Pop Stand

What 'The Help' brings to the table

I haven't yet seen "The Help," the movie set in 1960s Mississippi, but I've heard it makes you hungry.

Hungry for justice, for equality, for mutual respect among all human beings? Probably.

But I was really just talking about food.

Don't laugh! I didn't give myself this idea. One food site got Viking Range On-Line Chef (there is a job that sounds like fun) to come up with recipes in tribute to "The Help," "to celebrate the opening of this empowering movie."

Another gave the recipe for Minnie's Chocolate Pie.

Even august Food and Wine weighed in with a list of recipes from "The Help" including Cucumber-Rye Tea Sandwiches, German Chocolate Cake and Tomato Aspic.

Is anyone actually going to make this tomato aspic? It seems to me that aspic is one retro food we will never see come back. Just the name!

Also, tea sandwiches. If anyone in Buffalo makes tea sandwiches as a result of this movie, I would love to hear about it.

See, this is the mark of a really good movie.

It gives you a lot to talk about!

-- Mary Kunz Goldman

 

The guy on the next barstool

When the spirit moves us, Pop Stand is going to review books we find edifying. Today we brake for a new book called "Bar Hopping Thru America."

This merrily casual paperback is by Terry W. Lyons, a Western New Yorker now in his 70s and living with his wife in Florida. The back cover blurb reads, in part: "The inspiration of this book followed completion of a course, 'Searching for the Lost American Bar,' at the Chautauqua Institute. Who knew Chautauqua taught a course like this? Where do we sign? If you've taken any of those Forgotten Buffalo tours, this would be a way of taking your scholarship to the next level.

So, what everyone wants to know is, what does the book say about Buffalo?

Not as much as it says about Olean, I will say that. Lyons grew up in Olean, and his hometown gets a lot of ink. When he was 17, he used to hang out at a place called the Wheel Restaurant and Bar. He writes: "Unlike teenagers today, economic circumstances usually prevented any one of us from having too much to drink." He describes shuffleboard, which sounds like fun. Only boys would drink, Lyons remembers. Girls did not.

There was also an upscale bar called the Capitol, with a bandstand and a dance floor. Wow, Olean had a lot of bars! Lyons knowledgeably discusses Welch's, where you could place off-track bets. And a few dives: the Brown Bear, Dinty Moore's and the Cabin. "They opened early in the day and, as far as I could tell, never closed."

About Buffalo, Lyons takes time out to discuss our town's brewing history. The Anchor Bar makes it onto the list at the end of the book of bars not to miss. The Place also has a place of honor. Lyons presents it as an example of an endangered old-time tavern. He knows all about its Tom and Jerrys, the drink the bar serves at Christmas time. He has clearly put in his time there.

Lyons is a charming Irishman and rambles through history and geography not really caring what goes where. He interjects quotes. ("I never met a man I liked who didn't drink." -- Will Rogers. I never heard that!)

There are a lot of typos. "Yeats" is spelled "Yates." The absolute last sentence, on p. 241, is a classic: "Ray Brush provided a wonderful final editing of the book" it reads. With no period.

But so what if the book is a somewhat rough, er, draft?

What better mark of authenticity could it have?

-- Mary Kunz Goldman

 

'Take me to the moors'

Conductor Michael Christie, who is from our town and is now music director of the Phoenix Symphony, is in the news this week. Christie is at the Minnesota Opera, conducting "Wuthering Heights," an opera by the great film music composer Bernard Herrmann. That is a poster for it at left. The opera, which is almost never performed, opened April 16.

It is too bad "Wuthering Heights" is so seldom performed because it seems to have very wide appeal. Witness that the opera was written up not only on something called the Bronte Blog but also on a blog subtitled "Twin Cities Hub For Hip Jewish Stuff."

You can read about the opera, listen to it and hear an interview with Christie on this Minnesota Public Radio page.

"It's not just wind blowing on the moors," Christie says. "It's about what people feel when the wind is blowing on the moors."

