rochell.d..thomas

For Danny Bonaduce, It Takes a Child Star to Know One

If you’re the parent of a budding child star, who do you call to learn how not to screw up your kid? Someone whose parents pulled a doozy on him. Enter Danny Bonaduce, host of I Know My Kid's a Star (Thursdays at 10 pm/ET), VH1’s new reality competition featuring 10 parent-child pairs fighting for $50,000, a management contract and their ticket to stardom. We caught up with Bonaduce for the inside scoop. TVGuide.com: You once said, "Being a child star is great. It's being a former child star that sucks." Why host a show that helps usher kids into that field?Danny Bonaduce: Being an ex-child star is not a given. It’s not an automatic that you go from teen star to rehab. Just because Todd Bridges and I are idiots does not condemn an entire industry.TVGuide.com: As host and

Thu, Mar 27, 2008

For Danny Bonaduce, It Takes a Child Star to Know One

Raisin Stars Breathe New Life into a Classic

"Hello, my wife," jokes Sean Combs, welcoming the beautiful Audra McDonald to the executive floor of his Sean John and Bad Boy headquarters in New York City. They haven't seen each other in about a year, since filming wrapped on A Raisin in the Sun, the ABC TV-movie version of Lorraine Hansberry's classic tale of domestic strife during the fledgling civil rights era (Feb. 25 at 8 pm/ET). The film reunites the cast of the hit 2004 Broadway revival — Combs, McDonald, Phylicia Rashad and Sanaa Lathan — as a family nearly torn apart over how to spend a $10,000 insurance check. Combs' Walter Lee Jr. wants to open a liquor store, while McDonald's Ruth and Rashad's Lena want a new home  —  that happens to be in a white neighborhood. TV Guide: In today's

Fri, Feb 22, 2008

Raisin Stars Breathe New Life into a Classic

Blair Underwood on Money, Marriage and Mickey Mouse

Dirty Sexy Money, The New Adventures of Old Christine, In Treatment... pretty soon it will seem like everywhere you look, there's Blair Underwood. Not that we'll mind. The hardest-working man in TV dishes about his three cool roles, marriage and being hot for teacher. TVGuide.com: Which real-life billionaire is your Dirty Sexy Money character, Simon Elder, most like?Blair Underwood: I see him as a chocolate Richard Branson because of his incredible vision for the future and the fact that he's not intimidated by anybody. He has more money than the Darlings put together. He's very comfortable in his own skin. He's not bound by America's notion of what he should be because of h

Mon, Jan 28, 2008

Blair Underwood on Money, Marriage and Mickey Mouse

Amazing Race's Final 3: The Last Pit Stop

A few days after America saw them finish first on The Amazing Race 12, $1 million winners TK and Rachel still had no clue when they would get their cashable grand prize check, whether taxes would be taken out of said check first or if it would be divided equally in two. They knew nothing. And much like they were last July when they raced 30,000 sweltering miles through eight countries and four continents, the Zen masters didn't really seem to care. "We got the big [mock] check," said Rachel who recently quit her job at her parents' flower shop. "But the real check, we don't know." But, TK added, "We should be hearing something soon." TVGuide.com: You were pretty mellow until the very end when you two actually seemed to get agitated in the last cab ride.TK: Well, we got really lost. It wasn't particularly portrayed that way, but our cab driver didn't really know where he was going. We got turned

Fri, Jan 25, 2008

Amazing Race's Final 3: The Last Pit Stop

The Amazing Race: Are Nate and Jen Still Together?

When they weren't fighting each other, Jennifer Parker and Nathan Hagstrom fought hard to stay in The Amazing Race 12. But, alas, luck would not have it and Taiwan was their last stop. They were eliminated after they took a local resident's advice that taking a subway would be faster than dealing with traffic in a cab. That decision dropped like a nail in the coffin of their nearly three-year relationship. Why? Read on. (Amazing Race's season finale airs Sunday at 8 pm/ET on CBS.) TVGuide.com: Ousted on your birthday. Ouch. Did you get to celebrate in any way?Jen: Once we got back we went out with family. But being in Taipei, Taiwan, that was enough for me. TVGuide.com: Speaking of Taipei, you two know Taiwan and Thailand are two differ

Fri, Jan 18, 2008

The Amazing Race: Are Nate and Jen Still Together?

