August 2008 Archives

If you missed the story about Lowell’s Revolving Museum last spring on WCVB-TV Channel 5’s Chronicle news magazine, you can catch it again tomorrow in a re-run of the show taped in April. The story focuses on Bay State arts organizations that are succeeding despite the current money crunch. Artistic director Jerry Beck will be interviewed. Chronicle will also give an update on new doings at the Revolving, including fall classes and Toying Around Town, the Harmony Park Arts Festival, slated for Sept. 7. Tune in at 7:30 p.m.

Bay State rockers Staind will play the Tsongas Arena in Lowell with their pals Seether and Papa Roach on Sunday, Nov. 16. The show starts at 6:30 p.m.

Staind just released their sixth studio album “The Illusion of Progress” this past week. The album was recorded in the Greater Springfieldd, Mass. area, where the rock band hails from.

Papa Roach is nearly finished recording their new album “Metamorphosis” that is set to hit stores by the end of 2008. This will be the band’s fifth major release and a follow-up to 2006’s “The Paramour Sessions.” Papa Roach is currently touring with Motley Crue and Buckcherry this summer as part of Crue Fest.

Seether hail from South Africa and is currently on the last half of their North American tour. Their single “Fake It” stayed in the number one position of the Billboard Hot 100 for several weeks.
Tickets are $35.75 and $39.75 and will go on sale Saturday, Sept. 6 at 10 a.m.

Move over Richard Simmons there is a new guy in town and he wants Lowell to look good naked.

Carson Kressley, the former "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" fashion specialist, now hosting the Lifetime network series "How to Look Good Naked", will be special guest at a Lowell General Hospital event “Healthy Bodies, Healthy Lives: Winning at Weight Loss,” aimed at inspiring local folks to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

The event, at Lowell Memorial Auditorium on Oct. 2 from 6-9 p.m., is sponsored by Lowell General’s Center for Weight Management and Bariatric Surgery.

In addition to commentary from Kressley, the evening will also include makeovers of some of the hospital’s successful weight-loss clients, and presentations by Lowell General’s medical team.

Tickets are $20, available at the auditorium box office, and at the hospital’s cashier’s office or Center for Weight Management and Bariatric Surgery. For tables of 10 people, call Christine LaBrecque at (978) 788-7200.

Comedienne Chelsea Handler makes no bones about her sex life, drinking habit and love for steamers. The blonde host of the E! Channel’s Chelsea Lately and author of two New York Time best sellers gave a shout out to Fishbones Restaurant in Chelmsford on one of her shows that aired last week.

Handler was sitting with her frequent sidekick and fellow funny gal Heather McDonald when the two began to dish on the delicious plates of seafood they gorged on while visiting the east coast. Handler then thanked the eatery on Route 110 for their heaping portions of steamers with butter.

Handler and McDonald both appeared at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium on Aug. 14.

The Lowell Rib 'n' Brews Fest was canceled yesterday and in other useless news Sporty Spice is pregnant.

Mel and her longtime boyfriend, Thomas Starr, have announced that they are expecting their first child together.

Mel posted the following on her official website:

“Well, I can now announce that Tom and I are expecting a baby and we are very happy. As I’m sure you’ll understand we needed time to wait for results and tell our families. Thank you for all your kindness, good wishes and support (even if it was based on speculation!). You all know how much I value my privacy so I’m sure I can rely on you to respect that, particularly at this time. I will be taking it easy but am also excited to start writing for the fifth album. I’ll need some time off to be a mum but, before you know it, I’ll be back.”

Big hug to Melanie!

Who or what starts a trend?

Is it the gals from The Hills? We have them to thank for bromances, trustafarians and men wearing a button-down dress shirt underneath a faux vintage tee to the club. I don't get it. But, I also have a hard time comprehending why everyone hates Speidi either.

If it's not that contrived celebreality on MTV influencing the sheeples of the world, then what could it be? Perez Hilton, Us Weekly, Oprah, the Jonas Brothers, Dr. Drew ... Apple?

