Charles and Camilla treated to little fanfare in U.S. capital

Little fuss over royal visit. Big deal!

CELEBRITY OF THE WEEK

LAURA SAVINI: DIVA OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC TELEVISION!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes! Public television can make you a "beloved star". Do people watch public television? You bet, if PT stations networks have personalities like Laura Savini and Charlie Rose. We know who Charlie Rose is, but Laura who? Hold your horses. Laura Savini is a knockout, brilliant, sharp, extremely well respected and above all, she is stunning. But who in heavens is Laura Savini? We asked this question to 15 of our reporters and senior writers. Twelve of them knew who she was. We asked 300 of our readers if they knew anything about Savini, heard of her, and if they did, what did they think of her. Great! To our great astonishment and delight, 210 heard of Savini and 179 of them watch her regularly on her public television network. So, public television is well and kicking. Although, many of our readers who are regular viewers of PT admitted that they get extremely annoyed by the monotonous and continuous appeals and begging of public television announcers and hosts for donations and contributions, the majority of those whom we have surveyed, admitted that they love to see the face of Savini on the small screen. To some viewers, Savini is the prettiest face they have seen on public television networks. To others, Savini is sharp, straight to the point, an effective fund raiser and an "Italian Stallion". WOW! So we decided to check her out. Laura Savini is the VP of marketing and communications for WLIW21 New York Public Television. She controls and manages the whole marketing, communications, fundraising, outreach, graphics and instructional television departments of the station. The whole 9 yards, from concept to realization.

 

Photo: Laura Savini.

Yes, sir, Savini managed to  raise $6 million for her station. And astonishingly, she does it every year. Watching this woman is a pure delight. No doubt, we watched her last week, and yesterday when she appeared on an Italian food segment of a show. Savini was there helping an Italian chef cooking his Spaghetti A La Carbonara. She was a darling, event though, she missed one or twice, grabbing the spaghetti with her fork. No problem, she got it with her fingers and of course with grace and a big smile. To many, Savini is a celebrity. A hot hot celebrity and  a familiar face, for she  hosts the station's on-air fundraising campaigns and ever week, she  interviews new talents on her program, "Metro Guide." This program is extremely informative and entertaining. A large segment  of "Metro Guide" is ethnic, and that is good for Savi. Because it helped her in creating a super duper, quality ethnic programming, with strong and intelligent  emphasis on Italian-American community and vital topics. After all, Savini is  the past president of the National Organization of Italian American Women, and currently, she serves on the Advisory Board of the Italian American Museum. Fascinating woman, de facto. So we decided to learn more about this most unusual woman. Files and Internet data, as well as literature on Savini provided us with the following: "In March 2002 she hosted the acclaimed national PBS special "The Best of Sarah Brightman: Classics" from Europe with Ms. Brightman. In June 2002 she spent two weeks in Italy co-hosting a new series on wine. That month she also interviewed Irish tenor Ronan Tynan in Dublin for PBS.

Photo: The stunning Laura Savini and Franco Frattini, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Photo: Laura Savini with Apostolos Kaklamanis,  President of the Hellenic Parliament.
 

Never one to slow down, in September she was in Guadalajara on a Mariachi project for PBS, then on to San Francisco to interview Tony Bennett under the Golden Gate Bridge. In April 2001 she was one of only seven American women invited to participate in Global Forum: Women and Power, held by the Women's Federation for World Peace, as a guest of Taiwan's Vice President Annette Lu.

Photo: Laura Savini addressing the audience after receiving the Artemis Award at the Benaki Museum.

Tyra Banks weighs 350 lbs. - for a day

Photo: Heidi Klum, left, dances with talk show host and model Tyra Banks on a recent show.

LOS ANGELES, California- Tyra Banks has gone undercover as a 350-pound woman. Banks wore the fat suit to experience what it's like to be obese. "It seemed like the last form of open discrimination that's OK, and I decided to put on a 350-pound suit myself and live that life for a day and see what happens," the 31-year-old former supermodel told AP Radio in a recent interview. "And it was one of the most heartbreaking days of my life." Banks said she was shocked at the reaction. "I started walking down the street and within 10 seconds, a trio of people looked at me, snickered, looked me right in my eye and started pointing and laughing in my face," the talk-show host said. "And I had no idea it was that blatant." The segment will air Monday on The Tyra Banks Show. Banks, who had a sonogram on her show in September to prove that her breasts are real, is also planning a Nov. 18 segment on pursuing "a beautiful booty." She will reveal her own "dimpled butt" and receive endermologie treatment on the set.