The Wall Street Journal, reporting on the opera last weekend, opined that the music was beautiful but that the opera was too long. Reading up on the opera I learned that its length has thwarted performances in the past. Apparently Julius Rudel was ready to conduct it years ago but asked for cuts, and Herrmann would not agree.

From what I hear of the music it sounds extremely intriguing. Christie calls it somewhat Wagner-esque which occurred to me too. In case you are new to the wild world of movie music, Bernard Herrmann wrote the scores to "Vertigo," "Cape Fear" and, most famously, "Psycho." He was the master of suspense and intensity.

Here is a scene from Herrmann's "Wuthering Heights" that shows Cathy and Heathcliff (singers Sara Jakubiak and Lee Poulis).

 
 
I have a problem in that I am married to the 1939 movie. I wish an opera based on "Wuthering Heights" could have just have used the wonderful music by Alfred Newman. The music will always be tied up in my mind with that story. Wow, look! I am not the only one thinking of "Wuthering Heights" in this gloomy brooding afternoon. Someone posted the original trailer for the movie, just today.

Prejudices and hangups aside, though, I admit, the opera intrigues me. It continues at the Minnesota Opera through Saturday.

I wish I were there!

-- Mary Kunz Goldman

 

 

Morning Links: First bombshell from Oprah bio says lover John Tesh fled in middle of the night over racial issues

The New York Daily News reports that a leaked excerpt of Kitty Kelley's Oprah biography claims the talk-show queen lived briefly with John Tesh until he bolted in the middle of the night from the apartment they shared. Kelley writes that the "social pressure" of being an interracial couple in Tennessee was too tough for Tesh. "He said one night he looked down and saw his white body next to her black body and couldn't take it anymore," another Tesh ex-paramour told Kelley. "He walked out in the middle of the night. ... He told me he later felt very guilty about it." A spokesman said Oprah was not commenting on the highly anticipated book, which will be published Tuesday and is already No. 19 on the Amazon.com best-sellers list. Tesh's spokespeople did not reply to calls. Tesh was a news anchor at WSM-TV (oddly, with Pat Sajak as a weatherman) when Winfrey, 20, worked at WTVF-TV in Nashville. Tesh hosted "Entertainment Tonight" from 1986 to 1996 before leaving the show to become a full-time New Age musician. Tesh appeared with Winfrey on the 10th anniversary of her show in 1996, with Oprah claiming the pair shared one platonic dinner date.

• • •

In a piece she wrote for MSNBC, Kelley says the fist time she met Winfrey, she discovered that Winfrey disapproved of the unauthorized biography Kelley had written of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Kelley also says that many of the sources she approached during her three years of research on Oprah's life were reluctant to cooperate with her. In addition to the 850 interviews she collected, Kelley writes, "I decided to gather every interview [Oprah] had given in the last 25 years to newspapers and magazines and on radio and in television in the United States and the United Kingdom, including Canada and Australia. I filed each—and there were hundreds—by names, dates, and topics, for a total of 2,732 files. From this resource I was able to use Oprah’s own words with surety."

• • •

Jon Gosselin's attorney says the unemployed dad would do a show with ex-wife Kate "under the right circumstances." Attorney Anthony F. List said having Jon and Kate filed while they are around the kids would be ideal -- in other words, pay Jon for parenting his kids. List also says Jon would "love to settle" the court case in which he seeks primary custody and child support, but he'll continue the suit unless Kate drops her "global commitments." List says he and Jon both feel Kate is "addicted to the paparazzi," and even if she is eliminated from "Dancing with the Stars" Tuesday, he won't drop his custody case because Kate is "caught up in the glamour of Hollywood," and will seek other show-biz opportunities.

