Currently on a globe-trotting tour with Damien Marley to support their new album ‘Distant Relatives,’ Nas plays bodyguard as he and Amy Winehouse make their way through the paparazzi in London. The powerful and soulful Winehouse, who needs to make more music immediately, was sticking real close to Nas and helping celebrate Damien Marley’s birthday.
The Vice President’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden will be making a special guest appearance on Lifetime’s ‘Army Wives’ on Sunday, August 8th at 10p. Dr. Jill Biden, the wife of United States Vice President Joe Biden, will play herself as part of her ongoing efforts to raise awareness of the services and sacrifices of our men and women in uniform. The episode will feature her spending time with military spouses and discussing the challenges that their families face while loved ones are deployed. Many real army wives will be featured in the episode. Dr. Biden, who along with First Lady Michelle Obama is helping to forge an enduring national commitment to support military families, will also film a public service announcement encouraging all Americans to take part. The PSA will air during the episode. This is must see TV.
The political landscape of nighttime television is becoming more competitive by the seconds. MSNBC has now given a show to outspoken political commentator, Lawrence O’Donnell best known for his guest hosting on the networks current shows, Countdown, Hard Ball with Chris Matthews, The Ed Show and The Rachel Maddow Show. O’Donnell, who has been with MSNBC since 1996, has also had his way in Hollywood as an Emmy Award-winning producer and writer for The West Wing. Not to mention his acting career for one, as an attorney on HBO’s Big Love. The new anchor will have the coveted 10pm slot and begin immediately.
The question is will Colton Harris- Moore, better known as the ‘Barefoot Bandit’ show up to his own premiere, and will he come barefoot or swipe a pair of Kenneth Coles on the way? The nineteen year old shoeless escapee who escaped from a halfway house two years ago and went on to steal credit cards, cars, boats and planes where he even learned how to fly to evade police, homeland security and the FBI, is about to become really famous. Dustin Lance Black, who won the Oscar for best screenplay for Milk, is writing the story based on the book proposal “Taking Flight: The Hunt for a Young Outlaw,” by Bob Friel who profiled Harris-Moore in the January edition of adventure magazine Outside. The ‘Bandit’ who preferred committing crimes without shoes, and who is being compared to Leo DiCaprio’s character in “Catch Me if You Can,” was just transferred to SeaTac, Washington where he awaits trial in jail. David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) will direct for 20th Century Fox Variety reported. No word yet on who will go barefoot.
The once hour drama ‘Chaos’ which had been laid to rest has come alive again with CBS and 20th Century Fox finally seeing eye to eye, according to Variety . Ratner’s agency CAA, refused to let the deal die and was able to hammer out an agreement with 20th Century Fox TV remaining as producer and the original cast starring Freddy Rodriguez returning. Originally, number of episodes to be picked-up, license fees and budget approval were all points of contention but apparently once talks resumed, harmonious heads prevailed and ‘Chaos’ was reborn. Rodriguez stars as a CIA agent forced to spy on is colleagues. Ratner will produce while James Murray, Tim Blake Nelson, Eric Close and Carmen Ejogo will co-star.
HBO’s comedy series ‘Bored To Death’ and ‘Eastbound & Down’ both return for season two on Sept 26th at 10p and 10:30p respectively. In ‘Bored To Death,’ Jason Schwartzman is a struggling thirty- something Brooklyn writer pretending to be a private detective which also stars funny man Zach Galifianakis (pictured here.) And Danny McBride is a star pitcher with self-destructive behavior in ‘Eastbound & Down.’ HBO has got it going on this fall.
Chef Angelo Sosa, who is currently competing on this season’s Top Chef, owns XIE XIE, (meaning thank you in Mandarin) an Asian sandwich shop in midtown. Apparently, Angelo’s sandwiches are delectable and out of this world. So, the next time you’re around 45th street and Ninth Ave stop in, you may just see the Top Chef contender himself who seems to be heading straight to the finals. www.xiexieproject.com
Red-hot comedy star Tracy Morgan will make his HBO stand-up debut in November with a live taping at the Apollo Theatre on September 24 & 25 with ‘Tracy Morgan: Black and Blue.’ The unpredictable and relaxed comic, who will be uncensored, is a rare talent who is at the top of his game right now. This special should be wild.
Angelina Jolie’s new spy thriller, is she or isn’t she a Russian spy in ‘Salt,’ will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time. The riveting and poignant story shot mainly in NY, takes her on the run from the very people who trained her and she is at her best using her covert operative skills to stay alive. The action packed movie has Angelina as Evelyn Salt kicking major booty and looking fabulous. The question is, by the end of the movie do we ever find out who ‘Salt’ really is? Co-stars Live Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor are extraordinary. See it, ‘Salt’ opens Friday.
Eight times Emmy Award winning TV actor Ed Asner joins My Gulf Action, a project of SmartPower, an innovative tool for the personal reduction of energy use, offering Americans a way to take concrete lasting action against the BP oil spill. My Gulf Action allows individuals to reduce their personal use of fossil fuels and hopefully combined with others from the My Gulf Community, can add up to offset the Gulf oil spill. Asner, who starred as the voice of Carl Fredericksen in the Oscar winning Pixar film ‘Up’ said, “My Gulf Action is exactly what our nation needs: a way for the American people to act together to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.” To get involved check out: www.mygulfaction.com