The Amazing Race's Dating Goths Stay Upbeat to the End

As Amazing Race fans know, no team was eliminated this week. But to tide you over till the next episode, here's an interview with America's favorite ousted racing Goths, Kynt Cothron and Vyxsin Fiala. Alternately called the Pinks, Team Goth or "the Freaks," the heavily eyelinered pair gave us a bright glimpse of the Goth side — until they got lost in Italy and were forced to face a new race penalty (the speed bump) in India. But like the "Goth Energizer Bunnies" they like to call themselves, Kynt and Vyxsin kept going and going. And just when it looked like they might pull off one mother of a comeback, they U-turned the wrong team, then forgot to grab all their gas-delivery receipts. Like Kynt would say, "Oh my Goth," that sucks. TVGuide.com: You two rocked the yoga speed bump but then you blew the U-turn. How the heck did you pick Gramps and Nick over Nate and Jen?Kynt: It seems so e

Thu, Jan 10, 2008

The Amazing Race's Dating Goths Stay Upbeat to the End

Amazing Racers' Forbidden Ticket Landed Them Off the Map

Brother and sister engineers Azaria and Hendekea Azene seemed like a final-three team for sure. They won three of the first five legs and often operated like a well-oiled genetically linked machine. But they showed up at an airport gate with a forbidden business-class ticket and it was back to start. Just goes to show you can never get too comfortable on The Amazing Race 12 (Sundays, 8 pm/ET, CBS). TVGuide.com: Once more for the record: Please explain how you ended up with the wrong type of ticket to Dubrovnik.Hendekea: Luck. The ticketing agent ended up giving us business class even though Azaria said economy. TVGuide.com: Did you do any "Hey it wasn't our fault" begging that they didn't show on camera? Azaria: No. I don't even know if we remembered that we'd said economy.Hendekea: Everything happened so quickly.Azaria: We got our ticket

Thu, Dec 13, 2007

Amazing Racers' Forbidden Ticket Landed Them Off the Map

A Blonde Farewell on The Amazing Race

Their bickering and poor navigation skills may have gotten Shana Wall and Jennifer McCall (aka the Blondes, Part 2) ousted from The Amazing Race 12, but it's their videotaped words that haunt them. On the road, they were full of zippy one-liners and quips they found funny in the moment. But as they've played back in prime time, they've painted the women in an unflattering light, teaching us all a lesson: Be careful what you say when you're on The Race, as your words may be used against you. TVGuide.com: What do you do in your daily lives that allowed you to take time off for the Race?Jennifer McCall: Neither of us could just take off. I'm a legal assistant. I had to do six weeks worth of work to cover myself so I wouldn't lose my job. I had to work almost 18-hour days to make up for the time that I was gone. And Shana made big sacrifices.Shan

Thu, Dec 6, 2007

Amazing Race Castoffs Give Advice to Future Competitors

In the fourth leg of The Amazing Race 12 (Sundays, 8 pm/ET, CBS), the powers-that-be replaced the dreaded Yield with a new surprise — the U-Turn, a tool that allows one team to send a trailing team back to do the other half of the detour they intentionally chose not to do. It's evil. And when the Blondes used it, actors Lorena Segura and Jason Widener became its first victims even though they technically did nothing wrong. Talk about bad luck. TVGuide.com: What did you think when you saw last night's episode and realized that the Blondes had a case of mistaken identity when they activated your U-Turn?Jason: It was just bad luck. [Laughs] They saw T.K. and Rachel but they thought it was Lorena and I. If they'd have known that was T.K. and Rachel…Lorena: … they wouldn't have used it.

Thu, Nov 29, 2007

Amazing Race Castoffs Give Advice to Future Competitors

Amazing Race Clergy Couple Are No "Wimps for Jesus"

They've survived cancer, the muddy hills of Ireland and a stubborn donkey, but it was a mild form of hunting that did the lesbian California couple in. Episcopalian minister Kate Lewis and deacon Pat Hendrickson became the second team eliminated from The Amazing Race 12 when they lost precious time searching for a marked two-wheeler in a bike garage in Amsterdam. TVGuide.com: Ah, the married ministers. You two have been together 10 years?Kate Lewis: YesPat Hendrickson: I just wanted to say that we actually refer to ourselves as partnered clergy as opposed to married ministers. TVGuide.com: Why partnered? Is it because gay marriage is not yet legal in most states?Pat: We have received the blessing of our union in the church. But that's different from [being] married legally. Which we cannot be in California. Kate: And we want to make the political point that we're still not married.