• • •

Jim Carrey was in hot water after defending Tiger Woods by saying that wife Elin Nordegren had to be aware of his affairs. On his Twitter account, Carrey wrote that while Woods was "wrong," he suspected Nordegren knew about the affairs. "No wife is blind enough to miss that much infidelity," Carrey wrote. "Elin had 2 b a willing participant on the ride 4 whatever reason. Kids/lifestyle." After an outcry, he added, " I want 2 make it CLEAR that I do not condone infidelity at all, but 2 some degree the responsibility 4 it is shared by both people." Later, he wrote, "My people called and said I might have to tame my tweets a little. So here goes…I'm going to make a sandwich now. Peanut butter. (sigh)." But he still had an outrageous comment to make. "Well, I ate my inoffensive sandwich with an acceptable glass of milk and took the dogs out, while avoiding any controversial thought -- then I was sexually assaulted by Ben Roethlisberger! I can't be certain but it sure looked like him! Good thing I'm a Steelers fan! ;^B," he wrote.

• • •

Actress Dixie Carter , best known for her role as interior decorator Julia Sugarbaker in TV's "Designing Women," died Saturday morning at the age of 70 after a battle with cancer. "This has been a terrible blow to our family," said husband Hal Holbrook in a statement. "We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy." Dixie Carter had appeared on "Desperate Housewives" and on Broadway, most recently in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in 2004. Carter and Holbrook began dating after working together in the 1980 TV movie, "The Killing of Randy Webster," and married in 1984. Besides Holbrook, she is survived by two daughters from a previous marriage.

• • •

Andy Dick visited a winery over the weekend but didn't stay -- the manager of the South Coast Winery Resort & Spa in Temecula, Calif., says Dick was escorted off the property by security because he "showed signs of intoxication." Dick was visiting the winery with with a small group of friends. In 2008, Dick was arrested after pulling down the shirt and bra of a teenager outside a California restaurant and in January, he was charged with a felony when he was accused of groping a man in a West Virginia bar.

-- Anne Neville

Morning Links: Lawyer scoffs at book that claims Warren Beatty had sex with 12,755 women

In the biography, "Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America," Peter Biskind estimates that Warren Beatty had sex with "12,755 women, give or take." He bases the number on "simple arithmetic," obviously calculations made with Beatty's help, but adds that the figure "does not include daytime quickies, drive-bys, casual gropings, stolen kisses and so on." But Beatty's lawyer, Bertram Fields, told the Huffington Post, "Mr. Biskind's tedious and boring book…contains many false assertions and purportedly quotes Mr. Beatty as saying things he never said." Biskind details some of Beatty's most famous conquests, who include Jane Fonda, Joan Collins, Leslie Caron, Isabelle Adjani, Natalie Wood, Carly Simon (whose "You're So Vain," is rumored to be about Beatty), Julie Christie, Candice Bergen, Brigitte Bardot, Diane Keaton, Madonna and Annette Bening, whom Beatty, now 72, married in 1992. They have four children, Kathlyn Elizabeth, 18; Benjamin MacLean, 15; Isabel Ira Ashley, 13; and Ella Corinne, 9.

• • •

While paparazzi gathered around the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan after rumors flew that Tiger Woods had been staying in a heavily guarded block of rooms there since New Year's Day, his wife, Elin Nordegren, is staying in a posh French Alps ski resort with her twin sister and several close friends. Nordegren has reportedly been staying in an $8,000-a-night, seven-room chalet outside the resort town of Chamonix. Nordegren and her twin hosted a New Year's Eve celebration at a local restaurant, which at midnight became the twins' 30th birthday party. A waitress who served the party said Elin was in "great spirits." A "family friend" told the Sun that Nordegren went on the ski trip to escape "from the minefield Tiger has created by his behavior" and that Elin told Tiger "she needed a lengthy time apart to reflect on how they might possibly salvage the marriage."