All are strong contenders in the race to influence our culture. What I really want to know is who started the latest craze of staying with your husband after he cheats on you?

When former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer admitted he was a John and not an Eliot like his wife, Silda, thought, she smiled and held his hand. What was she thinking? Obviously not where that hand was the past year.

Now take John Edwards and all that baby daddy drama that has the makings of a Maury Povich episode. While his wife, Elizabeth, was ill with cancer the one time presidential hopeful was carrying on with some new age hippie. She forgives him. Maybe she sees a chance to be the first lady in her future, but pulling a Clinton is the closest Edwards will now ever get to the White House.

Speaking of Bubba, I think we can blame this partly on his wife. As much as I hate to admit it, I have a slight crush on the stallion from the south. That still does not mean I feel like his other half did the right thing in letting the boy be a boy.
Some women may disagree with my stance on standing by your man. They think that Hillary, Elizabeth and Silda are strong to be able to issue a playboy pardon. The one vein of feminism that runs through my body makes me think that we as women are taking "for better or worse" to a whole new level by turning a blind eye when a husband is a philanderer.

The whole point of getting married nowadays is to get a divorce. It used to be for the overly expensive kitchen utensils that you suckered your friends and family into buying on your registry. Spaghetti never tasted so good as when it is twirled on $100 spoon your cousin, whom you despise, had to buy because everything else was already purchased.

Do all of us a favor and kick your husband to the curb. Take the mansion, the summer home in the Hamptons, let him have the kids on the weekends and that will leave you plenty of free time to have a fling with the pool boy.

Cynthia Rodriguez knows how to do it. So does Morgan Freeman's soon-to-be ex-wife, who filed for divorce while he was still recuperating from a car accident in a hospital bed. We need more Mrs. Freemans in this world.

Breaking up is hard to do, but if you do it the right way you'll get to keep the diamond and your pride.

Lowellita has never been married, so take this advice with a grain of salt and shot of tequila. E-mail lowellita@lowellsun.com.

Boston native Donnie Wahlberg and his wife don’t have the right stuff...baby. The couple are getting a divorce after nearly nine years of marriage.

Billerica housewives start feathering that hair. There may be a chance for you yet!

Wahlberg and his wife, Kim Fey Wahlberg, each filed for divorce last Wednesday in separate counties in the Los Angeles area, court records show.

Kim Wahlberg cited “irreconcilable differences” in her filings in Los Angeles Superior Court. Donnie Wahlberg’s petition was filed in Ventura County.

The couple were married in August 1999 and separated earlier this year.

The move comes as Wahlberg, 39, prepares to tour with a reunited New Kids on the Block and appears on the big screen in Righteous Kill, which will be released on Sept. 12. Or rather, as Wahlberg comes out of obscurity.

The Billerica Mall and Crackers in Dracut will be a ghost town on Friday, Oct. 3.

Why?

Because Total Nonstop Wrestling is coming to the Tsongas Arena in Lowell!

The arena is trading in its typical angst-filled teen screamers for some body slams when TNA Wrestling returns with a TNA Live! Event on Friday, Oct. 3, starting at 8 p.m.

Appearing live and in person will be TNA World Heavyweight Champion Samoa Joe, Booker T, “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles, TNA World Tag Team Champions Beer Money Inc., Jacqueline, Abyss and many more!

Tickets go on sale this Friday, Aug. 22, 10 a.m., at the Tsongas Arena Box Office in person only; all Ticketmaster locations by calling 617 931-2000 or via www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets are $21.50, $36.50 and $51.50.

We got to chat with Chelsea Handler about her upcoming show here in Lowell, Saturday. Though a lot of her interview was censored, there were some little nuggets that slipped through.

Read it all here!

"Every guy in the area that's under the age of 50 knows it was once Matthew's," said the enthusiastic Eric Sideri, owner of Angela's Coal Fired Pizza who just bought the former panty peeler's palace in Tyngsboro.