Thu, Nov 15, 2007

Amazing Race Clergy Couple Are No "Wimps for Jesus"

How Girlfriends' Golden Brooks Brought Tonight's Episode to Life

Strike, strike, strike. No matter how hard we try to carry on like it's business as usual, we can't. Normally, this article would start with something like, "This is a big week for Golden Brooks, when 'Snap Back,' the Girlfriends episode she wrote about how Maya secretly deals with her miscarriage, finally airs." But when we called the actress to talk about her career mile-marker, we ended up discussing the more pressing show business at hand. The CW's Girlfriends airs Mondays at 9 pm/ET. TVGuide.com: Am I calling you in your trailer at work?Golden Brooks: Yes. This is my last day. Thanks to the strike. TVGuide.com: Does Girlfriends have enough episodes to last through February sweeps?Brooks: You mean in terms of what we shot? I think so, but it all depends on what they've ed

Mon, Nov 12, 2007

How Girlfriends' Golden Brooks Brought Tonight's Episode to Life

The Amazing Race's First to Go Are Karma Victims

Karma's a, well, you-know-what. And when best friends Ari and Staella stole another team's cab at an airport in Ireland, the god of providence waited patiently and then, just when it looked like the two Californians were winning, pimp-slapped them with a vengeance, making them the first team ousted from The Amazing Race (Sundays at 8 pm/ET, CBS). Ouch! TVGuide.com: You're the first out. Sucks to be you. After you left Phil on the mat, who cried the longest?Staella: Me.Ari: I didn't really have very much sad emotion until after the cameras went off, and then I cried for a little bit, and then I just kept walking. But Staella was pretty bummed.Staella: I just, you know... nobody wants to be the first one to go. It's like you get a little taste of it, and then it's yanked from you. And it was just something so completely out of our hands. We were both thankful that at lea

Thu, Nov 8, 2007

The Amazing Race's First to Go Are Karma Victims

Everybody Loves Chris' Guest-star Rock

On tonight's Everybody Hates Chris (8 pm/ET, CW), Chris Rock, playing a guidance counselor, asks his student, "What do you want to do when you get out of school?" Not an unfair question, right? But if you can't hear the vague menace behind the concern, then you've never been an unfocused, troubled kid. And you've definitely never been Chris Rock. The comic turned sitcom producer, whose rocky school days inspired the semiautobiographical Everybody Hates Chris, makes his first-ever guest appearance on the CW series. Rock is Mr. Abbott, the counselor assigned to Chris (Tyler James Williams) after the kid all but blows his eighth-grade exams. Actually, Mr. Abbott is more of a misguidance counselor. Jaded, disinterested and a bit prejudice

Mon, Oct 1, 2007

The Amazing "Romber" Q&A You Just Have to Read!

The southernmost tip of Argentina — aka the end of the world — marked the end of the road for professional reality stars Rob and Amber Mariano. The couple — who met on Survivor: All-Stars, were engaged on the Amazing Race 7 and married on yet another reality show — seemed to be the team to beat on CBS' The Amazing Race: All-Stars, winning each of the first three legs. But following a fluke series of unfortunate events (one of which involved the spelling of "Philippines"), they lost their lead and came in last. TV Guide spoke to the pair the day after their eliminat

Fri, Mar 16, 2007

The Amazing "Romber" Q&A You Just Have to Read!

TV Guide Presents Its Reality TV Awards!

Who's the first date from hell? Who's utterly desperate? Who is this year's comeback kid? And who have we seen just a bit (OK, way) too much of? TV Guide calls 'em like we see 'em in our wacky Reality TV Awards. Did your favorites make the cut? Roughest RidersThe men of American Chopper (Thursdays at 7 pm/ET, TLC) Mikey, Paul Senior and Junior build custom bikes — choppers — for stars, movies, Web sites and basically anyone who'll pay. Sometimes they're cool. Sometimes they're not (we still don't get Junior's green dream Web bike). But it's fun watching them fight their way through the process. Fiercest BacheloretteTiffany Pollard of

Mon, Mar 5, 2007

TV Guide Presents Its Reality TV Awards!

Girlfriends' William: Will the Fourth Time Be the Charm?

Poor William Dent. For the last six years, Girlfriends' main man has been chronically unlucky in love. First, his cop fiancée Yvonne left him at the altar. Then his gold-digging girlfriend Monica ditched him in Italy. And finally, nurse's aide Donna dumped him because she thought he was in love with his best friend, Joan. (She was right, though the Joan thing didn't work out.) But that's all water under love's bridge. On Feb. 19, the sole male player on Team Girlfriends celebrates his overdue wedding to Monica, the ex his friends can't stand. "It's about time," jokes Reggie Hayes, who plays the lovestruck lawyer. "A guy like William would want to get married. Probably to someone just like Monica." William and "Mon-Mon" (as Joan calls her) are a perfectly matched odd pair. He's a corny mama's boy who joins Joan in way-over-t

Mon, Feb 19, 2007

Girlfriends' William: Will the Fourth Time Be the Charm?