• • •

The 10-month-old twin sons of Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller will stay with their mother in Aspen for at least a month, a source close to Mueller told People. Sources said that officials of Pitkin County Social Services paid a visit to Mueller and her family in Aspen last week, which followed Sheen's domestic violence arrest on Christmas day. The source said, "The people from the social services agency talked to Brooke, her mom, her step dad and her nanny, and told them that everything looks good and Brooke appears to be an excellent mother." The source said that Mueller will stay in the rented house in Aspen where she and Sheen fought "for at least another month. After that they may go to Palm Beach to visit family for a while." After Sheen bailed himself out on two felony and one misdemeanor counts, he flew home to Los Angeles.

• • •

Lindsay Lohan has big plans for 2010 -- no more drama! From St. Barts, where People reports she is spending time on Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's yacht, she Tweeted, "2010 is about moving forward, not backwards. Leaving the bad (people, habbits, and negative energy behind) time to make changes-right!?!? :)"  Just before midnight, she Tweeted, "Starting my new year off with friends&family, the way it should be..... No boyfriends and the other drama."

• • •

Lindsay's estranged dad, Michael Lohan, made no such promise. So he kicked off the new year by getting the "his" part of "his-and-her" tattoos with one Kate Major, a former brief love interest of Jon Gosselin. (Kate quit her job with a tabloid after quickly falling for Gosselin, whom she had been assigned to interview.) TMZ says Major and Lohan got the matching bleeding-hearts tats "to mark their ... hell, we don't know what they were thinking. At least it doesn't say WORLD'S GREATEST DAD." But Lohan, who is no longer friendly with Gosselin, downplays the significance. "I got a tattoo for the new year," Lohan told RadarOnline. "Kate liked it so she got one too.  It was not a big deal." Lohan denies the two are dating, but he spent the holidays with her family in Chicago.

• • •

Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange has been hospitalized in New Jersey since Saturday for undisclosed reasons. Lange's rep told TMZ, "I can confirm that Artie is in the hospital. Artie has chosen to keep all information on this matter between him and his doctor. There will be no further comment." Lange, the co-author of "Too Fat to Fish," has been through drug rehab several times for heroin use. He has been absent from "The Howard Stern Show" since the middle of December.

• • •

The second child of Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves is a daughter. The two chose not to learn the gender of their baby before birth, so they were as surprised as anyone else when they welcomed daughter Vida Alves McConaughey at 12:13 a.m. Sunday. The actor posted on his official Web site, "'Vida' is Portuguese for 'life' and that's what God gave us this morning. Camilla's recovering wonderfully and we are both truly honored to welcome this little lady into our family." Vida joins big brother Levi, who is 17 months old. The two became a couple in 2006.

• • •

Jason Castro married his longtime girlfriend, Mandy Mayhall, Saturday in his hometown near Dallas. Although he said he was battling the flu on Friday ("theraflu and bed. goodnight world, goodbye sickness!"), he posted Sunday, "Yesterday I married the girl of my dreams... It couldn't have been more perfect! Now, honeymoooon!!! :)" Castro, 22, seen at left with Mayhall, finished fourth on season 7 of "American Idol." Castro will release an EP titled "The Love Uncompromised," one part of an album due in the spring. He'll also start touring later this month.

-- Anne Neville 

Morning Links: Sources say Paula Abdul will return to 'Idol' for the right price

So a Tweet is not a binding contract rejection, right? So although Paula Abdul tweeted in the wee hours of Wednesday that she would not be returning to "American Idol," and Fox chairman Peter Rice says, "Our understanding is that we have concluded the negotiation and Paula will not be returning to the show," everybody has a price. And Paula's is $10 million a year, sources tell TMZ.com. Nigel Lythgoe, former producer of "Idol," says, “I still don’t know that she’s going to leave 'Idol." Until 'Idol' goes on the air, there’s always the opportunity for negotiations.” For now, Rice says, Victoria Beckham will be a guest judge and that he was lining up other celebrities, including Katy Perry, to fill in as judges during auditions.

• • •

If Abdul does leave Randy, Simon and Kara, Lythgoe says he'll be delighted to have her join him on the judges' panel on "So You Think You Can Dance." Lythgoe said, I don’t know anyone who’s had her experience. I’ve been trying to get her since season one.”

