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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 23
Monday, April 23, 2007
Golden Girl’s nuggets find many takers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday’s luncheon at the Margaret Mitchell House was a testament to the power of Lifetime, television for women. And gay men.
About 150 fans of “Golden Girls” actress Rue McClanahan sold out her Q&A session and signing at the Midtown landmark as she hit town to promote her memoir, “My First Five Husbands … and the Ones Who Got Away” (Broadway Books, $24.95).
ANNE NETTLES STANFORD / Margaret Mitchell House & Museum
In town to promote “My First Five Husbands … and the Ones Who Got Away,” Rue McClanahan (left) was joined at a sold-out book signing by Linda Barone of Marietta, who earned a free pass.
Admirers of her alter ego, Blanche Devereaux, lined up to stammer compliments, request pictures and, in one case, a hug.
“My mother knew I was gay real early,” one man, clad in a pink Polo shirt, informed the author. “I taped every single episode of ‘The Golden Girls’ off Lifetime.”
That’s 166 episodes, dear readers.
Linda Barone of Marietta got into the boxed-lunch event for free. MMH reps offered that inducement to any divorcée who could prove she had been married four or more times.
“I just keep at it until I get it right,” Barone, 43, told us. Barone is married to her fourth and — she swears — final husband.
One fan even remembered McClanahan from her 1960s role as the evil Caroline Johnson on the NBC soap “Another World.”
Quipped McClanahan: “I was poisoning poor Pat so I could steal her husband. I lasted 14 months, which is pretty good for a killer!”
ON MY IPOD
Second Shift lead singer Jonathan Baker: “The Films, this kind of retro-infused rock band out of Brooklyn [N.Y.] Very punchy stuff. Lily Allen, who is this British pop sensation. Her new record [“Alright Still’] is pretty sick. Also, the new [U.K. singer-songwriter] Amy Winehouse is just awesome.”
OVERSCENE
Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong (right) and fashion designer Tori Burch dining at Chops in Buckhead. It’s likely that Armstrong was in town to catch a portion of the Tour de Georgia cycling race while Burch has a shop at nearby Phipps Plaza.
PROUD PUBLISHER
Busting open Watergate was likely a trip to Six Flags compared with unraveling the subject of Carl Bernstein’s upcoming book. “A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” written by the award-winning journalist, will be published in June. Explained Sonny Mehta, of the Knopf Publishing Group in an e-mail Monday: “Hillary Clinton is one of the most compelling figures in the world today and Carl Bernstein’s stunning portrait shows us … the true trajectory of her life and career. I believe his book will stand as the most detailed, comprehensive, and revealing account we have of a woman who helped define one presidency and may well step into another.”
G-CAPP PLEDGE
When Jane Fonda pats the seat next to her for a private chat, Buzz is always happy to oblige.
Even if it happens to be on MindSpring founder Charles Brewer’s coffee table.
Over the weekend, at a private Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention party in Ansley Park, the two-time Oscar winner gave us lots of details on her nonprofit’s May 7 benefit that will unveil “Georgia Rule,” her new film co-starring Felicity Huffman and Lindsay Lohan.
The local premiere in her adopted hometown promises to be a star-studded evening at the Woodruff Arts Center.
Huffman and “Rule” director Garry Marshall are set to accompany Fonda on the red carpet. During the evening’s live auction, Huffman will help the G-CAPP founder auction off a walk-on role on Huffman’s hit show “Desperate Housewives” (for info and tickets: gcapp.org).
While Fonda is encouraged that Georgia has dropped to 10th in the nation in teen pregnancies (it was No. 1 when she started the charity 13 years ago), the activist isn’t resting.
“You’ve got to take the long view,” Fonda explained. “We’ve got to keep this issue on the front burner. Even 10th in the country is too high. We’re aiming for zero [unplanned pregnancies].”
To help in that goal, Fonda announced that she’ll celebrate her 70th birthday in December with a new G-CAPP initiative: to track 70 at-risk kids over seven years, with $7,000 pledged to each participant. A major fund-raising party is being planned.
The program will track current sixth-graders in three southeast Atlanta middle schools through their high school graduations.
The program will teach health, finances, community service and sex education, along with other topics important to a successful future that’s, hopefully, free of unexpected pregnancies.
The actress laughed when asked to compare her relatively compressed planned media campaign for “Georgia Rule” with the way Hollywood used to roll out films.
“When I started in this business, you had to travel the entire country to promote a film,” she said. “You did parades, visited orphanages, everything. Now, it’s pretty much two days.”
Fonda has booked appearances on “Late Show With David Letterman,” “Larry King Live” and “The Colbert Report.”
Wearing a white suit and gold-tinted glasses, Fonda turned heads all evening at the $1,500-a-ticket party. When quizzed about her luminous look, Fonda sounded more than a little like her feisty “Georgia Rule” character.
She leaned in and whispered, “It’s the sex!”
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actress Shirley MacLaine is 73. Actress-singer-director Barbra Streisand is 65. Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is 43. Actor Djimon Hounsou (“Blood Diamond”) is 43. Actor Eric Balfour (“24”) is 30. Singer Kelly Clarkson (“American Idol”) is 25.
Contributing: news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Some real babes catch disco fever
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For parents with young children, the nightclub scene has long receded into the past, along with drunken one-night stands, deafening music and 4 a.m. Waffle House runs.