Beauty and the Geek Plays Cupid! Plus: Pop-quiz Preview

It looks like Beauty and the Geek has done it again. When Nate Dern and Jennylee Berns kiss during this Wednesday's episode (8 pm/ET, on the CW), it won't be just for showmance. Though they're rivals for the $250,000 prize, the pair have actually fallen in not love or lust but "extreme, intense like." "A lot of the girls just saw our glasses and our hair. And tried to change us," says Dern. "But Jennylee really listened. She accepted my style and me." The Dern-Berns coupling is the third match made in the Beauty and the Geek mansion. The first season's odd couple Erika Ramsey and Brad Hooker dated for a few months before breaking up. And three months after Season 2 wrapped, "geek" Wes Wilson moved to L.A. to live with his "beauty" Cher Tenbush.

Tue, Jan 30, 2007

Beauty and the Geek Plays Cupid! Plus: Pop-quiz Preview

Men in Trees' John Amos Recalls the Good Times He's Had

Everybody knows the dad from Good Times. But did you know that the actor who plays him actually got his big break on the Mary Tyler Moore Show? Well, we're here to remind you, as we walk with John Amos down memory lane past all the roles that have lead him to his current gig, the lovable pilot Buzz on ABC's Men in Trees (Thursdays at 10 pm/ET). Meteorologist Gordy Howard on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, 1970-1973"When [producers] told me they were going to bring me on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, I felt

Thu, Jan 18, 2007

Men in Trees' John Amos Recalls the Good Times He's Had

How They Did It: The Biggest Loser's Best Share Their Secrets

Here we turn to the newly minted diet experts from Season 3 of NBC's The Biggest Loser for free advice. And why not? After all, under the guidance of the show's ace team of doctors and physical trainers, 19 of this season's contestants lost more than 100 pounds in eight months — without surgery. Even more impressive, 11 of those people did it at home with no help from supertrainers Bob Harper and Kim Lyons, so they must be doing something right. If dropping a few is on your list of New Year's resolutions, consider the following: Eat five or six small meals a day / Amy Hildreth

Tue, Jan 2, 2007

How They Did It: The Biggest Loser's Best Share Their Secrets

From Amazing Race to The View: Team Kentucky Recalls Their Wild Ride

You have to know that you're a much-loved Amazing Race team when a show on a competing network hooks you up with lavish gifts. That's exactly what happened to Kentucky coalminer David Conley and his wife, Mary, this Tuesday when the CBS reality show cast-offs visited ABC's The View. "I can't even tell you how much I love them," Rosie O'Donnell told the studio audience before showering the couple with a new computer, a car, three family vacations and a house, among other things. TVGuide.com talked to Team Kentucky before their visit to that giftathon, er, The View. Here's what they had to say. TVGuide.com: You two just might be the most popular team this season. Why do you think America loves you?

Fri, Nov 10, 2006

From Amazing Race to The View: Team Kentucky Recalls Their Wild Ride

Amazing Race Cheerleaders Are D! O! N! E!

Kellie and Jamie had hoped to be the first female team to win The Amazing Race. They wanted to joke with Phil [Keoghan], see Madagascar or Vietnam, and maybe spend some of the cash they slyly made off their looks during the first leg (more on that later). But, as is always the case in a globe-trotting contest, you don't always get what you want. And, after they made a wrong turn during the second leg's detour, the cheerleaders from South Carolina became the third team eliminated from The Amazing Race 10. TV Guide.com: How many vaccination shots did you have to get before you started the race?Kellie: Oh gosh, it was a lot.Jamie: Seven or eight. TVGuide.com: What was the weirdest?Kellie: We had

Fri, Sep 29, 2006

Amazing Race Cheerleaders Are D! O! N! E!

From Nicole Richie, The Simple Truth

Breakup or no breakup, the reality show must go on. Which is why former best friends Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton can be seen trading places with adventurous housewives on E!'s The Simple Life: 'Til Death Do Us Part (new episodes air Sunday at 10 pm/ET). Here, Richie sets the record straight. TV Guide: So far this season you've asked a mom if you could give her child sleeping pills, offered to have sex with a pregnant woman's husband and got a good Muslim kid to go bad. Why are you such a troublemaker?Nicole Richie: It's a character. Paris plays the bombshell who doesn't know a lot of things, and I play the jokester. That's what the show's about. But it's Sea

Tue, Jul 11, 2006