Candid Conversation with Kermit
It’s the rare child of the ’70s who doesn’t have fond memories of the Muppets. Sesame Street. The Muppet Show. All those wacky movies. Well, this week Kermit the Frog and the gang are staging a big-screen comeback in Disney’s The Muppets. It’s a PG-rated romp about an idealistic fan named Walter who decides the […]
Music’s Greatest Scandal
A dark moment in music history occurred 21 years ago this weekend. That’s when the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences had to strip Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus of what may be the most controversial Grammy Award ever handed out. Since then, the duo known as Milli Vanilli has been synonymous with cheating […]
A Tale of Two Marriages
On Monday, reality TV star Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from her husband, Kris Humphries, citing irreconcilable differences after just 72 days of marriage. The pair wed Aug. 20 amid a media circus that netted them tens of millions of dollars. Their “fairytale wedding” became E!’s third highest-rated show ever. But the couple won’t be […]
The Original Angry Birds
Last week, I noticed that the video game Angry Birds has inspired a theme park in China, which got me thinking about that whole phenomenon: Since when does a cute, feathered Weeble with bushy eyebrows qualify as an angry bird? Seriously. I realize this is a very popular mobile app that has rescued millions of […]
Music-Fueled Identity Crisis
Beckah Shae is “fed up, upset, angry and frustrated.” What did it take to get the Christian singer/songwriter so peeved? The current state of pop music. In fact, Shae is so concerned about the character-shaping power of contemporary tunes in the lives of young fans that the Dove-nominated pop/R&B artist recently decided to research Billboard’s […]
Not on My Land
It’s not every day a farmer spies a topless R&B singer in his wheat field. Yet that’s exactly what happened to Alan Graham last week. The Northern Ireland farmer had lent Rihanna’s film crew his property to shoot a music video. Before he knew it, she was donning skimpy tops, then going completely. So Graham […]
Making Movies in the Middle of Nowhere
Thrall, Texas. Population: 800. For most travelers along Route 79, this quiet town lined with cotton fields is just a rest stop on the way to … somewhere else. Its biggest claim to fame? Thrall holds the national record for rainfall in a 24-hour period (38.2 inches back in 1921). But thanks to a team […]
Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?
This weekend, on the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, America will pause. We’ll reflect. We may even share stories with one another in response to the musical question posed by country singer Alan Jackson nearly a decade ago, “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).” I was the editor of Plugged […]
When Spouses Disagree
My favorite TV commercial in recent memory is for Best Buy. It’s the one where people are devastated to learn that their brand-new electronic gizmos are already outdated (“You got the wrong TV, silly head”). It’s painfully hilarious. It also illustrates a frustration I sometimes feel as a parent: No sooner do I get a […]
A Father’s Close Encounter
You’ve gotta love it when one of the most powerful men in Hollywood is humble enough to second-guess a decades-old creative decision and, in doing so, affirm the value of intact families. That’s what Steven Spielberg did during an Entertainment Weekly interview that hit newsstands this week. Talking with EW and his Super 8 collaborator […]