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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 11
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Buzz bounced from Jenna Bush reception
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To be certain, getting ejected from a posh Buckhead cocktail party in front of folks you routinely report on is a tad humiliating.
Especially, when the generous couple who own the private home (and whose terrace you’re standing on) and the UNICEF director and staff who invited you are powerless to do anything about it.
It just makes you feel, well, like you’ve selected the wrong cologne or something.
But as we’ve learned through watching countless seasons of “24,” you really shouldn’t argue with multiple secret service agents when they issue a request.
Such was the situation Buzz encountered Wednesday night as we attempted to cover the UNICEF cocktail reception for former UNICEF intern and first daughter Jenna Bush. The president’s offspring was in town to promote “Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope,” based on her experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean with the global nonprofit.
As waiters politely passed bites of salmon on silver trays and celebrity shutterbug Ben Rose snapped away, UNICEF supporters Rutherford Seydel and his wife Laura Turner Seydel, Herb Miller and Sally Dorsey and CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta were greeted by hosts Monica and Paul Hagedorn.
In honor of Bush’s Atlanta visit, the Hagedorns were about to announce the donation of $100,000 to UNICEF.
Southeastern UNICEF director Barron Segar told Buzz the gift was one of the largest individual donations in his office’s history.
The check was earmarked as a matching grant.
“It enables us to raise up to $200,000 for our work in Latin America and the Caribbean ,” Segar told us. “Not only is it an amazingly generous donation but it also works as an inspiration for others to get involved as well.”
Inside the house, Buzz inspected a cellophane-wrapped Atlanta themed gift basket that awaited Bush, filled with T-shirts, a commuter mug and a paperback of “Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn” by Gary Pomerantz.
Perhaps, not coincidentally, that’s about the time where our posterior met the pavement.
Segar’s clearly embarrassed UNICEF co-workers arrived to inform us — the only press present — that the Secret Service was requesting that we leave.
As it was explained to us, there was a “recent incident” involving Bush and the press at the launch party for “Ana’s Story” in New York. It seems that the first daughter “was unaware the press was present,” made some offhand jokes about drinking and, subsequently, an unflattering piece was published this week in The New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town” section.
(Immediately upon returning home Wednesday night, Buzz pulled out the Oct. 15 issue and found the offending article. One snarky sentence in particular explains that the Bush twin’s emergence as an author is “a surprising turn of events, given Jenna’s previous image as the girl voted to Most Likely to Trip on Prom Night.”)
So, after beating a hasty retreat from the soiree, Buzz decided to honor the budding Bush author appropriately: We met up with friends in a nightclub and ordered a Texas margarita, extra salt, please.
On Thursday, Segar happily reported that UNICEF is already halfway toward matching the Hagedorns’ donation. UNICEF supporter and 2007 Georgia Music Hall of Fame inductee Bobbie Bailey contributed $50,000 during the gathering.
Cracked Segar: “I told everybody else: ‘Don’t worry, I have your credit card numbers on file. Just expect a charge on your next statement!’ “
‘Fresh out — again
Considering that we’ve probably purchased enough of their tomato and basil soup to refill Lake Lanier, a considerably warmer welcome awaited us when we popped by MetroFresh’s second birthday party on Monroe Drive on Wednesday night. For the second year in a row, hundreds of owner/chef Mitchell Anderson’s customers devoured every speck of free food set out for the occasion.
“Sixty pounds of slow-cooked meat just vanished,” said Anderson, still a little wide-eyed at the thought. “It was so packed, people were sitting on the curb out in the parking lot with their plates.”
Added MetroFresh general manager Topher Payne: “When we say that we offer curbside service at night, that’s not exactly what we mean.”
The evening, a benefit for Gilda’s Club Atlanta, raised $480 in donations through a 50/50 raffle. The entire pot ended up being donated to Gilda’s Club, however, and Anderson supplied the winner with a $250 MetroFresh soup gift certificate.
OVERSCENE
Jenna Bush and photographer Mia Baxter (who some diners mistook for Jenna’s twin, Barbara) enjoying the Love Cakes at The Flying Biscuit Cafe in Midtown…Pop star Nelly working up a sweat during a game of basketball at Crunch Fitness in Buckhead.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Comedian-activist Dick Gregory is 75. Singer Sam Moore of Sam and Dave is 72. Actor Hugh Jackman (“X-Men”) is 39. Actor Adam Rich (“Eight Is Enough”) is 39. Fiddler Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks is 38. Actor Kirk Cameron is 37.