• • •

 Michael Jackson's former dermatologist and the rumored biological father of Jackson's two oldest children isn't giving up in his attempt to influence the children's futures, says his attorney. Although Klein's attempt to have a say during the custody hearing Monday was tossed out, Klein's attorney says he will file legal papers on Klein's behalf next month.

• • •

John Hughes, whose '80s teen films launched the careers of Molly Ringwald, Matthew Broderick and Robert Downey Jr., among others, died unexpectedly of a heart attack while taking a walk in Manhattan Thursday morning. Hughes, 59, worked as a writer, producer and director on "The Breakfast Club," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Pretty in Pink," "Sixteen Candles," "Planes, Trains & Automobiles," "Uncle Buck," "Some Kind of Wonderful" and the "Vacation" and "Beethoven" series.

• • •

Miley Cyrus has been granted a temporary restraining order  against Mark McLeod, a fan who was arrested Tuesday in Georgia when he attempted to stalk her on the set of her latest movie. The order says McLeod, 53, "shall not harass, threaten, molest, contact or attempt to contact, or in any other manner interfere with Cyrus, any member of her family, her friends, and fellow employees." McLeod told police back in June that Cyrus was sending him secret messages through her television show and that the two were "great friends." In addition to other methods of contacting Cyrus, McLeod was specifically prohibited from accessing her Twitter page. Police searched his house and removed several items, including a computer.

• • •

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith suffered head, neck and shoulder injuries when he fell from the
stage while dancing at a South Dakota concert. Tyler joked about the fall as he was loaded into the helicopter to be taken to a hospital, a concert spokesman said.

• • •

Vanessa Hudgens' attorney is taking action against the web sites that are publishing a new batch of nude photos of her. TMZ.com, which was offered the photos but refused to buy them, says Hudgens' attorney says they may have been stolen from her computer and were possibly been taken when she was underage, making possession or publication of them illegal.

• • •

Rihanna is planning her prime time comeback with the help of a couple of guys named Jay -- Jay Leno and Jay-Z. In her first public performance since the pre-Grammy attack by then-boyfriend Chris Brown, Rihanna will join Kanye West and Jay-Z to perform the trio's new tune, "Run This Town" on the premier of Jay Leno's new prime time show Sept. 14.

• • •

Things continue to go not so well for Chris Brown. Wrigley, the chewing gum company, has terminated his contract to appear in the company's ads.

• • •

"Saturday Night Live" cast member Bill Hader and his wife Maggie Carey are expecting their first child. The baby will arrive at the end of September, and Hader warns that "everybody will have to understand when I'm really tired. Kidding! I'm actually handling it well."

-- Anne Neville
 

Morning Links: Jon & Kate to face single-parent challenges when show resumes

When "Jon & Kate Plus Eight" returns to TV Aug. 3, “You’re still going to see two parents that love their kids, but you’ll see them parenting separately," TLC General Manager and President Eileen O’Neill said at a Television Critics Association panel in Pasadena. “You’ll see Jon struggle in the kitchen trying to make pizza for his kids,” O'Neill said. "You’ll see what its like when Kate has to put a tent up for the first time for her kids, who love to camp in their backyard.” O'Neill didn't reveal whether Jon's dates -- including Kate Major and Hailey Glassman -- will appear on the show.

• • •

During his turn minding the kids, goofy Jon helped entertain the posted paparazzi by wearing one of Kate's sunhats as he walked around outside with his dog.

• • •

Meanwhile, a friend of Kate's says she is not moving to Rockville, Md., which would put her hours away from her kids on weeks when Jon has custody and is living in the family's Pennsylvania home. "Kate was having lunch there, and after spending a total of one hour in a restaurant that has condos for sale above it, a rumor began that somehow, suddenly, she was buying a condo there," the friend said. "She didn't even know there were apartments for sale there. It's totally false."

