Almost every week, I make a comment that questions Kathy's D-list status. That's because Kathy frequently does things that border on A-list like co-hosting CNN's New Year's Eve special with Anderson Cooper, selling out Madison Square Garden or dating billionaire Steve Wozniak. But this week, Kathy proved me wrong again, further solidifying her insistence that she's D-list by performing via P.A. system on an airplane. And not just any plane. We're talkin' a 14-hour "Pink Flight" from San Francisco headed to Sydney, Australia, for the Gay Mardi Gras and filled to the rim with drag queens, gay guys and gay-friendly gals. It wouldn't be so D-list if she was just flying to Australia to perform at Gay Mardi Gras a la divas Cyndi Lauper and Olivia Newton-John, or be the "Chief of the Parade" like Margaret Cho. No. This is Kathy Griffin we're referring to. Kathy: "Dane Cook doesn't have to do this." Kathy had to stand at the gate and tear each passenger's ticket after greeting them. After t...
read more
Crosby Loggins, Jesse Blaze Snider and Chloe Lattanzi courtesy MTV
This season MTV pitted the sons and daughters of major music stars from MC Hammer to Eagles drummer Joe Walsh against each other in the freshman series Rock the Cradle On Thursdays finale the final three contestants will go mic-to-mic for the big win In the end the top threes come down to Chloe Lattazni Olivia Newton-Johns daughter Crosby Loggins Kenny Loggins son and Jesse Blaze Snider son of Twister Sisters Dee Snider We caught up with the rising rockers to get the scoop on their style why they wanted to Rock and moreTVGuidecom How would you describe your own styleChloe Alternative pop rock with industrial beats with a theatrical influence Its hard to put creativity into a boxCrosby Acoustic singer-songwriter My music is more band-oriented [than my dads] Im more interested in creating long sections of interesting music Jesse Blaze A cross between punk rock and hard rock and roll I try to be as heavy as I can be while still being c
read more
Caroline Rhea, Beth Grant and Ann Walker in Sordid Lives: The Series courtesy Logo
What could be bad about any project that puts '80s icons Rue McClanahan and Olivia Newton-John together in one scene? Add the outrageous Leslie Jordan and Caroline Rhea, toss in Bonnie Bedelia and veteran actress Beth Grant (No Country for Old Men) and you have Logo's Sordid Lives: The Series. Based on the 1996 play and 2000 film of the same name, the half-hour show chronicles a "dysfunctional family" in Winters, Texas. And yes, there's the Logo-obligatory handsome young wannabe actor (newcomer Jason Dottley) who's struggling to come out to his Republican Baptist family. Look for Sordid Lives to premiere on Wednesday, July 23, at 10 pm/ET. — Ileane Rudolph
read more
Word of the day: XcentricAnimal of the day: PantherJob title of the day: actor/model/author/singer-songwriter/rapper/composer/producer (did I get them all?)The “most exciting entertainer on planet earth” opened the show and let’s just say, David Copperfield he is not. Martik Manoukin, aka Xcentric, was perhaps the strangest of the lot in L.A. The sound effects as he tossed off his glasses, vest and shirt were probably the best part of his show. But wait, there was the panther crawl up to the judges table – priceless. Oh, yes, and there was the song he obviously wrote. And then there was the purring, or was it growling? Who could tell? Olivia Newton-John, aka Sandy from Grease and the singer behind such hits as “Physical” and "Xanadu" was around to learn firsthand what an American Idol audition is really like. I think she may have been a bit shocked. She looks pretty darned fantastic for a woman of a certain age. She only said nice things. Frankly, I thi...
read more
Grease: You're the One That I Want
If you think Broadway and reality TV go together like "rama-lama-lama, ke-ding-a-de-ding-a-dong," NBC's Grease: You're the One That I Want, which debuts Sunday, Jan. 7, at 8 pm/ET, will have you singing and dancing in the bleachers. Produced by the folks behind Dancing with the Stars, the series stages an intense search for two unknowns to front an in-the-works Broadway production of Grease, playing bad boy Danny Zuko and virginal Sandy Dumbrowski (played in the film by Olivia Newton-John, who will be a guest on the first two episodes). A trio of judges — theater producer David Ian, Grease coauthor Jim Jacobs and two-time Tony winner Kathleen M
read more
Olivia Newton-John has agreed to appear on the first two episodes of NBC's Grease: You're the One That I Want, NBC's new reality contest premiering Sunday at 8 pm/ET. That allows her another 90-some hours to shimmy back into those hot pants.
read more
... and to which nobody should be returning. Nonetheless, a stage adaptation of the 1980 movie musical Xanadu is, for better or worse, bound for Off-Broadway, roller-skates and all. Christopher Ashley (All Shook Up) will direct what I can only assume will be the most camptacular show to debut in spring 2007. Now then, is it too early to start campaigning for Kylie Minogue to step in for her fellow Aussie Olivia Newton-John in the lead?
read more
Clockwise from top left: David Faustino, Christina Applegate, Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, Married... with Children
Question: The other night my boyfriend and I were talking about that housewife who used to complain about Married... with Children and other shows she thought were dirty. As we remembered it, she got a lot of attention and made a lot of progress. But TV isn't any cleaner today. Did she actually do anything? Thank you.
Answer: Looking back, what suburban Detroit housewife Terry Rakolta actually did was create much ado about nothing, which was still a pretty notable effort for a total outsider who started by banging out letters from home. For those who don't remember the dust-up, during the 1988-89 season, mother Rakolta turned on her TV to find MWC's Peg Bundy (Katey Sagal) in search of a new bra. The episode, typical for the raunchy, standards-torturing show, was called "Her Cups Runneth Over" and its content apparen
read more
While Aussie songstress Olivia Newton-John clings to the hope that her longtime beau, Patrick Kim McDermott — who has been missing since June 30, when he vanished during an overnight fishing trip in California — is alive, authorities are looking into the possibility that the photographer staged his disappearance/apparent death. "Is there any suggestion he may have run away as opposed to have gone overboard? That's something we're still looking at," says a Coast Guard investigator.
read more
Mercifully, Sean Hayes and Debra Messing don't sing on Will & Grace: Let the Music Out!, the NBC sitcom's soundtrack, on sale Sept. 14. They wisely left that task to Elton John, Cher, J. Lo and their more musically inclined costars. Megan Mullally sings a duet with Carly Simon and Eric McCormack croons a bittersweet ballad, "Living with Grace," with Barry Manilow on piano. Here, Manilow answers TV Guide Online's questions about the CD — and pretty much anything else we could think of to keep him on the phone. If you need an incentive to read on, here's three words: Olivia Newton-John!
TV Guide Online: How did you choose your contribution to the Will & Grace CD?Barry Manilow: I had the idea to sing "Be a Clown" along with the show's entire cast. I thought it was a home run and they hated it. [Laughs] Then, Eric e-mailed me some beautiful lyrics he'd written.
read more