Make your own assumptions, but that one almost blows the "I was just showing the hooker where the bathroom is" out of the water.

Donna Martin is not graduating to the new '90210' and this is causing quite the uproar.

Tomorrow night’s sell-out show at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell will be a memorable one. That’s because it all will be caught on tape.

Boys Like Girls will be filming the concert for their new DVD at the downtown digs. The angsty pop rock band from Boston will be joined by Good Charlotte, Metro Station and The Maine.

Good Charlotte is fronted by identical twin brothers Joel and Benji Madden, who date Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton respectively. Joel Madden is also the father of Richie’s daughter, Harlow Winter Kate Richie-Madden. She shouldn't have a problem with spelling in kindergarten.

Could the two celebutants grace Lowell with their presence this weekend?

Oh my God that Britney is shameless. Hey, she said it, not me.

Ms. Spears is going to give us more one more time at the MTV Video Music Awards this year.
Widely panned for her glazed-over performance at last year’s show, Britney Spears is now in negotiations with MTV to make an appearance at the Sept. 7 ceremony, a spokesperson for MTV said Tuesday. She is already appearing in promotional ads for the telecast.

“This is for real,” Spears tells VMA host Russell Brand in one of two spots for the VMAs, which were taped last week, according to MTV. In the ads, Spears, dressed in black with blonde hair cascading down her shoulders, giggles as she and Brand banter flirtatiously. She looks sexy, confident and fit — the antithesis of her appearance at last year’s ceremony.

Spears is working on a new album. If she were to perform, it would surely be a ratings bonanza; last year’s VMA’s was up 23 percent over the 2006 show.

Van Toffler, head of MTV Networks Music Groups, admitted as much in June when he said there was a possibility that Spears could appear at this year’s event, to be held in Los Angeles.
“I’m not sure how we top Britney opening the show,” said Toffler.

HELLO! What about a Fugees reunion? Or Color Me Bad? What ever happened to them?

The wine flowed and it was sunny and warm on Martha’s Vineyard over the weekend — ideal weather for Dacey Zouzas to mingle with the beautiful people at the Divas Uncorked wine fest.

Zouzas, of Chelmsford, produces and hosts Dacey’s Divas, a local cable show focusing on women who make a difference. She rubbed elbows with celeb chefs Jody Adams of Rialto, Gordon Hammersley of Hammersley’s Bistro and Marvin Woods of Woods on South in Charlotte, N.C. Also there and chatting with Zouzas was Will Gilson, chef/owner of Garden at the Cellar in Cambridge, and son of David Gilson of the Herb Lyceum in Groton.

“He had a table set up with a beet salad and goat cheese and a cold watermelon gazpacho — how delicious,” said Zouzas, noting that the weekend was a “great experience, I had a blast.”

Zouzas helped cover a VIP party in Oak Bluffs with Bob Tankeard, who hosts Tank Talk for Martha’s Vineyard community TV. He’s invited her back to help host from time to time. She’ll also present her own show taped there in the near future.

File under Diva-licious!

Thank the Lord! Mr. Blackwell is still alive!

What would we ever do without his in depth analysis on what Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham is wearing. Well, I guess we could just rely on the other crypt keeper — Joan Rivers.

Richard Blackwell, 85, collapsed at his home and was unconscious when he was brought to the hospital on Tuesday, publicist Harlan Boll said. Blackwell was given antibiotics to treat the unspecified infection.

“He appears to be cognizant of his surrounding and acknowledged his partner, Spencer,” Boll said.

Holy scandal! Is Mr. Blackwell's boy-toy Spencer Pratt from "The Hills". I knew that boy was too coiffed to be straight.

Vickie Becks topped Mr. B's worst dressed this year. He said of the spice mom's style: “In one skinny-mini monstrosity after another, pouty Posh can really wreck-em."

There are some things that never cease to amaze me. Getting away with using clichés is one of them. A comic book character that flies around wearing a cape and a mask engaging in fights with a delusional clown has become the phenomenon of the summer.
Amazing.

