Featured Stories
“Hand of God” “Warlords of Ivory” “Hotel Impossible” “Five Came Back”
Profiled athlete Joel Stave
CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHTS
Peter Mooney Edward Burns Kelli Williams Danielle Panabaker Tyler Florence
WHAT'S FOR DINNER
The story
VMAs could be a Swift show
Taylor Swift is the mostnominated artist in the 2015 MTV Video folio Music Awards, Sunday on MTV.
Featuring: Vivian Howard
JAY Bobbin's movies to watch
And so much more!
Connect to these shows within this magazine!
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CONTENTS
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Featured
Stories
2015 MTV Video Music Awards Sunday on MTV. p3
“Hotel Impossible” Season 6 on Travel Channel. p 16
“Five Came Back”
A series of World War II films Tuesdays in September on TCM. p 17
“Hand of God”
Premiering Friday on Amazon. pp 12-13
“Warlords of Ivory” Premieres Sunday on National Geographic Channel. pp 14-15
SIX
Celebrity potlights Peter Mooney
of ‘Rookie Blue’ Thursday on ABC.
Vivian Howard
Pictured: A great vintage shot of RON PERLMAN at his home in Los Angeles, in 1981.
of ‘A Chef’s Life’ on PBS. p7
p4
Edward Burns of ‘Public Morals’ Tuesday on TNT.
Danielle Panabaker Checking in. p8
p5
Kelli Williams
of ‘Ties That Bind’ Wednesday on UP. p6
Tyler Florence of “The Great Food Truck Race” on Food Network. p9
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Profiled Athlete Joel Stave pp 18-19
Editor's choice
STORY
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Cyrus hosts, Swift possibly rules at
MTV Video Music Awards By Jay Bobbin Miley Cyrus or Taylor Swift: Who will be more talked about after the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards? It’s a valid question, for reasons as different as the two music stars themselves. In announcing she would host the annual event – being televised from Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater on Sunday, Aug. 30, by the cable music channel (which admittedly has significantly less music in its era of such series as “Teen Wolf” and “Scream”) – Cyrus knowingly said, in signs posted in Instagram, “MTV won’t let me perform, so I’m hosting this year’s VMAs.” The former “Hannah Montana” has a history with the VMAs that arguably reached its peak (to date, anyway) with her 2013 gyrating to Robin Thicke’s performance of “Blurred Lines” that immediately made “twerk” one of the best-known verbs in the English idiom. And last year, she sent a young man to the stage to collect her award for video of the year and make a speech on behalf of homeless youths. Swift goes into this year’s VMAs with the most nominations of any artist, enjoying nine bids for her album “1989” and its tunes. Her run with the ceremony has been calmer, but still talkable on several occasions; in 2009, an elaborately choreographed, live performance followed her through a good chunk of Manhattan (including a subway car) and onto the Radio City Music Hall stage. And, of course, there was that year’s situation not of Swift’s own doing – other than her winning one of the “Moonman” trophies – that kept her in headlines for days afterward. Kanye West suddenly took the stage during her acceptance speech for best female video (for “You Belong With Me”) to advocate for Beyoncé, who he felt should have won the honor instead for “Single Ladies.” As for “1989,” whose hits include the VMA-nominated “Bad Blood” and “Blank Space,” Swift told this writer upon its release that she knew what she wanted it to be: “I definitely make an album for lots of different reasons. I think there should be things on the album that make you want to dance, there should be things on the album that make you think about your life, there should be things on the album that immediately conjure up a past relationship, and there should be things on the album that make you want to fill in the blanks and figure out the rest of the story.”
Click or tap on icon for more! Here are the nominees in several 2015 MTV Video Music Award categories: Video of the year: “Alright,” Kendrick Lamar; “Bad Blood,” Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar; “Thinking Out Loud,” Ed Sheeran; “7/11,” Beyoncé; “Uptown Funk,” Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. Best male video: “Alright,” Kendrick Lamar; “Chains,” Nick Jonas; “Earned It,” The Weeknd; “Thinking Out Loud,” Ed Sheeran; “Uptown Funk,” Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. Best female video: “Anaconda,” Nicki Minaj;
MTV
“Blank Space,” Taylor Swift; “Elastic Heart,” Sia; “Love Me Like You Do,” Ellie Goulding; “7/11,” Beyoncé. Best pop video: “Blank Space,” Taylor Swift; “Sugar,” Maroon 5; “7/11,” Beyoncé; “Thinking Out Loud,” Ed Sheeran; “Uptown Funk,” Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. Best rock video: “Ship To Wreck,” Florence and the Machine; “Shut Up and Dance,” Walk the Moon; “Take Me To Church,” Hozier; “Uma Thurman,” Fall Out Boy; “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?,” Arctic Monkeys.