Clooney honoured at Santa Barbara fest

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.ornia- George Clooney will receive the 2006 Modern Master Award during the upcoming Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the event's top official said. "The Modern Master Award is about somebody who has shown versatility -- someone who has worn more than just one hat," Roger Durling, the festival's executive director, said Tuesday. "He is definitely overqualified." Clooney directed, produced, co-wrote and co-stars in Good Night, and Good Luck, which opened earlier this month to glowing reviews. It is based on the battle between television journalist Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Clooney, 44, burst onto the scene as Dr. Doug Ross on the TV drama ER. He has starred in such films as Three Kings, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven and its sequel, Ocean's Twelve. He made his directorial debut in 2002 with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. The tribute to Clooney will take place Feb. 3 and will feature clips from his films and an onstage interview, Durling said. The 21st annual Santa Barbara Film Festival begins Feb. 2 and will run 11 days.

Pam's ex Kid Rock to appear on Stacked

NEW YORK- Kid Rock and ex-fiancée Pamela Anderson are getting back together -- but only for a night -- when the rap-rock star makes a guest appearance on Anderson's comedy series, Stacked. Rock, whose real name is Bob Ritchie, will guest star as a delivery man on the Nov. 9 season premiere of the Fox show, according to a statement posted on his website. Anderson and Ritchie became engaged in the Las Vegas desert in April 2002, but never set a wedding date. Their romance ended in 2003. They began dating in April 2001, when they met backstage at VH1's salute to diva Aretha Franklin at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

City keeps close eye on Stone 9/11 film

Photo: Oliver Stone is treading on still-sensitive turf as he films a movie about 9/11 in New York.

NEW YORK- Oliver Stone has begun shooting one of the first Hollywood films about Sept. 11 in New York -- without recreating the large-scale devastation that's all too familiar to residents who lived through the 2001 attacks. After months of meetings with community and family groups, producers of the untitled movie have promised to tread carefully on sensitive ground. Most of the major action portraying the World Trade Center collapse will be shot on a Los Angeles sound stage. And although news footage of the towers themselves will be shown during the film, it will play on television screens in the background. "We're not doing the Towering Inferno-Titanic version," said Michael Shamberg, who's producing the Paramount film with his partner, Stacey Sher.

Stone started shooting scenes in New York last month for the as-yet untitled film, starring Nicolas Cage as one of two policemen who survived the towers' collapse and were rescued from the trade centre ruins after 22 hours. After holding dozens of meetings, producers decided to limit their filming in the city, shooting the bulk of the action in Los Angeles and staying away from the Trade Center site. Family members who met with the producers said they still weren't sure whether Hollywood would treat Sept. 11 with proper respect. "Are there going to be love scenes in it? How do you portray it correctly?" said Lee Ielpi, who lost his firefighter son on Sept. 11, and met with producers about the film. "It has to be done with some reverence." Others said they were concerned about how Stone -- whose more controversial films include JFK, which offered conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination -- might interpret the attacks in the film. In October 2001, Stone was quoted as referring to the attacks as a "revolt" against multinational corporations. But in July, Stone called the untitled project "a work of collective passion, a serious meditation on what happened, and carries within a compassion that heals." "It's an exploration of heroism in our country -- but it's international at the same time in its humanity," he said. Charles Wolf, who lost his wife on Sept. 11, has met with producers and asked to see a copy of Andrea Berloff's script. He said he appreciated the outreach and sensitivity of the filmmakers, but wanted to make sure that the day's events, including details as precise as the officers' view of the elevator from the rubble, are represented accurately. "I think they need to be factual. It's too close in people's minds," Wolf said. " 'Based on a true story' should not happen here." Because Berloff's script focuses entirely on McLoughlin and Jimeno's experience on Sept. 11, the film will not interpret the politics or meaning of Sept. 11, the producers said. Stone has taken great care to portray the event as it happened, and has worked to make sure that Cage, Pena and the other actors playing officers are using authentic equipment. "We're not doing everyone's story that day," said Shamberg. "We're trusted with the accuracy of the particular story that we're telling." The Stone film may not be the first studio film about Sept. 11 to be released. Flight 93, a Universal Studios film about the hijacked plane that left Newark, N.J., and crashed into a Pennsylvania field, is scheduled for an April release. Stone's film will be shooting in New York through mid-November and is tentatively scheduled to open Aug. 11, one month before the attacks' fifth anniversary. Other Sept. 11 films are in development, including an adaptation of the book 102 Minutes, and a TV miniseries based on the findings of the Sept. 11 commission. Paramount hired Jennifer Brown, a former vice president for community development at the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. in charge of rebuilding the Trade Center site, to act as a liaison with the community. Brown set up more than a dozen meetings with business, community, family and survivor groups, along with police and fire officials. Brown said that once people understood that the story was only about the officers and not about the entire story of Sept. 11, they were supportive. "What we've heard mostly, is just to be real," she said. -By Amy Wetfeld.

