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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2006 > June > 12
Monday, June 12, 2006
Comic Ron White on book tour
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Blue Collar Comedy Tour” comic Ron White didn’t have his signature cigar and glass of scotch. Rather, on Saturday evening he subsisted on a Red Bull. But that’s because he wasn’t doing stand-up. He was at an east Cobb County Borders to sign his first book, “I Had the Right to Remain Silent … But I Didn’t Have the Ability” (Dutton Adult, $24.95).
He’s on a three-city book tour, hitting only New York, Philly and his current residence of metro Atlanta, where he spent 90 minutes hobnobbing with 200-plus fans.
“How does it feel to be you?” said Jake McCoy, a 12-year-old Marietta resident in a Braves cap, opting for a semi-existential question in his few seconds with White.
“It’s great to be me,” White said before cracking, “except at 8 o’clock this morning.”
Jake said he’s been a fan for two years and has an aunt who named her dachshund “Tater” after White’s most famous bit, which led to his nickname, “Tater Salad.”
White later told another young fan to wait a while to read the book because it’s a bit risqué. But, White added with a twinkle in his eyes, “Nobody can really scold me. I live in the ‘I do whatever I want world.’ You don’t.”
At the end, Cameron Cook and Collin Thomas, rising Lassiter High juniors, got him to autograph his now empty Red Bull can as well as Cook’s fishing license, after plying the hungry White with a Butterfinger Crisp bar. Cook, perhaps jokingly, said the can would be great to sell on eBay.
White acknowledged to Buzz that the book, a mix of jokes, illustrations and road stories, is more marketing than literature. “If I had a choice, I’d go see me live,” he said, but “my stories are conversational, so it should read well.” Pause. “Not that I’ve actually read it.”
Britney’s ‘manny’
At the U.S. Naval Academy, Perry Taylor was addressed as midshipman. Now, he’s known as Perry Poppins. The 28-year-old Easton, Md., native has popped up in tabloids as the male nanny — or “manny” — for Britney Spears, who has a 9-month-old son, Sean Preston, and is pregnant.
“Actually, he’s more of a bodyguard,” says Taylor’s mother, Caroline Moncure-Taylor, a Washington real estate agent. Moncure-Taylor told The Baltimore Sun that Taylor has worked for the 24-year-old pop singer for less than a month.
For Star, which featured Spears and Taylor on the cover of its June 19 issue, he’s “Britney’s Sexy New Stand-In Husband!”
“He’s good with kids and he’s always there when he’s needed — unlike Kevin!” the tabloid continues, referring to aspiring rapper Kevin Federline, Spears’ husband.
Fever hits Atlanta
Fever, the first major new nightclub to open in the city of Atlanta in ages, hosted a celebrity fashion show late Saturday night featuring “My Name is Earl” actress Jaime Pressly, who showed off her line of clothing. The club — a converted duplex on Cheshire Bridge Road that opened last month and could fit at least 700 people — is targeting a high-end clientele, with a strict dress code, plush furniture, outdoor cabanas, a bachelor/bachelorette room and two levels with VIP areas for the high rollers. And as is the trend lately among nightclubs, there are several actual beds.
TNT looks to get ‘Saved’
TNT is banking on the surprise breakout Kyra Sedgwick hit “The Closer” to launch a drama about paramedics called “Saved” at 10 tonight, after “The Closer.”
“Saved” stars Tom Everett Scott, best known for “That Thing You Do” back in 1996. Scott’s career never quite took off after that, with two short-lived TV series (“The Street” on Fox in 2000 and “Philly” on ABC in 2001) before this one came along.
“It takes quite a bit for a show to hit,” Scott told Buzz from Vancouver, British Columbia, where the series shoots. “I try not to get my hopes up too high.”
On “Saved,” Scott plays a complicated, underachieving paramedic with a major gambling problem in a profession that gets little respect. “They’re selfless guys,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s very dirty. They do all this work, then hand off the patients.”
Scott in real life is also a gambler — a poker expert seen on shows such as “Celebrity Poker Showdown” and “World Poker Tour.” “I’m not that good of a poker player,” he said modestly, “but I have my moments.”
Scott is partnered on the show with Omari Hardwick, a former Decatur resident who attended Marist School and graduated from the University of Georgia, where he played football. “He’s a big sweetie, a great actor,” Scott said.
Meanwhile, Sedgwick is still marveling over the success of “The Closer,” which hinges on her quirky, junk food-loving detective from Atlanta transplanted in Los Angeles. “I never watch ‘CSI’ or ‘Law & Order,’ ” she told Buzz. “I grew with ‘Baretta’ and ‘Columbo.’ I was always more interested in the character than the crime. On our show, that’s what people tune in for.”
Random bits
Paris Hilton backed her Range Rover into a car in a parking garage after a shopping trip, her publicist, Elliot Mintz, said Friday. A video on TMZ.com showed scrapes on the bumpers of both vehicles. Mintz said she informed the parking people and left her contact information. “She was swarmed by paparazzi,” he said. “The intensity of the lights, flashbulbs, momentarily disoriented her. She backed up, there was a minor fender-bender. No injuries.” …
Shakira’s catchy No. 1 hit “Hips Don’t Lie” sold a record 265,000 legally downloaded copies last week, the most in history, fueled by the fact the label held back the single to pump sales of her album, “Oral Fixation Vol. 2.” It beat former record holder “Laffy Taffy” by Atlanta’s D4L. …
Savannah rock jock Lexie Kaye will be the first live voice on classic hits station 97.1/The River starting June 26 as the morning host from 5:30 to 8:30 weekdays. Check her out at www.lexiekaye.com.
Celebrity birthdays
Singer Vic Damone is 78. Actor-singer Jim Nabors (“Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”) is 76. Jazz musician Chick Corea is 65.
Contributing: Shandra Hill Smith and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