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CELEBRITY Jay Bobbin’s Q&A
PeterMooney of ‘Rookie Blue’ Thursday on ABC The fan base for “Rookie Blue” has proven itself quite passionate about your character, Officer Nick Collins, and about the show in general on social media. How have you found that? I love it, and what blows my mind is that it’s escalated as we’ve gone on. This show came about sort of pre-Twitter, or right in its infancy ... and to see that interaction we can have with the people who follow the show is really amazing. You get that real-time feedback, which is great. Also, how international it is never ceases to amaze me. We have viewers in Holland and Australia as well as Canada and the States, and that they all have this forum to come together is really mind-blowing. You’ve also been a writer and producer, and your co-star Gregory Smith has directed a number of episodes of “Rookie Blue.” What has having that sort of creative atmosphere meant to you? It’s so fantastic, and the support comes from all directions. Greg and I made a short film a few years ago, and David and Ilana (executive producers Wellington and Frank) were so gracious with letting us use the sets, and were super-open and helpful in any way they could be. They let us take advantage of our “down” time, and they seemed really proud that we were plugging away and working on something on our own. Greg directed quite a few episodes of that 22-episode marathon that we filmed last year, and consistently did such an amazing job. He boggles my mind when he’s running back and forth from one side of the camera to the other.
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CELEBRITY Jay Bobbin’s Q&A
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EdwardBurns of ‘Public Morals’ Tuesday on TNT Not only do you star in “Public Morals,” you wrote and directed all 10 of the first-season episodes. How was that workload for you? I loved this cast I had assembled, and there were moments in each episode where just for purely selfish reasons, I didn’t want someone else to have the fun of being able to direct those scenes. It was hard work, absolutely, a lot of time ... but at no point was it anything other than a blast, I have to admit. How has being just an actor for hire, in such movies as “Saving Private Ryan” and “15 Minutes,” helped you as a filmmaker? Early in my career, I was looking to work with people that I could learn from – and if you look at the first half of my acting resume, you can see what I was going for. It was getting to work with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, and the Steven experience really was graduate film school, getting to stand over his shoulder and watch him. He was very generous with his time; that’s where we became friends, and he has served as a mentor every since. “15 Minutes,” that was Robert De Niro, and I was going to “school” as a young actor looking to learn from him. And “Confidence” with Dustin Hoffman, very much the same situation. I did a movie called “Alex Cross,” and the director – Rob Cohen – knows how to do action, and I would just watch how he approached it. And working with Tyler Perry in that film, he was a great guy for me to sit down and talk to. Regardless of who you are working with, there is something to be learned.
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CELEBRITY George Dickie’s Q&A
Kelli Williams of ‘Ties That Bind’ Wednesday on UP Your character has cop skills and mom skills, which are useful in each other’s world, no? They (are), and that’s a good way of putting it. They definitely intersect and they also have similar qualities to them. So there are times when I sort of mother someone I’m questioning in order to get what I need from them. And then there are times when my kids feel like I’m being a detective at home. So that’s a fun, sort of interesting thing to play as well with the writing, is am I leaving work at work or do my kids feel like, ‘Why are you so hard on us?’ You know, you haven’t left work at work. You’re bringing it back home and kind of trying to find that balance between the two. And the best thing would be like at work everyone listens to me because here I am, the detective with a gun and the perps are there, sort of like I’m in charge and being the alpha. But you get home and then your kids don’t listen to you and it’s fantastic because they don’t (laughs). You would think a policewoman’s kids wouldn’t get away with a lot. They totally wouldn’t but I think it’s funny when they do a little bit. Like in a way, they’re not as good listeners. It’s true. They don’t always get away with stuff because they do have a cop for a mom. But I like it when things are kind of messy because real life is messy, so it’s nice to play that and to play the exhaustion from the job and of trying to do your best and sometimes you just feel like you can’t. You’re burning the candle at both ends.
