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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > August > 08
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Chappelle to do 3 nights at Tabernacle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Comedy Central “Chappelle’s Show” creator Dave Chappelle has just booked a three-night stint at The Tabernacle in Atlanta Aug. 23 through Aug. 25 at the downtown venue.
Tickets to the controversial, always topical comic’s shows here go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Reserved seating is $55 per ticket. Interestingly, Live Nation reps tell us that “all ages are welcome” at the event.
However, you may want to schedule extra time to attend a disciplinary meeting at your child’s school after your offspring inevitably tries out Chappelle’s material in the school cafeteria…
Joiner: Working with Sedgwick’s ‘tremendous’
People have been staring and pointing at actor and model Rusty Joiner at the gym this week as the former Snellville resident does his crunches in Los Angeles.
On this week’s episode of the TNT drama, “The Closer,” the Shiloh High School grad took a cattle prod to basic cable’s most beloved cop. Oh, and then Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson’s portrayer, actress Kyra Sedgwick, pumped Joiner’s serial killer character full of hot lead during the episode’s shocking climax.
“It was cool because it was such a departure for the show,” Joiner, 34, told Buzz Wednesday. “She didn’t get a confession and I turned out to be her first kill on the show.”
Of working with Sedgwick, Joiner said: “She was just tremendous. She wanted it as real and as physical as possible. When I pushed her, she really went flying across the room.”
Joiner says the scene got so physical that producers actually trimmed part of what was shot.
“We shot a sequence where my character spits in her face as she’s trying to get me to confess while I’m bleeding to death,” Joiner spills. “Kyra told me, ‘No, really do it.’ I actually had to spit in Kyra Sedgwick’s face. That was crazy. I guess they decided it got a little too graphic.”
His family in Conyers, older brother Michael Joiner, along with Cindy and Jack Ohlin, his mom and little brother, were all tuned in.
“My mom told me, ‘You scared me. For a minute I forgot you were my son.’ ”
Joiner also is featured in two high-profile TV commercials at the moment: He’s co-starring in those sexy “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”-esque Suzuki spots and is the bare-chested runner who jogs through a lake in that omnipresent Excedrin commercial.
“Oh, man, a pharmaceutical spot like that is a dream commercial,” Joiner explains. “It runs during ‘Oprah,’ ‘Dr. Phil’ and all over primetime.”
Still, the March shoot had its downside.
Joiner reports that the lake was approximately 35 degrees during his 50 runs through the water. “At one point, they asked, ‘Hey Rusty, could you stay under for about 15 seconds so we can shoot a flat surface on the lake?’ They had a paramedic and a hot tub there for me. It’s the coldest I’ve ever been in my entire life. I learned the value of unions that day!”
Sunday Special: Flaming Falcon
When the Atlanta Falcons prepare to kick off at the Metrodome against Minnesota on Sept. 9, Larry “Vito” Preston will be busy preparing a bonfire outside Vito Goldberg’s N.Y. Pizzeria in Marietta. While embattled Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has yet to inspire much more than fiery talk radio rhetoric, Preston says the federal dogfighting indictment against the player inspired him to torch a pile of Vick-related memorabilia.
“So far, our customers have donated a Vick jersey, a pair of sneakers, a cap and a bumper sticker,” Preston told Buzz on Wednesday. “We’re just reacting to the public sentiment out there. People are angry and upset.”
During the game’s first half, the memorabilia will be spread out in the pizzeria’s parking lot so leashed canine customers can heed nature’s call on the merch. Donations also will be taken up for local humane societies and animal shelters, according to Preston. At halftime, everything will be piled up and set on fire.
Predicts Preston: “I’m not sure how thrilled the neighbors will be but it’s all in fun.”
Overscene
“Simple Life” reality TV star Nicole Richie was spotted leaning up against a wall at the Gwinnett Arena taking in Good Charlotte’s set Tuesday night before the Justin Timberlake concert. Richie’s boyfriend/baby daddy, Good Charlotte vocalist Joel Madden, is one of the twin brothers in the pop punk act.
Celebrity birthdays
Comedian-director David Steinberg is 65. Actor Sam Elliott is 63. Atlanta actress Amanda Bearse (“Married…With Children”) is 49. Rapper Kurtis Blow is 48. Singer Whitney Houston (above) is 44. Actress Gillian Anderson (“The X-Files”) is 39. Actor Eric Bana (“Munich,” “Troy”) is 39.
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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Real hillbilly? Naw, just call him true ‘grits’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Back in the prehistoric early ’90s, one of the most memorable characters on MTV’s seminal reality series “The Real World” was Jon Brennan, the Kentucky good ol’ boy country singer.