But the organizers of the national phenomenon called “Baby Loves Disco” tried to bring back at least some of those elements to the Loft in Midtown Saturday afternoon — except nearly half the dancing crowd of 300 were babies and toddlers.
RODNEY HO / Staff
Kimberly Kersery (left), Payton Hunter and her aunt Jodi Hunter show some moves as Donna Summer’s “Last Dance” plays at the end of “Baby Loves Disco” Saturday.
DJ Rob Wonder, who normally spins at MJQ Concourse, woke up early to give the kids a mix of actual disco (as in “Disco Inferno” and “Shake Your Booty”) all the way up to “One Two Step” and “SexyBack.” He refuses to do weddings, which he feels “compromises his integrity” as a DJ, but in this case, he simply had to ensure the songs were clean versions.
And get this: The bar was open and Loft bar manager Garrett Hockin was surprised he sold a bit of liquor. “It was more than I expected,” he said. Organizer Dina Fuchs Beresin, who has a 2-year-old daughter, didn’t notice: “I saw mostly juice boxes and Diet Coke.”
Regardless, Jodi Hunter of Sandy Springs said the Loft evoked some frat-house nostalgia: “It smells like stale beer.”
MONTEL HAS LIMITS
Montel Williams is an amiable dude, and he said he has no problems signing autographs and posing for pictures if he’s by himself. But he does draw the line at the urinal.
“I’m literally in the bathroom, and people want to shake my hand,” he told Buzz before his visit to Atlanta Saturday at the Buckhead Barnes & Noble to promote his “Living Well With Montel” DVD series. ” ‘Dude, back away from the urinal. It’s not happening. I’m sorry! ’ “
After 16 years on TV with his successful “Montel Williams Show” (seen locally weekdays on WSB-TV at 10 a.m.), he felt he needed to consolidate his knowledge about life on DVD, bringing in life coaches to help talk about relationships, finances and family. And even after tackling the same topics over and over , he still enjoys his job: “I love talking to people and dispensing information.”
DA BRAT WORKS OUT
Da Brat, the part-time Atlanta hip-hop artist, hated her time on VH1’s “The Surreal Life,” partly because she believed the producers misled her.
“I was fooled,” she told Buzz last week. “They told me everyone would be current people. I didn’t want to be in a house with a bunch of people who hadn’t done anything in a long time.”
But Da Brat’s back on VH1 for “Celebrity Fit Club 5,” which debuted last night. “I don’t have a problem with VH1,” she said. “It was the producers of the other show. In this case, I knew who was going to be on the show.”
They include Tiffany (“I Think I’m Alone Now”), Maureen McCormick (“The Brady Bunch”) and Dustin Diamond (“Saved by the Bell.”)
At 172 pounds, Da Brat was hardly in Bone Crusher territory, but she said she needs to trim a bit from the hip and booty area. But don’t “disrespect” her, as shown Sunday when she clashed frequently with stone-faced trainer Harvey Walden. “I’m brutally honest,” she said.
She said she liked everybody on the show — except mouthy Diamond: “For the cameras, he was being unruly. Once I got to know him, I didn’t like him.”
RANDOM BITS
At the inaugural “Evening of Hope” benefit Saturday night at the Atlanta History Center, 225 guests and sponsors raised about $150,000 for the American Cancer Society. Secretary of State Karen Handel served as honorary chairwoman, while WGCL-TV meteorologist Gene Norman emceed. Outback Steakhouse provided the food: rack of lamb, grilled chicken and chocolate cake …
Fans of Paul Harvey flooded the Eagle lines last week after the beloved 88-year-old’s folksy daily commentaries were taken off the country station. General manager Victor Sansone said the station wanted to focus more on music, but Buzz figures the real reason is Harvey’s aging fans weren’t compatible with Eagle’s regular listeners …
Brandi Carlile, the Seattle singer-songwriter recently featured on “Grey’s Anatomy,” told the sold-out Variety Playhouse crowd last week that her hero Elton John had sent her flowers and a bottle of wine. “I called my brother. He said, ‘I just got a job as a concrete- truck driver,’ ” she said. “Nothing like family to put things in perspective!”
Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls joined Carlile onstage to sing “Cannonball” and “Folsom Prison Blues.”
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actor Lee Majors is 68. Director Michael Moore is 53. Actress Valerie Bertinelli is 47. Comedian George Lopez is 46.
HIGH FIVE
V-103 For April 15-21
1. “Buy U a Drank” T-Pain
2. “Lost Without U” Robin Thicke
3. “Like a Boy” Ciara
4. “I’m a Flirt” R. Kelly
5. “Last Night” Diddy
— Mediabase 24/7
QUOTABLE
“Although I have been told by numerous people not to worry too much, as all parents lose their patience with their kids, I am most saddened that this was released to the media because of what it does to a child. I’m sorry … for losing my temper with my child. I have been driven to the edge by parental alienation for many years now. … I am sorry for what happened. But I am equally sorry that a court order was violated.”
Alec Baldwin on his Web site Friday after TMZ.com publicized a voice mail between Baldwin and his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, in which he resorted to name-calling. (Did his ex-wife Kim Basinger leak it? TMZ won’t say.)
Contributing: Marylin Johnson and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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