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FOOD George Dickie’s What's for Dinner
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What book are you currently reading? “I’m not reading anything right now (laughs). ... I just recently read Dan Barber’s ‘The Third Plate,’ which I found very enlightening. It took me a long time to get through it but it’s definitely a worthwhile read. I just reread on vacation ‘Garlic and Sapphires,’ which is a Ruth Reichl book that I love. I love the way she talks about food.” What did you have for dinner last night? “A tomato sandwich (laughs) with broccoli sprouts.” What is your next project? “Well, I try to deliver this book Oct. 1. We’re going to be full throttle filming Season 4 of the show and we’ve pitched an idea about the food of the Civil War to PBS and hopefully we’ll be able to produce that.” When was the last vacation you took, where and why? “My family beach vacation. We go to Emerald Isle, which is just a North Carolina beach about an hour from here. We go for one week every summer. It’s not incredibly exciting.”
Chef Vivian Howard has had a lot on her plate in recent years, pardon the pun.
a cookbook this big in print. But I mean I know that it will and I’m prepared for that.”
In the first two seasons of her PBS cooking/documentary series “A Chef’s Life,” she and husband Ben Knight dealt with a devastating kitchen fire in their Kinston, N.C., restaurant, opened a second eatery in the same town and lived the roller-coaster daily existence that is restaurant ownership.
But the restaurant business being what it is, there are always problems. This season, the chef at the Boiler Room, their second concern, quits, forcing non-chef Ben to step into the kitchen and prepare meals from Vivian’s recipes – without Vivian around. “I’m not watching over him,” Howard says, laughing. “I collaborate with him.
So as Season 3 opens on Thursday, Sept. 3 (check local listings), Howard takes on something of a less stressful task as she works to write and get a cookbook published. “What I’ve learned,” she continues, “is that I’m really kind of a one-restaurant chef. And I think it’s really hard for a “I’m actually getting ready to deliver the manuscript on Oct. chef who’s very involved in the food of their restaurant to 1 – well, theoretically Oct. 1. I think it’s going to be more like really be the head chef of several different restaurants. the 15th,” Howard says with a laugh. “So, yes, and Season So most of the time, we know chefs who have a bunch of 3 kind of tracks my progress doing that and my struggles different restaurants, they’re really most connected to one and trying to carve out time for that work.” of those restaurants and the other restaurants have a chef. I’m the guiding principle and guiding creative force over at “It’s called ‘Deep Run Roots’ ... and it’s massive. I imagine a the Boiler Room but I don’t work in that kitchen on a daily lot of it is going to get edited down because I’ve never seen basis.”
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CELEBRITY Jay Bobbin’s Celebrity ScooP
Danielle
Panabaker Changes are coming to “The Flash,” and Danielle Panabaker couldn’t be more thrilled about them.
The differences on The CW’s DC Comics-inspired Tuesday adventure series – which starts its second season Oct. 6 – are inevitable. The May finale saw Panabaker’s Dr. Caitlin Snow become a married woman, and also resulted in the vanquishing of Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh), alias the villainous Reverse Flash. Caitlin, “Flash” Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and their allies now have to rely on their own resources even more, which Panabaker welcomes. “I feel so grateful to our writers,” she says. “They’ve given me so much meaty material to work with. I mean, everything that went on with Ronnie (Caitlin’s true love, played by Robbie Amell): At first, we thought he was dead, then he was back but he wasn’t himself ... then he was really back, and he left her again. Obviously, with the season finale when they got married, it’s certainly been a roller coaster. And as an actor, that’s a great thing to play.” Caitlin’s wedding to Ronnie, half of the mutated character Firestorm, is another indication of former teen actress Panabaker – whose sister, Kay, has left acting to focus on zoology – graduating to more-adult roles. “It’s just a nice opportunity to really grow up, to get to play a doctor in TV,” she reasons. Whatever may lie ahead for Panabaker, including Caitlin’s possible transition into Killer Frost (as in the comic books), she’s bracing for it as much as she can. “Ten years ago, when I first started, I don’t think something like this would be possible,” she says in praising the show’s special-effects team. “To be able to turn out this level of work on a regular basis is really quite impressive.” Birthdate: Sept. 19, 1987 Birthplace: Augusta, Ga. Current residence: Los Angeles Marital status: Single Other television work includes: “Arrow” (as Caitlin Snow), “Justified,” “Recipe for Love,” “Nearlyweds,” “The Glades,” “Mad Men,” “Franklin & Bash,” “Bones,” “Grimm,” “The
Shunning,” “Law & Order: LA,” “Family Guy” (voice only), “Medium,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Shark,” “Summerland,” “Empire Falls,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Mom at Sixteen,” “The Division,” “The Guardian,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” “The Bernie Mac Show,” “Family Affair”