About 14 years and 17 “Real Worlds” later, MTV has resurrected the “country boy” archetype courtesy of Blue Ridge, Ga.’s Cohutta Grindstaff.
The affable, big drawlin’ 23-year-old Grindstaff joined six other young men and women going to Sydney, Australia, for three-plus months of partying, drinking and soap-operatic machinations.
Grindstaff, who works construction, auditioned after his buddies teased him into it and he was soon Down Under on his first overseas trip.
“Sydney was really clean,” he said. “There ain’t a whole lot of trash and the sidewalks are all brick. It’s a pretty city.”
But he said he missed the North Georgia mountains: “I’d rather see trees and build buildings.” (While in Australia, he especially enjoyed snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and bungee jumping.)
Don’t expect to see him partaking in the big tiffs and love triangles the “Real World” producers pray for. “I got along with everybody,” Grindstaff said. “I don’t think the house changed me. I sure hope I didn’t hurt anybody.”
And he’s not worried about MTV editing him. “They may make me this rube hillbilly but I am who I am. I’m a small-town Southern boy who loves sweet tea and grits.”
“Real World: Sydney” premieres at 10 tonight on MTV.
‘Out of Sync’ in ATL
Outwrite Books owner Philip Rafshoon tips us that his Midtown bookstore has booked former ‘N Sync boy band member Lance Bass for an 8 p.m. Oct. 25 book signing in Atlanta. The out-gay singer and former cosmonaut-in-training will be on tour this fall, supporting his upcoming memoir, the inevitably titled “Out of Sync.” We’re told that in the autobiography, “Bass tells all about his life, his music and his sexuality in candid and compelling terms.”
However, his appearance here might prove the teensiest bit awkward since the singer’s ex, “Amazing Race” reality star Reichen Lehmkuhl had a, er, memorable signing at Outwrite this year that, according to celebrity bloggers (and countless anonymous e-mail tips sent to Buzz Central), resulted in the pair’s break-up.
It seems that after he signed copies of his book, “Here’s What We’ll Say” and a visit to Midtown’s WET Bar and an alleged tryst with an Atlanta-based TV reality star here in January, Bass and Lehmkuhl split.
In an open letter to fans posted on the Web, Lehmkuhl later acknowledged his lapse in judgment while in the ATL.
Of the ongoing dish, Rafshoon told us: “I’m certain that I wouldn’t know anything about all that. We’re just very pleased to have booked Lance.”
Riches v. Vick, Part 2
Bless his heart, enterprising litigant Jonathan Lee Riches just doesn’t quit. As Buzz readers will recall, Riches recently filed a handwritten lawsuit against embattled Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick alleging everything from stolen copyrighted property to “microwave testing” to a shady arms deal with Iran. In his latest dispatch, Riches, a prisoner in Salters, S.C., demands the judge in the case recuse himself.
He doesn’t actually name the judge.
Now, Riches alleges Hizzoner has certain conflicts of interest that could taint the previously filed case. That’s the one, legal scholars no doubt recall, where he claims Vick stole Riches’ dogs for dogfighting purposes, sold them on eBay and used the proceeds to buy missiles from the Iranian government. In that filing, Riches demanded $63 billion “backed by gold and silver,” and delivered by Atlanta-based UPS, for his trouble.
In the Aug. 6 motion, Riches ticks off a slew of alleged violations of his state and federal constitutional rights and says he wants the judge’s “yearly financial disclosure forms.” He lobs in a few more complaints against Vick, claiming No. 7 “hired robotic guards” at the prison Riches is in, and that Vick supposedly sold Riches’ name to a CNN producer.
That’s not all. “Michael Vick threw snowballs at plaintiff’s car,” the motion alleges.
We learn a little more about Riches in his latest missive. Namely, he says he’s doing time for “wire fraud, identity theft, hacking, ‘phishing,’ spamming and conspiracy.”
Overscene
“How Stella Got Her Groove Back” actress Angela Bassett and former L.A. Lakers and Boston Celtics player Rick Fox dining at Chops in Buckhead. We’re told the pair was “dressed down” during what appeared to be a business dinner. Our insiders report that the attractive duo was “un-fussy and gracious.”
Celebrity birthdays
Film producer Dino De Laurentiis is 88. Actress Esther Williams is 86. Actor Dustin Hoffman is 70. “Inside Edition” anchor Deborah Norville is 49. Guitarist the Edge of U2 is 46. Rapper Kool Moe Dee is 45. Singer Scott Stapp is 34. Country singer Mark Wills is 34. Singer J.C. Chasez of ‘N Sync is 31. Singer Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees is 31.
Contributing: Jennifer Brett, Sharon Gaus, Rodney Ho 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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