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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2006 > July > 07 > Entry
‘Worst Places’ author slaps Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When the advance copy of author Dave Gilmartin’s upcoming tome, “The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America,” lighted at Buzz Central on Thursday, we couldn’t resist the urge to flip through it.
Residents of College Park, Douglasville and Hinesville, however, might.
The comedic travel guide (St. Martin’s Press, $15.95) due in stores this fall is billed as “a hilarious guide to the American towns, cities, and suburbs that depress us the most.”
Alas, the three above Georgia locales (along with a nice poke in the eye to Atlanta) all make the book.
Of College Park, Gilmartin writes: “Ted Turner aside, everyone knows that Atlanta [creates a vacuum]. Lest there be any doubt, real cities don’t refer to themselves as ‘Hotlanta.’ Yet, even this pseudo McCity, preposterous as it may be, is a Shangri-La compared to its neighbor, College Park, a realm of crime, razed buildings and televangelists currently in the midst of a transition from community to runway. This is College Park: misnamed, frightening and above all, undesirable.”
The College Park Chamber of Commerce might be tempted to reprint the section from “Worst Places” for travel brochures compared with what is said about the other Georgia towns.
Of Douglasville, Gilmartin writes: “Might as well be called Hee-Haw Town, USA. Douglasville has always been a simple, slow-paced place for rednecks and hillbillies.”
Hinesville gets even worse treatment in the book. Writes Gilmartin: “Hinesville is the sort of town that everyone talks about moving away from. It’s an endless topic — escaping to wherever there are better jobs, less dust that seems to settle in your mouth or more shady trees to shield you from the sun.”
Other U.S. destinations deemed “Worst”? Salt Lake City (“What if a whole city was fashioned after a Hallmark store?”), Camden, N.J. (“Like an A-bomb went off and everyone survived”) and Carson City, Nev. (“For folks burned out on the high culture of Reno”).
Star gazing online
Blessedly, for our purposes at least, Star Jones Reynolds can’t seem to stop calling attention to her ouster last week from her co-hosting duties on the ABC daytime hen party, “The View.” On her Web site, www.starjones.com, she’s posted the address for Brian Frons, the president of ABC Daytime, along with contact info for show creator Barbara Walters and “View” executive producer Bill Geddie, citing the “several thousand visitors to starjones.com who have requested the info.”
In a letter to the Web site’s visitors, meanwhile, Jones Reynolds writes: “Dear Friends: How can I express my gratitude? Thank you all for lending me your words of encouragement while going through such a challenging few days. I must say that had it not been for all of your e-mails and letters, this past week would have been very difficult.
“It’s like Maya Angelou has shared: ‘I’ve learned that no matter what happens or how bad it seems today, life does go on and it will be a better tomorrow.’ “
Headed to the Emmys
Comic actor Leslie Jordan’s long-suffering mama over in Tennessee is finally going to get to enjoy one of the perks of her son’s chosen profession. On Thursday, the diminutive actor scored an Emmy nomination for guest actor in a comedy series for his scene-stealing turns this season on “Will & Grace.” We’re told that Jordan — who brought his sold-out one-man show “Like a Dog on Linoleum” to the 14th Street Playhouse this year and last — is ecstatic about the nomination. He’s planning to take his mother — a frequent topic in his stage work — and his twin sisters to the August ceremony.
Crow speaks out on cancer
Sheryl Crow says it was difficult to be apart from ex-fiancé Lance Armstrong after she was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.
“It was difficult, you know,” Crow tells Vanity Fair magazine in its August issue. “I know he wanted to be there.”
Crow and Armstrong announced their breakup in February. The 44-year-old rocker says the split was “devastating” for both of them. “I do think about Lance every day,” she says. “And I think about his kids every day.”
When Crow learned she had cancer, she contacted the seven-time Tour de France champion, who was on a solo road trip from Lake Tahoe, Calif., to Oregon.
“When I got that news, I can’t even describe it,” says Armstrong, who is a survivor of testicular cancer. “It was the cruelest twist. … I actually turned around to make the drive … and she said, ‘You know, I just don’t think that’s a great idea.’”
The singer, who underwent surgery in late February, denies speculation that Armstrong, who has three children from a previous marriage, didn’t want to start another family.
“It would be easy to say this is all about my wanting to get married and have kids but it was never that simple,” she says. “It was much deeper than that.”
Says the 34-year-old Armstrong: “We were at different points in our lives.”
Celebrity birthdays
Drummer Ringo Starr is 66. Actor Billy Campbell (“Once and Again”) is 47. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard (“Ally McBeal”) is 43. Bassist Ricky Kinchen of Mint Condition is 40. Actress Jorja Fox (“C.S.I.”) is 38. Actor (and son of Atlantan Jane Fonda) Troy Garity (“Barbershop”) is 33.
Contributing: News services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. 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.
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