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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 30
Monday, April 30, 2007
‘Gracie’ star plenty tough, with the scars to prove it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Actress Carly Schroeder, 17, has a few lasting souvenirs from the shoot of “Gracie,” this summer’s inspirational soccer movie.
“I still have a couple of scars on my ankles from the cleats,” Schroeder confided to Buzz over a breakfast of French toast Monday morning at the Four Seasons in Midtown.
Picturehouse
Actress Carly Schroeder muscles onto an all-boy soccer team in “Gracie,” coming in June. The “fierce competitor” was in town to promote the film, set in 1978 and loosely based on a true story.
The girl-powered family movie, set in 1978 New Jersey, centers on high school soccer player Gracie Bowen’s fight to become the first female to play on her school’s all-boy team. The film is loosely based on the soccer-centric childhoods of actors Elisabeth and Andrew Shue growing up in the Garden State. Elisabeth faced similar obstacles in real life. The senior Shue plays Gracie’s mom in the film while her younger brother is the entrepreneur who produced the film.
“With ‘Gracie,’ we wanted to demonstrate that girls can succeed on any field,” Andrew Shue explained. “We’ve come a long way from my sister’s challenges to where we now have 5 million girls playing the game [in the U.S.].”
And in a summer filled with testosterone-fueled sequels on the big screen, the Shues have a nearly empty field all to themselves with the female-targeted $10 million independent film, scheduled to open June 1.
Between bites, Schroeder caused Shue, 40, to beam as the high school athlete described pinning all the boys in her class during wrestling matches. “I made one boy pass out!” she said.
“As you can see, Carly has this wonderful vulnerable quality but is also this fierce competitor,” says Shue. “That’s why she was so perfect for the role.”
Aside from acting these days (he has a small role in “Gracie”), Andrew Shue has started the popular resource Web site, Cafe Mom for harried mothers (“It’s a MySpace for moms,” Shue says. “We’re signing up 3,000 moms every day.”)
The former “Melrose Place” heartthrob — now the father of three soccer-playing boys, ages 10, 8 and 3 — is quietly raising his family back east.
“My kids literally didn’t find out about all that until a couple of years ago,” a relieved-looking Shue says. “I just told them, ‘It was a fun thing Dad used to do!’ “
BALLET AND BIG BOI
Earlier this season, the Atlanta Ballet axed its pit orchestra. But for a world premiere next season, it’s looking to the stars for musical accompaniment. Big Boi, half of the chart-topping duo OutKast, will perform onstage with the ballet in a new work scheduled for April 10-13. Few details of the yet-to-be-named work have been decided, according to ballet spokesman Jeff Al-Mashat.
Big Boi and musicians from his Purple Ribbon Entertainment will collaborate with choreographer Lauri Stallings. They plan to meet today to discuss the project.
The Atlanta Ballet has staged works with pop performers before. In October 2001, the ballet collaborated with the Indigo Girls on “Shed Your Skin,” which featured the Decatur duo performing songs onstage behind the dancers. It was presented again in 2004.The ballet’s 2007-08 season includes five other shows, opening Oct. 25 with artistic director John McFall’s production of “Peter Pan.” For tickets, info: www.atlantaballet.org.
OVERSCENE
Although it was his day off, Ron Massey of Carter-Barnes Hair Artisans was on the job at 6:55 a.m. Monday to style the hair of Ireland’s president, Mary McAleese. At the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead hotel, he combed her short blond hair in a classic simple look, with light bangs. “She’s a very down-to-earth, very sweet person who commented on what a beautiful city we have and how different our weather is from Ireland’s,” said Massey. The Irish president liked her hair so much she booked the stylist for a repeat performance at 5:30
p.m. President McAleese is on an official visit this week, meeting politicians and stopping by historic landmarks and universities in Georgia and New York. She met with Gov. Sonny Perdue on Monday. She will fly to the Big Apple today. She even plans to take in a Broadway show, “The Pirate Queen,” later in the week.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Singer Judy Collins is 68. Atlanta bassist Johnny Colt (Black Crowes) is 41. Country singer Tim McGraw is 40. Bassist D’Arcy Wretzky (Smashing Pumpkins) is 39.
COUPLING
“Survivor” producer Mark Burnett and former “Touched by an Angel” star Roma Downey were married Saturday in a private ceremony at their Malibu, Calif., home. The ceremony was officiated by Downey’s “Angel” co-star Della Reese, an ordained minister, the couple’s publicist, Jim Dowd, confirmed Monday. “It was wonderful to have shared our big day with our family — Roma, myself, our children and our parents,” Burnett, 46, told People magazine in an interview. “It was so meaningful and so intimate.”
STORK REPORT
Brace yourself for incoming, thoroughly wholesome baby chat. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a co-host on “The View,” is pregnant again. She announced the news Monday on the daytime ABC talk show.
Hasselbeck, 29, and her husband, pro football player Tim Hasselbeck, have a 2-year-old daughter, Grace.
She said the baby is due in Nov-ember, just in time for sweeps.
