Inspiration Faith & Prayer Health & Wellness Entertainment Love & Family
Newsletters Special Offers

Idol Chatter

I read with sadness about the death of Kirby Puckett, the charismatic former star of the Minnesota Twins baseball team. Dead after suffering a stroke Sunday, he was only 45. Hard working, charming, exhilarating, dedicated, Puckett was one of my favorite players during his too-brief, but highly successful, major league career. Like so many others,…

With homes in London, the British countryside, and Los Angeles, why would Madonna be interested in a “shack” by the Sea of Galilee? According to the The Times of London and other news organizations, the Material Girl’s representatives have been “cold calling home-owners in the picturesque mountain retreat of Rosh Pina and offering to pay…

Apparently, early 20th century prostitutes are the inspiration for women’s fashion this coming spring. The season’s whiter-than-white baby-doll dresses making their way down runways in Europe and the U.S.–from houses like Chloe and Prada–are inspired by a book of photos, “Bellocq: Photographs From Storyville, the Red Light District of New Orleans,” according to The New…

Who needs to see Bruce Willis play a down-on-his-luck, tough-but-tender cop… again? That was my thought when I allowed a friend to drag me to Willis’s latest action-adventure flick, “16 Blocks.” But while “16 Blocks” has all of the typical action thriller elements–car crashes, explosions, fight scenes–it also surprised me by actually taking time to…

I can’t even remember the last time “Oscar” and I actually agreed on the winner for Best Picture. Last night, however, the Academy decided to listen to me, as well as many other critics, and they named “Crash” the best of 2005, an upset win that I predicted a few weeks ago. (But as my…

Last night’s Oscar ceremony showcased the best and the worst of Oscar’s tradition of longwinded acceptance speeches. The one moment of last night’s Oscar ceremony that I was truly dreading was 81-year-old director Robert Altman’s acceptance speech for his honorary lifetime achievement Oscar. Altman is famous among Hollywood insiders and die-hard indie film buffs like…

I usually like what fellow blogger Kris Rasmussen has to say, but had to disagree with her praise of Robert Altman and pan of George Clooney when it came to Oscar speeches. She called Clooney’s “the worst, most self-aggrandizing speech of the evening” and gave props to Altman for “utter(ing) some of the most eloquent…

If most of you are anything like my roommates and me, you were too busy staring at Dolly Parton’s crazy outfit and impossible breast-to-waist ratio to pay attention to what she was singing at the Oscars last night. But Dolly was there to perform “Travelin’ Thru,” her song from the “Transamerica” soundtrack, which was nominated…

Though I enjoy watching the Oscars every year, this time the event became more of an opportunity to watch Jon Stewart than to view an awards show. In fact, at one point yesterday I even asked a friend, “When does Jon Stewart come on tonight?” And though Stewart was not at his “Daily Show” best…

As the cameras intrude further and further upon what used to be private Oscars night moments, we the audience get to witness fewer and fewer (truly) authentic moments. It’s an increasingly scripted evening, which is why some of my favorite moments of the evening were the unrehearsed ones, including: • Hillary Swank jogging in her…
archives most recent
search this blog
More from Beliefnet and our partners