Life Muskogee Phoenix
What’s on TV NBC's popular summer reality contest, "America's Got Talent" (tonight, 7 p.m.), is back with a new judge joining the panel: Howie Mandel, who replaces David Hasselhoff. If you can get past how wildly annoying the judges can be, it's all harmless enough, but it's no "American Idol." But then this year, neither was American Idol. ABC's knock 'em and dunk 'em game show "Wipeout" (8 p.m.) returns with a new Blind Date twist. The show is pairing off 12 women with 12 men and making them do the "Wipeout" course as a blind date - on the theory, one takes it, that if attraction can survive being bounced off a huge rubber ball or whack-a-mole'd into the mud, it can survive anything. Most of the network's scripted shows have finished their seasonal runs, but not Fox's "Glee" (7:59 p.m.), which has a few more episodes to go. Tonight, the glee clubbers discover a traitor in their midst — while Quinn discovers her funky side. Note, by the way, that odd minute-early start time, which seems purpose-built to annoy viewers — though why Fox schedulers would have that purpose in mind escapes me.
Section B, Page 3
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A different kind of ‘Make a Wish’
Happy birthday Actor Richard Erdman is 85. Actor Andy Griffith is 84. Singer Pat Boone is 76. Actor-writer-director Peter Masterson is 76. Actor Morgan Freeman is 73. Actor Rene Auberjonois is 70. Opera singer Frederica von Stade is 65. Actor Brian Cox is 64. Rock musician Ronnie Wood is 63. Actor Jonathan Pryce is 63. Actor Powers Boothe is 62. Actress Gemma Craven is 60. Blues-rock musician Tom Principato is 58. Country singer Ronnie Dunn (Brooks and Dunn) is 57. Actress Lisa Hartman Black is 54. Singer-musician Alan Wilder is 51. Rock musician Simon Gallup (The Cure) is 50. Country musician Richard Comeaux (River Road) is 49. Actor-comedian Mark Curry is 49. Actor-singer Jason Donovan is 42. Actress Teri Polo is 41. Basketball player-turnedcoach Tony Bennett is 41. Model-actress Heidi Klum is 37. Singer Alanis Morissette is 36. TV personality Damien Fahey is 30. Pop singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile is 29. Tennis player Justine Henin is 28. Actor Taylor Handley is 26.
Slice of life
AP
Josephine Mastroianni, right, receives a piano lesson from Jack Tyrrell in Waterbury, Conn. A growing number of senior citizens nationwide are getting their wishes granted by groups in the spirit of the Make-A-Wish Foundation for sick children. The groups, often run by volunteers, are granting wishes that range from simple things like piano lessons to flights in war-era bomber planes.
Grass-roots group helps seniors fulfill their dreams WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — Josephine Mastroianni has played piano by ear since she was 7 but never had formal training until a charitable group learned of her wish and made it happen. Now 86 and taking weekly piano lessons, the Waterbury woman is among a growing number of senior citizens nationwide getting their wishes granted by grassroots groups inspired by the Make-A-Wish Foundation for sick children. While the organizers are careful not to call them “last” wishes, they’re often the kind of activities the seniors can’t arrange themselves or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, like meeting a favorite celebrity or touring their childhood home. Mastroianni says she never would have thought to take piano lessons at her Waterbury nursing home and was shocked when Seniors Have Dreams Too, a nonprofit based in Wallingford, set up the free
weekly sessions. Mastroianni’s goal is to play “I Did It My Way” for her fellow residents, many of whom gather in their wheelchairs to watch her lessons. A number of the wishgranting groups, including Seniors Have Dreams Too, are run by volunteers who pay for the expenses with donations and focus mainly on nursing home residents or homebound seniors. “People need something to look forward to, especially at an older age,” said Sally Smith, who founded Seniors Have Dreams Too in 2007 and is a recreation director at Cheshire House, Mastroianni’s nursing home. “I can’t imagine being older, being alert and oriented, and yet feeling that there’s something I wanted to do and couldn’t or that there’s nothing to look forward to,” Smith said. “That would be just heartbreaking.” The Seniors Have Dreams Too group has counterparts in several
other states. They include the Indianapolisbased Never Too Late group, the Forever Young Senior Wish Organization of Collierville, Tenn., and Second Wind Dreams of Marietta, Ga. One of the largest such groups, the Twilight Wish Foundation, has granted about 1,300 wishes in 35 states since it was founded in 2003. It has chapters in Arizona, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, New Jersey, Georgia, Washington and Idaho. “There have been some very poignant wishes, such as people who want to go to family reunions or see a family member one more time,” said Cassy Forkin, the group’s founder and executive director. Its wish recipients must be at least 68 and unable to make the wish come true for themselves because of their low incomes or the complexity of the wish. “People sometimes ask me, ‘Does the person have to be terminally ill to get a wish?’ and I say
