside the front and back covers are the names of all the people she has interviewed–the famous and the infamous.

Reading about her childhood, with its constant ups and downs, was fascinating mainly because her father was the founder and owner of the Latin Quarter. Her mother was like any other kind and doting mother, except it appears she showered more attention on Barbara’s sister, Jackie, who was autistic. To her credit, Barbara admits to being jealous of that at times.

But the real reason I bought Barbara’s book had to do more with the loud, reverberating crash women heard when she smashed through the glass ceiling into a field that had always been a male bastion. She became the first female co-host of the Today morning show. In 1974, that was unprecedented. Then a couple of years later, the even louder boom–Barbara Walters became the first woman “ever” to anchor a network evening news program. Single-handedly, she turned the knob and opened the door for all the women who followed her. I will always admire her for that.

The book is a history book written in an entertaining format. Her in-depth interviews with personalities like: Katherine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Anwar Sadat, Clint Eastwood, Oprah, Fidel Castro, Henry Kissinger, Elizabeth Taylor, Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher and many others, including all of the Presidents the United States, while always revealing onscreen, are even more captivating on the pages of her book, where she discloses additional tidbits of information.

A good read! If you happened to live through it all with Barbara, even better.

Every year, when St. Patrick’s Day approaches, I think about cooking up some corned beef and cabbage. Nine times out of ten, I pull out a big pot and spend the rest of the day smelling the aroma of Ireland. The dish is easy to make, but oh so time-consuming.

I think what really put me in the mood this year was an email I received this past week about the popularity of Irish Dance at a school in the Bronx. The New York Times wrote about the music teacher and posted one of the most heartwarming videos I’ve seen in a long, long time. I’m so used to seeing bad news that the sight of these inner city kids kicking up their heels gave me goose bumps, it really did. Go here to see the video — Keltic Dreams.

Did you know that New York City has been hosting a St. Patrick’s Day Parade since 1762? Is that unbelievable, or what?! Incidentally, Patrick didn’t chase all of the snakes out of Ireland, either. Another myth totally shattered according to the National Geographic News.

And I suppose it wouldn’t be a proper St. Patrick’s Day without the mention of Leprechauns. I had no idea that if you catch a Leprechaun, he’ll lead you to his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but according to Sherri Osburn, that’s the case. So, it might be a good idea to get crackin’ on making a Leprechaun Trap. (A really good project to do with the grandkids.) Take a look at some Leprechaun Trap Photos.

Now for an easy recipe for Corned Beef and Cabbage, but be prepared to hang around the house for several hours.

Photo from

Corned Beef
5 or 6 potatoes, quartered
head of cabbage, cut into 6 wedges
carrots, as many as you would like.

Wash corned beef under running water to remove surface brine. Put in pot and cover with water. (Most corned beef roasts bought from a supermarket come with all the seasonings enclosed. Add them to the water.) Keep lid on pot. Once water comes to a boil, cook for 3 1/2 hours on low/medium heat.

During the last 30/45 minutes, add cabbage wedges, potatoes and carrots. Add more water to cover. Keep lid on pot throughout.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

If you’ve been following my blog, you know I swept in and out of Memphis, TN with two friends for a three day weekend last month. We packed in a lot of sightseeing and activities, but we didn’t have time to visit the King’s house–Elvis, that is.

I happened to mention that fact to one of my younger co-workers shortly after I returned. And she said to me, “You call that guy who died on his toilet from a drug overdose a king?”

Not exactly what I wanted to hear after a truly great weekend adventure. I tried to explain to her what it had been like seeing Elvis for the very first time on the Ed Sullivan Show.

What I found out was, it is impossible to define the “Phenomenon of Elvis” to young people who cannot comprehend a time when there were NO Super Stars.

Then came Elvis.

So, here was my dilemma. How could I possibly explain about the young Elvis that the world fell in love with? How could I tell her what a fresh faced boy he was back then, when all she is familiar with is the unfortunate last act of his life. In a way, it broke my heart, because I grew up with Elvis and I know that, although it appeared he had “everything”– money, fame, adulation– he also had a really rough ride. He was literally trapped in his compound at Graceland. He agonized and begged to be able to make movies that would allow him to act, but the studios insisted he star in movies that they believed his public craved, and maybe we did. His music was the only freedom he was afforded.

Of all the movies he starred in, he liked only one–Jailhouse Rock

To top that off, Elvis had no idea what it meant to be an internationally known Super Star. Why? Because he was the first. He was “it.” How does a kid who grew up in a small country town handle that? Who can instruct him? There were no footsteps to follow.

Superstar! We have plenty of them today, but none– repeat none–come even close to the King’s popularity. He was known throughout the world. Here is a statue of him in Jerusalem.

January 8th was Elvis Presley’s birthday. People all over the world remembered him especially on this day. Following is a comment posted on a blog that originates in Ireland

Elvis Presley was remembered here in Ireland as our national radio service RTE1 played his beautiful music on his birthday.

Did ever a vocalist’s voice reach right around the globe like Elvis’s did? and light up millions of peoples, lives like no other, before or since.

They loved him in Germany then and now

In the quaint little town of Bad Nauheim, it was “big love big heartache” every day when young ladies back in the 50s wrote their phone numbers with lipstick on the typical German garden fence outside the king’s villa. Aging German locals report that every night the wooden fence would be cleaned to make room for more love notes.

“He still preoccupies us, he’s well-known across the generations, and he brought about a sexual, musical and social revolution,” said the head of a German museum that hosted a recent Elvis exhibition.

Unlike any other performer before him, he spawned an industry.

Elvis Impersonators

He met Presidents and Heads of State. Crazed crowds of people clamored to see him at every airport.

And when he passed on to the stardom in the sky, many countries outside the U.S. built monuments for him like this one in Germany.

So, “To answer your original question, dear, Elvis remains The King, in spite of his final curtain. I doubt there will ever be another like him.”