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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > August > 02
Thursday, August 2, 2007
‘E-mail Gone Wild’: More Bob & Liz & Ted…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Ted Turner-Elizabeth Dewberry-Robert Olen Butler love triangle and Butler’s e-mail posted ‘round the world has now fully evolved from being mere fodder for gossip columns and celeb Web sites. On Thursday, under the headline “The Affair of an E-mail Gone Wild,” the bizarro soap opera became newsworthy even for The Washington Post.
Wrote Post staffer Neely Tucker of the Pulitzer winner: “Butler has never sold a lot of books, but his startling e-mail about his divorce is getting the kind of buzz writers dream about.”
Over at Slate.com, meanwhile, a think piece titled “Ted Turner’s Big Love” wryly observed that Butler “explained in bizarrely fine-grained detail why his wife of 12 years left him to be Ted Turner’s part-time girlfriend.”
Heck, even National Public Radio weighed in.
Inexplicably, Butler himself kept the media feeding frenzy on his personal life churning by sending yet another explanatory letter to the fiendish editors at Gawker.com whom he had publicly chastised just one news cycle prior for posting his original e-mail.
A winning summer
Former Sutton Middle School teacher John Armbrust found a novel way of unwinding on his summer vacation — he won $381,000 at the “World Series of Poker” in Las Vegas this week. With ESPN and Pokernews.com cameras rolling and about 250 people watching, Armbrust “went on a sick, sick rush,” finishing 18th in the tournament. The former Atlantan who just moved to the left coast tells Pokernews.com he plans to spend his winnings on a new hybrid car and to celebrate with a Mexican feast and “a victory cigar.” When asked if he planned to turn poker pro, the idealistic 26-year-old shook his head and replied: “No. I teach for a living. I love my job and I love my kids.”
High five
Top On Demand TV selections as determined by Comcast digital cable customers in metro Atlanta for the week of July 25-Aug. 1:
1. “Entourage,” Season 4, Episode 48, HBO
2. “Beautiful Girls” music video, Sean Kingston, Music Choice
3. “Cupid Shuffle” music video, Cupid, Music Choice
4. “Wall to Wall” music video, Chris Brown, Music Choice
5. “Dora the Explorer,” “Baseball Boots” episode, Nickelodeon
— Courtesy of Comcast
Dispatch from Paris
Like most of us, Q100 news director Melissa Carter had a pile of mail greeting her when she returned from vacation this week. Unlike the rest of us, however, Carter’s correspondence included a hand-written thank-you note from Paris Hilton and an autographed picture. A while back, Carter and her cronies on “The Bert Show” decided to write to Hilton while she was cooling her heels inside a jail cell. The goal: to see who could craft a sticky-sweet missive that would result in a return letter.
“At first, I thought someone was jacking with me,” Carter said of the Paris parcel.
“The letters I’m [receiving] really do put a smile on my face as I sit here in my cell, sad and alone,” Hilton wrote in the hand-written note which was photocopied and mailed out. For the record, Hilton incorrectly spelled the word “receiving” and confirming our worst fears, signed her name by dotting her “i’s” with tiny hearts.
Celebrity birthdays
Singer Gordon Stoker of the Jordanaires is 83. Singer Tony Bennett is 81. Actor Martin Sheen is 67. Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart is 66. Actress Evangeline Lilly (“Lost”) is 28.
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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Colorful Chastain crowd welcomes B-52’s home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To help celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary, fans of the Athens-birthed B-52’s packed into Chastain on Wednesday night sporting beehive hairdos, cocktail dresses and Day-Glo hair, carrying cans of aerosol cheese and boxes of Chicken in a Biskit crackers.
One woman had even whipped up a tasty dish of “Quiche Lorraine” in tribute to the party act’s song of the same name.
Taking the stage at dusk, front man Fred Schneider, singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson and guitarist Keith Strickland electrified the screaming amphitheater audience with “Mesopotamia,” a seldom-performed fan favorite from the band’s three-decade catalog.
Eager to introduce fans to the album’s worth of fresh material the band has recorded this year in Athens and Atlanta, the B’s treated the crowd to five new songs, including “Ultra Violet,” “Juliet of the Spirits” and “The Fun Plex.”
Throughout the new material, the band’s trademark sonic imprints — Wilson and Pierson’s soaring vocals, Schneider’s wry ironic commentary and Strickland’s full-bodied ax work, all set to memorable melodies — was strongly evident.
“The Fun Plex,” the band’s kitschy account of America’s obsession to the shopping mall and rampant consumerism, especially ignited the audience’s interest. Previewed Schneider on stage: “Hello, Hot-lanta! We’re the B-52’s and here’s a new song from our forthcoming CD.”
Added Wilson: “Which is coming out forthcomingly.”
The as-yet-untitled album marks the first full-length new recording from the band in 17 years. It’s tentatively set for a February release.
By the time Wilson leaned into her microphone and shouted her now-iconic lyric from “Love Shack,” “Tin roof rusted!” the entire audience was on its feet dancing.
After the show, the act eagerly greeted fans, friends and family members who had clustered in the backstage Club Chastain to welcome the band home to Georgia.
“Since there are some really bad cellphone videos [of the recordings] posted on YouTube, a lot of people are already singing along to the new songs,” Schneider told us.
The singer said he was pleased with the response to the new material. Of “The Fun Plex,” he cracked: “You just can’t beat a song about a shopping mall. We couldn’t have asked for a better setting than here.”
When asked if, after 30 years beyond the band’s first gig at a 1977 Valentine’s Day house party in Athens, Schneider had any idea he would still be performing in the B’s three decades later, he just shook his head.
“Oh, no, not at all. But thank God I am. I have no other skills!”
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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