Contributing: Marylin Johnson, Pierre Ruhe 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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Saloon shoots for own piece of the action
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lowe’s will often place a store by a Home Depot. Burger King will plant itself catty-corner to McDonald’s.
Kennesaw’s Saddle Rack Saloon, which opened Friday, is taking the theory to nightclubbing: It parked itself in a former Just for Feet store at Town Center at Cobb, just 2.9 miles from the most established country music club in metro Atlanta, Cowboys.
Saddle Rack, with faux-burnt pine and cedar and a big dance floor, is smaller than Cowboys, fitting 1,500 people compared with 3,000-plus. But general manager Bob Hearn hopes to draw corporate support via VIP memberships and a more upscale audience. (All new nightclubs like to throw around that term, “upscale,” don’t they?).
Rodney Ho / AJC
Rhett Akins performs
“We can’t be bigger than Cowboys but we can be better,” said Hearn, who used to promote Coors beer and said he’s friends with the folks at Cowboys.
On opening night, the club drew more than 1,400 people, a solid crowd considering the relatively low-star wattage of the headliner, Rhett Akins, who had two big country hits in the mid-’90s but nothing much since. (“A washed-up has been,” sneered 23-year-old Matt Rhodes of Kennesaw, who visited the club but wasn’t impressed.)
Marietta’s Carolyn Phillips, 39, didn’t like the “flow” of the club’s layout and blanched at the $100 a month fee for individual VIP access. “They better serve free sushi and beer for that price!” she said. They don’t, but one-time entry to the VIP area upstairs was only $8 Friday.
Others were more enthused.
“It’s a cool new place to go,” said Michael Christie, 23, of Warner Robins, in the area to visit his girlfriend. “It beats Cowboys. It’s cleaner and a nicer environment.”
Teddy Lucas, 33, of Kennesaw agreed: “Great service! I brought 14 people here, and they got my tab exactly right,” he said. “I’ll be back!”
IDOL APPEARANCE SUITED TO A T
Rodney Ho / AJC
“American Idol” finalist Lisa Tucker (Season 5) promoted “Idol” T-shirts at Macy’s at North Point Mall in Alpharetta Saturday and took time to chat it up with Ashley Lombres, 5, of Charlotte.
BEATS IN A BUBBLE
Atlanta rock band Cartel is pulling a David Blaine: the band will sit in a huge transparent bubble on a public pier in New York City, where the act will record its next album from May 24 to June 12.
Cartel, which had a modest hit (“Honestly”), is using this shameless gimmick to get attention in this era of declining CD sales, MySpace pages and Bob Dylan allowing Victoria’s Secret to use one of his songs for an ad.
Fans will be able to watch Cartel 24/7 via a Web cam (sponsored by Dr Pepper.) MTV will also air four 30-minute episodes of the recording process.
MAKING HISTORY
James Fitts
Honorary chairs Nancy (from left) and Dan Carithers join Swan House Ball co-chair Elizabeth Allen for the annual black-tie gala.
The 430 guests who attended the 22nd annual Swan House Ball on Saturday made history while celebrating it. For the first time, the black-tie party raised more than $1 million — $1,044,000 to be exact — for the Atlanta History Center.
The four chairs who pulled off this feat were Elizabeth Allen, Eileen DuBose, Cindy Fowler and Rebecca Smith. Well-known Atlanta interior designer Dan Carithers and his wife, Nancy, were the ball’s honorary chairs. When Buzz asked Dan Carithers what it meant to be an honorary chair, he said with chuckle, “It means I’m not yet out to pasture. I’m overwhelmed by the honor, and the history center along with the Swan House are among my pet projects.”
After cocktails at the 1928 Swan House, a Philip Shutze-designed Italianate mansion, guests were shuttled to dinner at the history center’s Grand Overlook ballroom. Wolfgang Puck Catering, a ball sponsor, served an organic mix salad, an artful arrangement of smoked salmon with accouterments, lamb and a white and dark chocolate mousse bombe.
LUDACRIS WON’T BITE
Hip-hop legend Russell Simmons created a bit of a stir last week when he called for rappers to stop using words such as “ho” and the n-word. During a conference call to promote his return appearance next month for the season finale of “Law & Order: SVU,” Atlanta’s Chris “Ludacris” Bridges punted when asked about Simmons’ comments. “There’s a time and place for everything,” he said last week. “But I feel like this is about ‘Law & Order: SVU.’ “ Coincidentally or not, Ludacris once recorded a song titled “Ho.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Actress Cloris Leachman is 81. Singer Willie Nelson is 74. Actor Adrian Pasdar (“Heroes”) is 42. Singer Akon is 34. Actress Kirsten Dunst is 25.
Q100’S TOP 5
Covering April 22-28
1. “It’s Not Over” Daughtry
2. “Sweet Escape” Gwen Stefani
3. “Glamorous” Fergie
4. “What Goes Around” Justin Timberlake
5. “Don’t Matter” Akon
— MediaBase 24/7
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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