• • •

Michael Jackson's mother Katherine has been given full, permanent custody of her three grandchildren, in exchange for giving visitation rights to the older children's biological mother, Debbie Rowe. With help from her oldest daughter, Rebbie, Katherine has been taking care of the children in the family's Encino, Calif., compound.

• • •

In other Jackson news, the report on his autopsy, expected this week, has been delayed because law enforcement officials say further investigation is needed. The whereabouts of his apparently still unburied body are unknown, although a spokesman for Berry Gordy denies reports that he is temporarily in a crypt owned by Gordy. And Papa Joe Jackson said in an interview that Norwegian rapper Omer Bhatti is his grandson, the child of Michael Jackson, although he seemed more interested in the young man's talent than his DNA.

• • •

Tim McGraw says a fan he grabbed by the shirt, pulled on stage and then booted from his Paso Robles concert was "being abusive" to a woman in the crowd. "You don't treat a woman like that," McGraw said, after stopping his song and demanding that security remove the guy.

• • •

Conflicting career demands kept them apart and ultimately doomed the two-year relationship of reality show star Kim Kardashian and NFL running back Reggie Bush, friends say. "Reggie really wanted her in New Orleans when he was there playing but Kim is traveling more than ever," the source told People. "She has so much going on, it just wasn’t physically possible for her to be there the entire season. With their schedules, it wasn't realistic anymore."

• • •

The one-time girlfriend who is pregnant with Jude Law's fourth child has been identified as actress and model Samantha Burke. According to her online registry, Burke's child, a girl she will name Sophia, is due Oct. 6. Law has three children with ex-wife Sadie Frost and confirmed the pregnancy after, TMZ says, DNA tests confirmed that the baby is his. The registry also says that the nursery will have a safari theme, decorated in "dark browns, tans and creams & a splash of deep red."

• • •

Two police chiefs who were accused of plotting to steal information from the surrogate who was carrying twins for Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick will appear in in an Ohio court today. Martins Ferry Police Chief Barry Carpenter, Bridgeport Police Chief Chad Dojack, and Bruce Callarik, who is both the son of Bridgeport’s mayor and Dojack's father-in-law, were arrested. The men are suspected of plotting to enter the home of the surrogate and steal items, including photos and telephone messages by SJP, to sell to a tabloid. The surrogate gave birth to twin girls on June 23.

-- Anne Neville

'Grave Expectations' and preparing for your final farewell

In my story published today in the Spotlight section, the authors of "Grave Expectations: Planning the End Like There's No Tomorrow," write about the rituals people want (and don't want) for their final farewells.

Authors Sue Bailey and her friend Carmen Flowers, a former Buffalo resident, urge people to use their book as a starting point to decide everything from whether you'll be buried or cremated (and your ashes then scattered, entombed, put on the mantel or used to make a sea reef, a diamond, fireworks, or almost anything else you can imagine) to what food will be served at your funeral breakfast, lunch, brunch, dinner, cocktail party or barbecue.

While I was interviewing Bailey and Flowers at a local coffee shop, two women at the next table joined the conversation. Both were fascinated by the topic, and a few minutes into their chat with us, the older woman pulled out a card showing that she had donated her body to the U.B. medical school.

Have you made your final plans? If so, what are they? If not, is there something you know you do or don't want? Or do you think the whole idea of pre-planning is morbid or too depressing to consider? Do you wish your older relatives would tell you what they want, or do you prefer not to think about it?

While you consider your exit strategy, here are a few photos of celebrities' final resting places. Do you want a fountain like the one Al Jolson has?

Or what about a series of statues depicting yourself and your loved one? In this case, John Milburn Davis commissioned the tableaux after his wife, Sarah, died in 1930. His neighbors in Hiawatha, Kansas, criticized him for not pouring his money into a school or hospital, and when he died in 1947, few attended his funeral. But nearly a dozen statues depicting him and his wife draw thousands of tourists annually.

 

After all -- you can't take it with you!

-- Anne Neville