Elizabeth  Hurley has reportedly declared she may leave Britain – because she is fed up with being called “Liz” by the media.

“None of my friends call me Liz. I don’t like it because it suggests a trust that doesn’t exist. Perhaps I will just get clean away – maybe to Switzerland. Also the country would be much better for the little one.”

Elizabeth Hurley adds, “I have three lives: actress, model, producer. Sometimes I’m aware that there’s a fourth life, which is somewhat neglected, which is living a bit.”

It is almost impossible to imagine that Brooke Burke was originally a tomboy who played football as a teenager. Brooke Burke has guided tours from the Australian outback to the Mayan Riviera, and from the endangered Bamboo forests of Bali to the hyperthyroid nightlife of the world’s most exotic party capitals.

“Forget all the bars and schmoozing and everybody checking out everybody else. My ideal date would be to park in a dark place, check out the stars, and have a great conversation. When all else fails, you can just make out. If I really wanted to get down and dirty with someone, it wouldn’t be at some chic five-star hotel it would be in the rough with a roaring fire burning outside a tent.”

After several TV spots and being a proud mother to her children, Brooke Burke is now the co-host of the hot ABC TC show “Dancing With The Stars. Brooke Burkes is taking the place of popular Samantha Harris.

Copyright Brooke Burke, CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

“As an only child, you either become a loner or you learn to put yourself out there, which my parents encouraged.”

Kate Bosworth could no longer be denied true success after she landed the coveted part of Lois Lane in Superman Returns and had a well-publicized, relationship with Hollywood hearthrob Orlando Bloom.

Kate performed many of her own stunts in the movie Superman Returns, including a scene of a sinking boat, and another one on board a plane plummeting to earth.

“Everybody makes mistakes, including role models, so you should just learn and grow from it. Even the best role models do screw up and learn from their mistakes, and I think it is just completely unrealistic to say that role models are perfect. Personally, I think perfection is boring, and secondly, I just think that it’s okay to make mistakes.”

Kate Bosworth really has one blue eye and one hazel eye. They’re not contacts! This condition is known as heterochromia iridium.

“I cook very, very badly. So I normally order take-out unless someone whop does cook well comes by and utilizes my fantastic kitchen.”

Ripa grew up dazzled by the lights of New York City. Kelly and her sister began taking ballet and piano lessons at an early age. They visited Manhattan frequently to see live shows and explore the culture of the big city. The young girl dreamed of the day when she would live in — and make her mark on — the Big Apple.

While Ripa successfully navigated her career, marriage and motherhood, she couldn’t have been prepared for the changes that would occur in the new millennium.

“There’s no such thing as an uber-mom. I think children are like pancakes. You sort of ruin the first one, and you get better at it the second time around.”

Kelly gets paid $36,000 an episode for “Live with Regis and Kelly“, which she co-hosts with legend Regis Philbin.  Ripa is under a five year contract, ending in 2009.

When asked about her ankle tattoo, Kelly replied, “It signals to them that I may be freaky deaky.”

Kelly Ripa loves to watch reality television, including The Bachelor, The Apprentice, Wife Swap, and Survivor.

It’s a first for Matthew McConaughey and good news for his adoring fans. In Surfer Dude, he’s shirtless for the entire film.

McConaughey’s role in the movie — a comedy about a champion of the long board who resists selling out to corporate America — wasn’t a difficult one for the laid-back actor to play.

Matthew McConaughey, who is often photographed on the beach, seemed to enjoy playing a soul-searching surfer. And it’s only a matter of time before his newborn son follows in his bare-footed steps.

Q: Congratulations on your three-and-half month old son Levi. Have you taken him surfing yet?

A: Not yet but he’ll be getting salty soon. Levi travels with his mom [model Carmen Alves] and me already. I want to get him out into the world. He’s outdoors as much as he is indoors. That’s how I was raised in the country. I like the city but I also want some space. And my boy is going to be out in the middle of it.  Full Interview

Photo: Moody College of Communication from Austin, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The hit ABC show Dancing With The Stars is back. The Three-Night Premiere Event Begins Monday, September 22 2008 and this season, the shows seventh, is projected to be the best ever.

