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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2006 > September > 20
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Norville, back at UGA, gets an education in dorm life
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When “Inside Edition” anchor Deborah Norville visited her alma mater, the University of Georgia, last week, she was the one who ended up being surprised when she and a camera crew went knocking on the door of her old all-girls dorm.
“Two boys answered the door!” Norville told us Tuesday. “That’s when I discovered that things had changed a little bit at the Creswell dormitory.”
The reporter was in town to tape some segments for the show and to celebrate the venerable news mag’s more viewer-friendly local time slot of 7:30 weeknights on WGCL.
“We’re thrilled that we’re not just for insomniacs anymore in Atlanta,” she cracked. “People who have gainfully employed lives can now watch, too.”
The anchor also had a chance to pop into Delta Delta Delta, her former sorority house at UGA. Flipping through house photos, Norville allowed, “We were extremely blond back then. There was a lot of bleach in those photos.”
The Dalton gal didn’t score any downhome cooking during her whirlwind promotional tour through Atlanta. She loves the Varsity, the Silver Skillet and Mary Mac’s Tea Room, but WGCL suits took her to a swanky white tablecloth restaurant on Peachtree Street instead. “There was no fried okra or creamed corn, but I did ask about the green beans on the menu,” she said. “I asked how they came, and I was told ‘al dente!’ “
Norville had a good laugh when we informed her that one of our more notable errors in this space occurred years ago when we accidentally misidentified her Georgia hometown. Dozens of Dalton residents called to correct the error.
“Good for them,” Norville said. “Growing up in Dalton was a lot like that. Everybody knew everybody. If you acted up, you knew Daddy was going to hear about it before we ever got home. I grew up with that kind of pressure!”
Norville’s piece on UGA airs tonight on “Inside Edition.”
Independent ‘Differences’
If you want to keep up with what’s happening in the music world, Amy Ray has a suggestion. “You can’t just go to the big chains, you have to go to the [independent] stores, because those are the ones that are still catering to what’s happening locally,” she told us recently. Maybe that’s why she and her fellow Indigo Girl, Emily Saliers, will be celebrating the release of their new CD, “Despite Our Differences,” with an in-store appearance at Criminal Records, emporium of indie cool, in Little Five Points at 6 p.m. Friday.
The new album marks a new beginning for the duo, too. After spending their entire career with Epic Records, the new disc is Saliers and Ray’s first for Hollywood Records.
Remembering Richards
Monday’s coverage of Ann Richards’ memorial service jogged a memory loose here at Buzz Central about our 1997 encounter with the former Texas governor here. The liberal Democrat was booked as the keynote speaker at the 10th annual Human Rights Campaign’s Atlanta dinner.
We’ll never forget her news conference at the Georgia Dome. We scribbler types arrived promptly for her scheduled 6 p.m. conference. Post-conference, tardy news crews from WXIA and WSB tried to engage her for quick on-camera one-on-ones. “I’ll tell ya how these people do ya,” Richards announced loudly to dinner co-chairs. “See, they arrive late so they can get an exclusive. They don’t want what everybody else got.” Richards then promptly showed them her hindquarters, turned on her heel and exited the room.
Buzz distinctly recalls smirking for about 22 minutes, especially when the telegenic reporters tried to talk the rest of us into sharing our notes.
The evening also served as our first-ever introduction to then-“Party of Five” actor Mitchell Anderson, who was a speaker. Little did we suspect that a decade later, we’d be visiting the future Atlanta restaurateur almost hourly at his Midtown eatery to feed our increasingly embarrassing addiction to his Mitchili.
Celebrity docket
In what barely qualifies as news, Willie Nelson allegedly has been caught with some weed on his tour bus! Yes, the singer and four others were issued misdemeanor citations for possession of illegal mushrooms and marijuana after a traffic stop this week on a Louisiana highway, state police said.
“When the door was opened and the trooper began to speak to the driver, he smelled the strong odor of marijuana,” the news release said. A search of the bus produced 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana and slightly more than 3 ounces of illegal mushrooms.
There were enough drugs to merit a felony charge of distribution if they had been found in one person’s possession, state police spokesman Willie Williams said. However, in a brilliantly executed series of half-baked confessions, all five claimed the drugs as their own. The drugs were not packaged for resale, so each was charged with misdemeanors, he said. All were released after the citations were issued.
Nelson’s publicist, Elaine Schock, had no immediate comment.
Celebrity birthdays
Actress-comedian Anne Meara is 77. Actress Sophia Loren is 72. Actor Gary Cole is 50. Actress Kristen Johnston (“3rd Rock From the Sun”) is 39. Singers Gunnar and Matthew Nelson of Nelson are 39. Drummer Rick Woolstenhulme of Lifehouse is 27.
Contributing: Shane Harrison and 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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