News services contributed to this report.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Urban will play Alzheimer’s benefit with Ga. songwriting friend
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Musician Monty Powell says he’s only too happy to fly under the mainstream radar even as he’s become one of Nashville’s most sought-after songwriters. The North Georgia native behind Chris Cagle’s 2007 country hit, “Miss Me Baby” and a string of chart-toppers with Keith Urban, including “Days Go By,” “Tonight I Want to Cry,” “It’s a Love Thing” and “These are the Days” is bringing his armload of hits home for a good cause.
After losing his father, Calhoun resident Richard Powell to Alzheimer’s disease, Powell created Better Start Livin’, a unique fund-raiser for the Alzheimer’s Association, set for Nov. 28 at the Cobb Energy Centre.
“It’s such a horrific disease,” Powell told Buzz. “It just robs you and your family of everything.” Powell says the unsung heroes for him and his family were the caregivers and members of the Georgia chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and the Alzheimer’s Society of Atlanta. Powell hopes the event here will serve as a springboard for benefits nationally.
And since the evening is named after a lyrical line from “Days Go By,” a No. 1 ditty made famous by his songwriting pal Urban, the Australian country superstar has graciously agreed to join Powell onstage at the Nov. 28 show for the benefit.
During the stripped down, intimate “storyteller” acoustic evening, Powell and Urban will perform some of their biggest songs co-written together while giving fans the back stories on the tunes you’re not likely to get when Urban performs in arenas.
“I make it a rule not to ask for favors from artists,” Powell explains. “But if I was ever going to ask for anything, this would be it. It’s something that’s terribly close to my heart. Keith didn’t hesitate for a second. He just said yes. He was really excited that we named the evening for ‘Days Go By.’ “
Acclaimed jazz singer-songwriter (and Powell’s wife) Anna Wilson will round out the evening’s bill.
Powell says fans can expect just a few acoustic instruments, some great stories and an evening’s worth of country radio hits next month.
“It’s really going to be about deconstructing the songs — the difference between a pencil sketch and a finished oil painting,” he explains.
Tickets for the event go on sale Friday. Patron tickets (which include access to a post-concert reception) are $300 each (available only through www.alz.org/georgia) while other seats are priced at $100 and $65.
Tickets will be available at ticketmaster.com and cobbenergycentre.com | • Map & Plan.
ATL “AMA” nominees
Metro Atlantans make up a great deal of the American Music Award nominees, announced Tuesday in Los Angeles.
While Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Linkin Park and Daughtry lead with three, local R&B, rap and Christian acts Akon, Young Jeezy, T.I., Ne-Yo, T-Pain, Casting Crowns and the Shop Boyz are contenders. In fact, the soul/rhythm & blues male category is made up of all Atlantans: Akon, Ne-Yo and T-Pain.
The 35th annual awards show will air Nov. 18 on ABC. Jimmy Kimmel hosts.
TRANSITIONS
While Star 94 is dropping Steve McCoy when Vikki Locke leaves next month because it’s hard to imagine one without the other, WGST-AM Wednesday kept the Randy Cook half of the long-running Randy & Spiff team but let go Spiff Carner (right).
“He didn’t fit with the vision of the morning show we wanted,” said program director Randall Bloomquist, who also fired veterans Tom Hughes and Kim “The Kimmer” Peterson last year. Carner, who is still under contract with WGST, declined to comment.
Randy & Spiff have been a team for more than two decades, 18 of those years here in Atlanta at four different radio stations, most notably with the now-defunct oldies station Fox 97.1. The pair have been at the news/talk station for eight months. Carner always has been known as the wisecracking jokester while Cook played the straight man.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Singer Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates is 58. Actress Joan Cusack is 45. Actor Luke Perry is 41. Actor Jane Krakowski (“30 Rock”) is 39. Rapper MC Lyte is 36. Actress Emily Deschanel (“Bones”) is 31.
Rodney Ho, Sonia Murray and news services contributed.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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