Season seven of Dancing With The Stars marks the largest cast assembled to date, the oldest and youngest competitors ever, and includes two Olympic Gold medalists, a Grammy®-winning singer, a television legend, an Oscar® winner, and a Super Bowl champion. Additionally, all four professional dancers who have previously tasted the thrill of victory return to compete against one another for bragging rights.

This season also promises to be the biggest and most demanding season ever.  For the first time ever, all thirteen teams must prepare two routines for the first week of competition.

In alphabetical order, the celebrities dancers are: pop singer, Lance Bass, Grammy Awards singer Toni Braxton, model Brooke Burke, chef Rocco DiSpirito, sprinter Maurice Greene, reality celebrity Kim Kardashian, actress Cloris Leachman, actor Cody Linley, soap star Susan Lucci, olympic volleyball player Misty May-Treanor, actor Ted McGinley, comedian Jeffrey Ross, and football star Warren Sapp.

Dancing With The Starsis hosted by Tom Bergeron (America’s Funniest Home Videos) and Samantha Harris (E! Entertainment).

The shows popular and lively judges are renowned Ballroom judge Len Goodman and dancer/choreographers Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba.

Follow all the latest news and dance show results at ABC’s Dancing With The Stars site

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, established in 1935, is among the oldest and largest regional professional repertory theater companies in the United States.

The festival reports that in 2007 total attendance in its three theaters was 404,730, with patrons seeing an average of three shows and almost 90 percent of the audience traveling more than 125 miles to attend.

While it’s called a Shakespeare festival, have no fear, there are plenty of different types of theater to choose from – even different kinds of Shakespeare, for that matter.

There are also modern plays, such as the comedies “The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler” and “Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner,” along with classics such as Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge.”

This is the place to indulge yourself in theater, and no one makes productions more accessible. Besides its guides to the plays, OSF has numerous tours, lectures and talks, all designed to enhance and deepen your experience of seeing the work on stage.

The festival has nine plays now running; four are Shakespeare, three are very different types of classics, and two are modern . (See accompanying reviews and schedule.)

“The whole theater scene is what draws the people and supports all the good restaurants and other things we have here,” Smith said.

Situated just outside the Oregon rainbelt, eastern- facing hills hover over Ashland, reflecting a perpetual glow – golden in the summer and gleaming white from snow in the winter. “The festival is the magnet, but once people get here, they immerse themselves in a cute little town for three or four days,” Smith said.

“They get caught up in the fine dining, the galleries, the wine-tasting, and it becomes an experience that is far more than the theater.”

Source: Marcus Crowder Sacramento Bee

Bo Diddley died of heart failure on June 2, 2008 at his home in Archer, FL. He was 79 years old.  He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa and had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

One of the founding fathers of rock & roll, a truly unique talent and an influence upon generations of musicians, Ellas’ commitment to issues close to his heart, including human rights, the state of the Nation, homelessness, unemployment and the importance of education, touched many people across America and beyond.

One of the founding fathers of rock & roll, Bo Diddley’s innovative pounding and hypnotic Latin-tinged beat, his vast array of electric custom-built guitars, his use of reverb, tremelo and distortion to make his guitars talk, mumble and roar, his use of female musicians, his wild stage shows and his on-record and on-stage rapping, pre-date all others.

For Christmas in 1940, his sister Lucille bought him his first guitar, a cheap Harmony acoustic. It was at this time that he acquired the nickname “Bo Diddley.”

After more than a decade of playing on street corners and in clubs around Chicago, Bo Diddley finally got the chance to cut a demo of 2 songs that he had written; “Uncle John” and “I’m A Man”.

The two songs were re-recorded at Bill Putnam’s Universal Recording Studio in Chicago on Wednesday March 2nd 1955 and released as a double A-side disc “Bo Diddley”/”I’m A Man” on the Chess Records subsidiary label Checker Records.

