| 'Charm School' sells redemption but it's all show
Coincidence can be a beautiful thing, and it's something of a relief that VH1's new reality contest, the unwieldily named "Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School Starring Mo'Nique," arrives just after the nation met the Rutgers women's basketball team. It may not surprise anyone -- except, perhaps, producers at VH1 -- that a group of young women can be poised, unified, and classy enough to make a positive mark on pop culture. But it's worth giving the network another reminder. VH1 has gone through a string of iterations over the years, from music network to purveyor of pop culture lists, but it seems to have found new life in the "Flavor of Love" franchise, an empire built on the supposed joys of the catfight. Needless to say, the original show, a "Bachelor" parody starring the rapper Flavor Flav , didn't do women any favors -- especially not African-American women, who made up the majority of the contestants.
NBC to Air Saturday Night Live in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation on ...
Continuing to tell the story of Saturday Night Live, NBC presents a new installment of the compelling behind-the-scenes documentary series chronicling the highs and lows of the iconic comedy show -- Saturday Night Live in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation - on Sunday, May 6, 9:00 - 11:00 p.m. ET. Following up on his Emmy-nominated and critically acclaimed documentaries Live From New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live, and Saturday Night Live in the '80s: Lost and Found, writer-director-producer Kenneth Bowser (Emmy nominee for "John Ford/John Wayne; The Filmmaker & The Legend," "Easy Riders & Raging Bulls") has created a look at the stratospheric reach of the show in the 90s. The decade saw "SNL" going from being named "a national institution" by the prestigious Peabody Awards to being deemed "Saturday Night Dead" by the press a mere two years later...only to return stronger than ever.
BOOK REVIEW: Two tales of a less merry olde England
Henry VIII is a Hollywood dream monarch: His life is larded with sex, violence, and fancy costumes, and he's even regarded in certain circles as a serial killer. Plus, if you want to wax philosophical, there's always the Reformation. So it's not surprising that the 16th century tends to turn up in pop culture. This year, in addition to other cinematic and literary offerings, are two historical novels that delve into the political upheaval surrounding King Henry's break with the Roman Catholic Church. Both are centered on brilliant young women and written by British writers better known for nonfiction. Alas, one proves to be faux Tudor. Historian Alison Weir wrote 10 nonfiction books before trying her hand at "Innocent Traitor," a fictional look at the life of England's shortest-reigning monarch.
Doing It For Herself
She's credited with being one of the biggest influences on her former husband David, but where's Angie Bowie now? Katrina Fox finds out. In 1972, the world of music and pop culture was taken by storm with the release of David Bowie's concept album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The story of a gender-bending, omnisexual alien who comes to earth to spread peace and love but is ultimately destroyed by sex, drugs and the fans he once inspired, the album placed Bowie at the forefront of the glam rock era and ensured his place in rock and roll history. The saying goes that behind every great man is a great woman, and in this case the woman was Angela Barnett. Born in Cyprus in 1949, Angela met David in 1969 when she was 19. The pair married in 1970, had a son Zowie, separated six years later and eventually divorced.
GSN Orders New Series 'CAMOUFLAGE' From Disney's Buena Vista ...
GSN, the network for games, announced today that it has ordered 40 half-hour episodes of the new series, CAMOUFLAGE, an addictive hidden word puzzle and trivia game show from Disney's Buena Vista Productions. CAMOUFLAGE is the first collaboration between Buena Vista Productions and GSN. In making the announcement, Jamie Roberts, GSN's Senior Vice President of Programming, commented: "I couldn't be more thrilled than to be in business with Buena Vista Productions on this smart, playful, first-class game show. For viewers, CAMOUFLAGE is easy to follow and the type of show that pulls you in so that you can't help but play-along." Taping in Hollywood, CAMOUFLAGE is a fast-paced game show of hidden word puzzles with cross-word type clues ranging from general knowledge to pop culture.
ABC Poll Finds Twice as Many Blame Culture Over Guns, But 'World ...
ABC News polling chief Gary Langer, in a posting buried on ABCNews.com, revealed that a poll taken Sunday discovered that when “asked the primary cause of gun violence, far more Americans blamed the effects of popular culture (40 percent) or the way parents raise their children (35 percent) than the availability of guns (18 percent)." ABC's World News on Monday devoted nearly two minutes to results of ABC's survey, but didn't get to that finding which shows the public does not share the media assumption that gun availability is to blame for the murders at Virginia Tech. Although George Stephanopoulos did point out how “a strong majority of Americans, 52 to 29, prefer enforcing existing laws to passing new laws," anchor Charles Gibson led with a widely-held view, how “a new ABC News poll finds 83 percent of Americans say states should do more to report mentally ill people to the federal gun sales registry." He went how to highlight that “61 percent of the people in this country say they favor stronger gun control laws, although people are split right down the middle as to whether stricter gun control laws would actually curb any kind of violence, 49 percent saying yes, 50 percent saying no." The full text of the question, as listed in the PDF of the poll results, a PDF linked at the end of Langer's summary report: “7.
Northern student brings Japanese culture to class
Alaine Seyfried is turning a blank panel above a window at Port Huron Northern High School into a portrait of a Japanese rock star. Alaine, 16, of Fort Gratiot brought her interests in Japanese and art together to paint an acrylic image of Miyavi, a guitarist, singer and pop-culture icon in Japan. .
Greater Richmond Chorus at St. Augustine's Catholic Church
The Greater Richmond Chorus brings its 65-member all-female a cappella chorus to St. Augustine's Catholic Church. The award-winning ensemble performs songs in a variety of styles (jazz, gospel, modern), and the tunes are delivered via choreographed dance routines. For more information, call 282-SING (7464) or visit www.grcsings.com. 7:30 p.m.Tuesday, April 10Bluesflash at Shenanigan's .
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