no because we’re all going to die someday,” she said. Twilight Wish divides the dreams into two categories: simple needs such as replacing a broken appliance or getting new dentures, and “living life to the fullest” wishes, which have included riding in a fighter plane and meeting a favorite baseball player. Seniors Have Dreams Too has limited its criteria a bit more for cost and safety reasons, focusing on quality-of-life wishes. They’ve included a surprise tuneup for a blind man’s guitar, a champagne reception and art show for a woman who wanted to display her paintings and a special delivery of New York Yankees gear for a dying fan whose husband’s biggest wish was to see her smile again. “They really don’t ask specifically for their own wish,” Smith said. “We usually learn what it is by listening to them mention something or say, ‘I always wished that
...’ or hearing from someone else about what they’d really like.” For Mastroianni, piano lessons were out of the question when she was a child with seven siblings, and the obligations of family and working life pushed the dream to the back burner in later years. She learned to plinkplunk her way through her father’s favorite Italian songs when she was young, then developed a right-hand-only style that sufficed for decades on the Casio keyboard her husband gave her as a gift. “I thought about lessons all of my life, but you know, it just never came about,” she said on a recent morning as she practiced on the nursing home’s baby grand with teacher Jack Tyrrell, who volunteered his time for the Seniors Have Dreams Too group’s request. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be too old to learn, but I think I’m doing OK,” she said. “I’m really getting it.”
Director quits ‘Hobbit’ film over production delay
Karrie Roush caught this catfish in her parents’ pond, located in Fort Gibson. Photo taken by her mother, Susan Amerson of Fort Gibson.
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro said Monday that production delays have forced him to quit the planned film version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” a two-part prequel to New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson’s blockbuster trilogy “Lord of the Rings.” “In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life,” del Toro told a “Lord of the Rings” fan website. “After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures,” he said,
noting the film still hadn’t been given the green light by MGM, the struggling Hollywood studio. Matt Dravitzki, a spokesman for “Hobbit” producer and “Lord Of The Rings” director Jackson, said del Toro would not be speaking to reporters Monday. The announcement by del Toro reflected Jackson and del Toro’s “full sentiments at this time,” he said. Del Toro would continue to co-write the screenplays with Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens. Jackson reached a deal in late 2007 to make two films of “The Hobbit.” He is serving as joint executive producer with Walsh. Last week, del Toro,
who directed “Pan’s Labyrinth,” ‘’Blade II” and the two “Hellboy” movies, told journalists the “Hobbit” films, which have been plagued by delays, still hadn’t been given the go ahead. “There cannot be any start dates until the MGM situation gets resolved,” del Toro said. “They do hold a considerable portion of the rights.” Reports emerged late last year that MGM was teetering on bankruptcy and del Toro said those issues had caught the “Hobbit” films in a “tangled negotiation.” “We have designed all the creatures. We’ve designed the sets and the wardrobe. We have done animatics and planned battles sequences ... We are very, very prepared
for when it is finally triggered,” he said. Jackson told www.TheOneRing.net: “We feel very sad to see Guillermo leave The Hobbit, but he has kept us fully in the loop and we understand how the protracted development time on these two films, due to reasons beyond anyone’s control, has compromised his commitment to other long term projects. “The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years. Guillermo is one of the most remarkable creative spirits I’ve ever encountered and it has been a complete joy working with him.”
He would discuss options for a new director with MGM this week, Jackson told the website. “We do not anticipate any delay or disruption to ongoing preproduction work,” he said. Last month, Jackson dismissed rumors that the “Hobbit” movies have been delayed by production problems, insisting the project was still in its early stages. He told Moviefone.com, “Well, it’s not really been delayed, because we’ve never announced the date. I mean it’s sort of interesting because the studio has never greenlit The Hobbit, so therefore The Hobbit has never been officially announced as a ‘go’ project, nor have we ever announced a date.”