Dynasty actor Lloyd Bochner dies at 81

SANTA MONICA, California- Actor Lloyd Bochner, best known for his roles as Cecil Colby on TV's Dynasty and in the classic To Serve Man episode of The Twilight Zone, has died. He was 81. Bochner died of cancer at his Santa Monica home on Oct. 29, family members said Tuesday. Bochner's career in television and film spanned more than five decades. He was a character actor who "almost always played a suave, handsome, wealthy villain," said his son, Paul Bochner. Lloyd Bochner began his career on the radio in his native Toronto when he was 11. He went on to perform on stage and screen. He started working in New York in 1951and moved to Los Angeles in 1960 to co-star in the television series, Hong Kong. In 1963, Bochner starred as a government cryptographer in The Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man, which TV Guide ranks No. 11 in its 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time. He also appeared in such films as The Detective and Tony Rome, both with Frank Sinatra, and The Night Walker with Barbara Stanwyck. Other films included The Man in the Glass Booth, Point Blank and Naked Gun 33 1/3. His television work included appearances in Columbo, Mission: Impossible, McCloud, Wild, Wild West, Battlestar Galactica and Designing Women. In 1998 he co-founded the Committee to End Violence to address the impact of violence in TV and movies on popular culture. Bochner was also active in the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists. In addition to his son Paul, of Valley Cottage, N.Y., Bochner is survived by his wife, Ruth Bochner of Santa Monica, son Hart Bochner of Los Angeles and a daughter, Johanna Courtleigh of Portland, Ore. A memorial service was scheduled for Nov. 10 at the Leo Baeck Temple in West Los Angeles.

But Simpson's unremarkability is very likely the secret behind her success. By this point, she could reasonably have been expected to be relegated to playing malls, not just visiting them for autograph sessions as she did later Wednesday. In the shadow of her older, blonder sister from the get-go, she briefly appeared slated to become the next Milli Vanilli after the most humiliating musical performance in Saturday Night Live's three-decade history. And yet here she is, mere months after being exposed on national television as a lip-syncher (and questionable jig-dancer), wildly outselling more seasoned artists. Pressed to explain this phenomenon, her brief response at first seems woefully inadequate. ``I think that I have a great fan base, and I think that they want to hear my music, and I feel that there's a huge group of people that can actually relate to it,'' she offers, then waits politely for the next question. But there is more than a hint of truth to that last part. Every star geared toward ``teens and 'tweens,'' as Simpson identifies her biggest supporters, will go on ad nauseum about how their fans relate to them. But much as they may try to emulate them, it's hard to imagine there are many 13-year-olds who can actually relate to sultry, oversexed stars like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and, well, Jessica Simpson, nor to hyper-cute, girl-next-door types like Hilary Duff. Ashlee, on the other hand, is sufficiently unimposing that hundreds of thousands of girls can easily imagine being in her shoes the sort of girl who grows up dreaming of showbiz (if she wasn't a singer, she suggests she'd probably be a makeup artist) and somehow beats the odds by actually making it. Perhaps her manager/father, the slightly unsettling force behind both Simpson sisters, identified this selling point. Perhaps she just stumbled into it. But image-wise, it is certainly more important than her back-and-forth shifts from blonde to brunette or rock chick to pop star. She has no great interest in earning accolades (``I never make music to be critically acclaimed''), takes little umbrage at the perception that producers are behind her success (``sometimes they can take your idea to the next level''), and no desire to break free from her family (``they're a great support system''). She is just happy to be ... there. And so long as that's all she is, she'll likely keep topping the charts.-By Adam Radansky

A MASTERPIECE BY MINETTE WALTERS

Photo: Minette Walters never has to take a vacation from her crime-fiction characters, because she's never succumbed to the "curse of the series."

Arthur Conan Doyle was so sick of Sherlock Holmes, the character with whom his name will be forever linked, that in the story The Final Problem he chucked him off a cliff into Reichenbach Falls in the Swiss Alps. Conan Doyle vainly hoped he'd seen the last of Holmes, his pipe, his cocaine and his scratchy violin. It was not to be, and fans forced Conan Doyle to bring him back to life. Agatha Christie wanted to strangle Hercule Poirot, the dapper five-foot-four-inch Belgian, and his endless references to the little grey cells that helped him solve crimes. Christie wanted to be rid of his glasses of sirop de cassis and his suspiciously black moustache and patent leather shoes. Her publisher wouldn't let her do it. She was stuck with Poirot.

Minette Walters, a crime-thriller writer in the long tradition of great British whodunit writers, has no such problem. Early on, she decided to avoid writing a mystery series and, as she says in an interview, it's been a success. Her latest, The Devil's Feather (Macmillan, $34.95) is like the other dozen bestsellers she's written: It's a one-off, stand-alone novel. "It's not just the characters that you're stuck with when you write a series, but you're also stuck with time and with place. In the end, series writers always end up taking their fictional detectives on holiday so that they as authors can have a little fun," Walters says. There's freedom in not having to stick to one character solving a series of crimes. It means she can break a few rules, says Walters, although "it seems absurd that crime fiction should have any rules. It should be the one genre that has no rules whatsoever." It also allows her to confront a host of issues of the day.