The record went straight to the top of the rhythm ‘n’ blues charts, establishing Bo Diddley as one of the most exciting and original new talents in American music. It is later hailed as one of the most influential debut singles in history and one of the cornerstones of rock music.

Bo Diddley’s career has been recognized well, He was a deservedly, early inductee into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm ‘n’ Blues Foundation as well as received another Lifetime Achievement Award, from The Recording Academy at 1999 Grammy Awards Ceremony.

The impact that Bo Diddley had on the music industry will last forever. From Elvis Presley to George Thorogood, from The Rolling Stones to ZZ Top, from The Doors to The Clash, from Buddy Holly to Prince and from The Everly Brothers to Run DMC, all acknowledged the unique influences of Bo Diddley upon their different styles of music.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s popularity soared in the early 2000s through the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) and since then he has crossed over into movie stardom.

Dwayn Johnson, born May 2, 1972, in Hayward, Calif., came to South Florida in 1990 to play football for the University of Miami Hurricanes, where he was a “walkon” non-scholarship player, playing defensive tackle behind Warren Sapp, an eventual first-round draft choice and all-pro.

After college, Johnson played football for two months with the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL (Canadian Football League), then was released. Johnson next followed his famous father’s and his grandfather’s footsteps and became a professional wrestler.

After a short training stint in 1995, he competed for the WWF under the names Flex Cavana and Pidlaoan Rock, then Rocky Maiavia (a combination of his father’s and grandfather’s names), before turning “babyface,” in wrestling lingo and become the Rock.

His signature lines included: “If you smell what the Rock is cooking,” referring to himself in the third person. He also would raise just one eyebrow for “the People’s Eyebrow” and refer to wrestlers who continually lost matches as “jabronis.”

In Hollywood, Dwayne Johnson achieved success with The Mummy Returns (2001), The Scorpion King (2002), a remake of Walking Tall (2004) and Disney’s The Game Plan (2007).

Dwayne Johnson essentially retired from wrestling in 2003, although he makes guest appearances with the WWE. He also has appeared on Saturday Night Live numerous times, done commercial endorsements and organized a charity to help dole out a portion of the reported $33 million-plus he has earned as a professional wrestler.

Photo: angela n., CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sadly, a comedic legend has passed away.  George Carlin was a strong advocate of free speech. His work has been the cornerstone of comedy for decades.

He’s most famous for his hilarious routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television.”  The bit was so controversial, that it ended up being a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. He was 71.

When his seven taboo words were played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government’s authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.
“So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I’m perversely kind of proud of,” he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

George Carlin produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” in 1989

Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother.

Carlin’s first wife, Brenda, died in 1997. He is survived by wife Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law Bob McCall; brother Patrick Carlin; and sister-in-law Marlene Carlin.

Sarah Jessica Parker transitioned effortlessly into to a hectic and wide-ranging acting career. She has worked non-stop and shown her range and talent on stage, the big screen and television. She returns on the big screen, starring once again as Carrie Bradshaw in the hit movie “Sex and The City”.

Sarah Jessica Parker made the transition to feature films beginning in 1979, when she appeared in “Rich Kids”, followed by “Footloose” and “Firstborn”. Cast mostly as brainy or intense characters, Parker saw praise for her cleverly comic role opposite Steve Martin in “L.A. Story” in 1991.

Parker then returned to Broadway to co-star with future husband Matthew Broderick in the musical revival “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”.

In 1998, Sarah Jessica Parker returned to series television in the trendy comedy “Sex and the City,” winning awards for her role as the steadfastly independent but psychologically needy Carrie.

Parker would take home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2001, and win Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004.

Thanks to her stylish character’s fashion savvy, Parker also become one of Hollywood’s hottest sexy celebrities of the late 1990s and early 2000s, known for her exceptional taste, new age accessories and always magnificent footwear.

Parker then returned to comedy starring alongside Matthew McConaughey in “Failure to Launch” (2006) about a thirty something slacker who suspects his parents of setting him up with his dream girl so he’ll finally vacate their home.