It has entered our dialogue as an ice breaker. It’s small talk for those awkward run-ins at the water cooler with people you work with that you secretly wish would get laid off.
Who cares how their weekend was or how Johnny is getting ready to enter kindergarten.

Did you see The Dark Knight?

That question is usually followed by some statement about how Heath Ledger’s performance was legendary and that he should win an Oscar.

I am not surprised by that. Everyone loves the dead guy, especially if his cause of death was an overdose. It’s just so glamorous these days to meet your maker covered in vomit.

What really gets me is this guy, who is growing out his hair to win best Halloween costume as the Joker in October has suddenly put Ledger in the same category as his other top five screen actors of all time: Pacino, De Niro, The Rock, Damon and now Ledger.

Hmmm ... which one does not belong?

A few years ago, this is the same person who almost choked on his water when I asked if he had seen Brokeback Mountain. The same guy who repeatedly made jokes about cowboys and saddling up. Throw on some makeup, dye your hair and you rank right up there with Tony Montana.

Amazing.

Holy smokes, Batman — the Joker is gay? And so is Lindsay Lohan?

Which segues to my other astonishing discovery this summer — the alleged budding romance between LiLo and Samantha Ronson. Are they or aren’t they? Does it even matter?

According to the Los Angeles police chief it apparently doesn’t. Since Lohan “went gay” as he says the paparazzi have not been a problem in L.A.
Wow — that’s all it takes. Someone better tell Lauren Conrad.

The princess of The Hills better known as LC is on the cover of Entertainment Weekly complaining about being hounded by cameras all the time.
Huh? Does she realize she is the “main character” of a reality television show?

Amazing.

E-mail your discoveries to lowellita@lowellsun.com.

Weezer will launch their first major U.S. tour in more than three years at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell. The alternative rockers known for their sarcastic sound and quirky personalities will kick things off on Tuesday, Sept. 23. The tour is to support their latest self-titled album, known as the “Red Album.”

The show is slated to start at 7 p.m. All tickets are $50 and go on sale Saturday, Aug. 16 at 10 a.m.

The opening act, Angels & Airwaves, is a mish-mash of musicians from other notable bands. It is fronted by Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, guitarist David Kennedy of Over My Dead Body, Offspring drummer Atom Willard and 30 Seconds to Mars bassist Matt Wachter.

Also, the Boys Like Girls, Good Charlotte and Metro Station concert at the Arena next Saturday has sold out. Who would of thought all those Emo kids got the hair out of their eyes long enough to get out and buy tickets early?

Scarlett Johansson is all hot and bothered by her e-mailtionship with prezzie hopeful Obama.

“It seemed to me to be like a product of extreme sexism, and I kept thinking to myself, ’God, if this was just, like, Kal Penn or George Clooney or any of the other (Obama) surrogates or supporters ... there wouldn’t be (any) question about it. Nobody would even talk about it,” she said.

Scar-Jo, a vocal supporter of Obama, told the Web site Politico.com in June that she and the Democratic presidential hopeful had been trading e-mails. Obama later told reporters that Johansson doesn’t have his personal e-mail address, and that his assistant forwarded one message from Johansson to which he replied.

Hmmm...didn't Clinton deny Monica until the little Gap dress was splashed across the world for all to see?!?!

Oscar winner in serious condition after car wreck

Actor Morgan Freeman was in a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., on Monday after being injured in a car accident near his home in Mississippi.

Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Stringer said Freeman, 71, is in serious condition. The hospital is about 90 miles north of the accident scene in rural Tallahatchie County in the Mississippi Delta.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Ben Williams said Freeman was driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima belonging to Demaris Meyer of Memphis when the car left a rural highway and flipped several times shortly before midnight Sunday.

“There’s no indication that either alcohol or drugs were involved,” Williams said. He said both Freeman and Meyer were wearing seat belts. The woman’s condition was not immediately available.

My question is...was he driving Miss Daisy?