The Devil's Feather, for example, tells the story of a foreign correspondent who is abducted by a vicious killer in Baghdad after first encountering him in war-torn Sierra Leone. Regardless of the nature of her stand-alone books, crime fiction in general allows writers like Walters, Ian Rankin or the American Elmore Leonard to confront contemporary issues. "Crime writing allows us to write about social disorder in our own time," says Walters. "It's easy to look at a newspaper or watch television and see it everywhere, and that's what most crime writers concentrate on." It's a long-standing convention in crime fiction.  "Conan Doyle can teach you everything you wanted to know about late Victorian London because he presented such a fantastic portrayal of what life was like in those days, and Agatha Christie gave readers a brilliant picture of provincial England in the '30s and '40s."

American crime writers do much the same thing, Walters says, although their style is fundamentally different. "It's probably not right to generalize, but it seems to me that the quintessential American crime writer works on a huge tapestry that England simply doesn't have," she says, adding British mysteries, therefore, are more claustrophobic and controlled. "The American voice is much more action-based in that there is a lot more physical movement." The usual British mystery, beginning with the iconic Holmes, has detectives sitting down and analysing a problem, much like Christie's Poirot and Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey.

"Being a British detective is really quite a sedentary line of work, whereas American writers like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett always seem to have chaps running about with guns," says Walters. "If a man can use a gun, that's action, while in Britain the detective has to work it all out." The English style, which is also the style used by continental European crime writers, she says, is more sophisticated. Although she admires writers like Leonard, she confesses she gets "quite teed off with the shotgun language that often reads like a series of one-liners." Again, she says, it comes down to different styles and a different environment.

"I think Europeans think in terms of paragraphs, and they say more than one sentence at a time. When we have a confrontation with someone, we allow them to develop their ideas before we jump all over them. Reading some of the dialogue in American crime fiction is like having a machine-gun fired at you. "Perhaps we should just say that the English style is a little more reflective. Does that sound awful?" Not at all. It's downright elementary, my dear Walters.-By Marc Hoton.

Publishing icon Korda to exit top job

NEW YORK-Michael Korda, publishing's master raconteur and an institution as editor of Richard Nixon, Larry McMurtry, David McCullough and countless others, will relinquish his full-time position at Simon & Schuster, the publisher announced Wednesday. "After 47 years, I felt it was time to get off the stage, or at least into the wings," said  Korda.After stepping down as editor in chief at the end of the year, he will hold the title "editor in chief emeritus" and continue to edit McCullough, Mary Higgins Clark and others, but otherwise will concentrate on his own books. "I won't be going to meetings anymore. That alone will free up a lot of time," he said with a laugh. Since joining Simon & Schuster in 1958, he has had one of the remarkable careers in publishing, both for the time spent with just one company and for the people he has worked with, whether former presidents such as Nixon and Reagan, Pulitzer Prize winners such as McCullough and McMurtry, or brand names such as Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins.

 As his own books have proved, including Charmed Lives and Another Life, he is also a born storyteller with enviable material. As the son of English actress Gertrude Musgrove and the nephew of film impresario Alexander Korda, he grew up around artists and celebrities, including Vivien Leigh, David Selznick and Graham Greene, whom he later edited. His years as an editor enabled him to offer further portraits of the famous: Joan Crawford fuming about the white flowers in her hotel room; Nixon referring to himself in the third person during a private dinner with a Chinese delegation; a faultlessly polite Reagan offering up a plate of cookies to his guests, wishing in vain that he will get to eat the last one. "Michael combines European sophistication, show business glamour, a well-trained intellect, and a deep regard and respect for the text to remarkable effect," according to a statement issued Wednesday by Simon & Schuster.

"He is one of the few in our industry who has forged an identity outside Publisher's Row, becoming a well-known public figure in his own right." Asked to cite a highlight of his long career, Korda hesitated, then mentioned the publication of McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, winner of the Pulitzer for fiction in 1986 and a bestseller that became the basis for a beloved TV miniseries. "He would write book after book that I liked, and at every meeting I would get up and say, 'One of these days Larry McMurtry is going to write the great novel of the American West, the Moby Dick of the Plains.' And Lonesome Dove fulfilled everything I had been saying about him." Korda has had health problems in recent years, including prostate cancer and a heart attack, but has remained active as an editor and a writer. He and wife Margaret have just published a pair of books, Horse Housekeeping and Cat People, and he is planning a "big, big" biography of Dwight Eisenhower and a work on the Battle of Britain.

"I know plenty of people who think the magic in publishing is gone, but I don't," he said. - By Hilel Italli