Ask Geo
GO columnist Georgette Braun is curious about a lot of things. She’ll answer your questions, pose some of her own, and comment on everything from entertainment to life and death. |
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1 comment October 5th, 2009
Will women be less likely to watch David Letterman in light of the unveiling last week of affairs with underlings at work?
Explain yourself in comments if you’d like.
Add comment September 25th, 2009
Rockford native Kelly Killoren Bensimon, 40, a former model and star of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City,” will be featured semi-nude in the December issue of Playboy, according to InTouch Weekly.
Cityfile.com says that InTouch says that her ex-husband, photographer Gilles Bensimon, took the photos several years ago.
2 comments September 14th, 2009
Can’t wait to catch Jay Leno’s primetime debut at 9 p.m. tonight, partly to see if he corners musical guest Kanye West on his being outrageously rude to Taylor Swift at Sunday’s VMA awards.
12 comments August 17th, 2009
Anyone else surprised by virtually no national media coverage of the arrest Aug. 5 of Katie Stockton of Rockton for allegedly leaving her newborn daughter to die on the side of the road in the middle of winter? And of the discovery of two more dead infants found last week in the trunk of a car that Stockton owned?
I thought for sure that CNN’s Nancy Grace would have had something to say about it.
You can comment here on the lack of national coverage and go to a Register Star comments site here to post or read posts of general interest in the case.
Add comment August 17th, 2009
Over the weekend, I watched part of Christiane Amanpour’s eye-opening documentary “Generation Islam,” which aired on CNN and included 20 minutes of interviews with Greg Mortenson and friends. He is considered a hero by mullahs in Afghanistan. The documentary offered his school-building strategy there as an answer to stabilize Afghanistan that the U.S. military has become part of. Footage showed soldiers handing out pencils and pens.
Mortenson, a U.S. citizen and co-author of the bestseller, “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time,” spoke in Rockford last September to a full house at the Coronado Performing Arts Center as part of the Pennies for Peace fundraising campaign. Rockford raised $100,319.98, enough to build two schools, mostly for girls. His appearance was courtesy of the One Book, One Rockford program cut this year for financial reasons by the Rockford Public Library.
(Here’s a young reader’s version of the book. By the way, the adult version was one of the best books I’ve read on Middle East issues.)
David Oliver Relin, who helped Mortenson write the book, also appeared in town during the campaign here at Rockford College. He told the audience then: “We need to replicate (Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute effort) on a massive scale to offer hope.” The alternative? Kids there will be turned into “Taliban foot soldiers.” It’s a key message in the “Generation Islam” documentary.
A year ago, Mortenson’s organization had built 78 schools. Now there are more than 130 schools, which educate more than 51,000 students. There’s still a big disparity with regard to need, though. Relin estimated that extremist groups have 20,000 schools.
1 comment August 6th, 2009
Greg Vass and Michael Kromm will be on WGNs national broadcast today (Comcast 18) at noon to promote their book, “102 Don’ts Before You Say ‘I Do’.” It is a funny book about things not to do at your wedding, a collection of don’ts from their days of dee-jaying. Visit their website. In addition to being authors, Vass and Kromm own SolidLine Media, a high definition video production company in Chicago. They both live in Rockford.
3 comments July 8th, 2009
Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City” has been picked up for a third season but might feature a new group of Manhattan socialites, the Hollywood Reporter says. Bravo is “casting for additional housewives” amid reports about a salary dispute between the cable network and the six cast members: Alex McCord, Bethenny Frankel, Jill Zarin, Kelly Killoren Bensimon (a Rockford native) LuAnn de Lesseps and Ramona Singer.
Kelly Killoren Bensimon; photo at insider.com
The Reporter says that the New York Housewives was up double digits in the ratings this past (second) season, when Bensimon joined. But it’s well below the viewers that the New Jersey edition recently drew for its first-season finale.
I watch both shows once in awhile. Tall and tan model Bensimon’s hard-butt attitude and over-the-top cattiness is entertaining as far as upper echelon lives go. But she’s got nothing on cute Teresa Guidice, with her curly, long, dark hair, diamond-heavy jewelry and table-turning temper. Yowser!
Add comment July 2nd, 2009
A video where girl group KSM covers Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me” is being used in promotion spots for a new ABC Family channel show, “10 Things I Hate About You.” It debuts at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 7 (Comcast 25).
The show is a half-hour high school series directed by Gil Junger, who also directed the 1999 film by the same name, which provided Heath Ledger’s breakout role. “I Want You To Want Me” was featured in the movie.
(KSM with ‘10 Things’ cast. J-14.com)
According to the ABC Family Web site: Rockford-based power-pop quartet “Cheap Trick released a studio version in 1977, but it was the live take from their 1979 concert album, “At Budokan,” that made it a huge hit. It’s been covered a lot; even Lindsay Lohan did a version in 2005.”
Add comment June 29th, 2009
Two professional wrestling shows will be taped live at the Rockford MetroCentre on Tuesday, Sept. 8, back-to-back for later TV broadcasting.
WWE’s SmackDown stars expected to be here include Jeff Hardy, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jerico, John Morrison and The Divas. ECW’s stars expected to be here include Christian, Mark Henry, Jack Swagger, Finlay, Evan Bourne and Tommy Dreamer. The ECW show will start at 6:30 p.m. followed by SmackDown.
(Rey Mysterio, photo provided)
Tickets cost $50, $40, $30, $22 and $15. They go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 11, at metrocentre.com, 815-968-5222 and the MetroCentre box office at 300 Elm St.
The ECW shos is expected to air at 9 p.m. the night of the taping on the SciFi Channel (Comcast 156). The WWE show is expected to air at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11 on myNetworkTV (Comast 16).
Add comment June 8th, 2009
Shawn Ryan, former Rockfordian and Keith Country Day School graduate, is in the news for old — “The Shield” and the just-cancelled “The Unit” — and the new “Lie to Me” TV shows he has/is producing:
He comments on “The Shield: Season Seven The Final Season” ($59.95, Sony, available Tuesday), according to CaliforniaChronicle.com. “This four-disc set has 13 episodes of the controversial FX cop drama starring Michael Chiklis. There’s a commentary for every episode, along with 51 deleted scenes that have an optional commentary by creator Shawn Ryan. Featurettes explore the final season and go on the set for the last episode.”
In a telephone call last week with me, Ryan said he would consider producing a big-screen version of “The Shield.” “I would say it’s something we could think about and possibly do, if there is enough interest,” he said.
With regard to CBS cancelling “The Unit,” Ryan said he was “upset” about the axing of the show about covert military operations and the families involved. “Creatively, it was a very good show and finished in the top 30 with 10 million viewers.”
He said the show was cancelled because of “corporate politics; more a corporate than network decision. CBS did not own the show, like they have ownership of ‘Cold Case’ and ‘Medium.’ ”
Ryan said he’s stoked about his new executive producer job, of the Fox show, “Lie to Me,” which premiered this year. It centers around Dr. Cal Lightman and his colleagues taking assignments usually from local and federal agencies to help them reach the truth through interpreting facial expressions and body language.
Read more about lying in general and what Ryan has to say about this show in my June 18 Ask Geo column.
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Teresa Guidice (insider.com)