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CELEBRITY CelebritY profile
TylerFlorence
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Tyler Florence hosts the cooking competition series “The Great Food Truck Race,” currently airing its sixth season on Food Network. - Born March 3, 1971, in Greenville, S.C. - Full Name: Kevin Tyler Florence. - Started working in restaurants bussing tables when he was 15. - Graduated from the culinary program at Johnson & Wales University. - After graduation he moved to New York City and eventually worked for celebrated chefs Charlie Palmer at Aureole, Marta Pulini at Mad 61 and Rick Laakonen. - In 1998, Florence ventured out on his own, becoming executive chef of Cibo before eventually opening up Cafeteria in Manhattan’s trendy Chelsea neighborhood. - He is one of the original and most enduring icons on the Food Network, and has starred in several shows for the channel including “Food 911,” “How to Boil Water” and “Tyler’s Ultimate.” - In 2003, People magazine named Florence the “sexiest chef alive.” - In July 2008, Florence opened his first kitchen retail shop, The Tyler Florence Shop, in Mill Valley, Calif. - In January 2009, Florence launched his signature lines of steel-clad cookware and titanium cutlery on Home Shopping Network and at major retailers across the U.S. - His first cookbook, “Real Kitchen,” was released in 2003. He has since authored or co-authored more than a half-dozen including the 2014, “Inside the Test Kitchen: 120 New Recipes, Perfected.” - He lives in Corte Madera, Calif., with his wife, Tolan, and has three children: sons, Miles and Hayden, and daughter, Dorothy.
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CELEBRITY
“It’s like having one trick from a magician, so that if you’re at a party some night, you can do something …just one thing. I wanted to find a way to encourage people to just give it a go and see if it’s something they can copy. A lot of people learn just by copying.” – Keith Urban, seen recently on “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock” on ABC, about the guitar teaching program he markets
“I love it. I’m so lucky. I have a great partner named John Phillips, and we’re similar but very opposite in many ways. It’s conservative talk … and I’m not exactly conservative, so I kind of kick it up a little bit.” – Jillian Barberie of “Funny or Die Presents: America’s Next Weatherman” on TBS, about doing talk radio weekdays on Los Angeles’ KABC-AM
“When I think about the people who I’ve had an opportunity to work with, and who have picked me to be part of a show, Tom Selleck is one of those people who first comes into my head. It was such a great experience to work with him. He is quite a man.” – Krista Allen of “Significant Mother” on The CW, about making the TV movie “Jesse Stone: No Remorse” with Selleck
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CELEBRITY
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ON DVRs
Matt Murray of “Kevin From Work” on ABC Family and “Rookie Blue” on ABC “I just finished binge-watching ‘Bloodline,’ and that was amazing. I couldn’t stop watching it. And I’ve started watching the new season of ‘True Detective.’ ”
Michael Carbonaro of “The Carbonaro Effect” on truTV “ ‘Face Off,’ which is the makeup competition show. ‘Judge Judy,’ ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Transparent’ ... ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ and other sophisticated programming.”
Adam Richman of “Man Finds Food” on Travel Channel and “Food Fighters” on NBC “I record ‘The Soup,’ I record ‘Man Finds Food,’ which is the show I’m currently doing on Travel Channel. ... I do ‘Tosh.0,’ ‘Naked and Afraid,’ and if I’m out of town I’ll try to do like the great Sunday night HBO stuff. I’ll watch that on HBO Go. ... I’ll do like ‘Game of Thrones.’ But generally speaking, it’ll be stuff like ‘Tosh.0,’ ‘The Soup’ and stuff like that.”
Todd Chrisley of “Chrisley Knows Best” on USA Network “We record every episode of ‘Scandal’ and ‘The Good Wife,’ but I am absolutely addicted to ‘The Royals.’ In our house on Sunday nights, I make sure everyone is in their own space because I have to be watching that. And never, ever have I missed an episode of ‘Nashville.’ Never.” August 30 - September 5, 2015 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote Page 11
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STORY
Dealing with life’s
‘Hand’
Ron Perlman stars in “Hand of God,” premiering Friday on Amazon. Story on next page
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STORY
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By George Dickie In what figures to be a strong fall season for original streaming series, Amazon checks in this week with what appears to be one of the strongest in “Hand of God.” Dropping with 10 episodes Friday, Sept. 4, the hourlong drama stars Ron Perlman (“Sons of Anarchy,” “Beauty and the Beast”) as morally-corrupt judge Pernell Harris who, after a suicide attempt that has left his son in a coma, has a breakdown and begins hearing and seeing what he thinks are messages from the titular deity. And the messages are telling him to go track down the man who raped his daughter-in-law (Alona Tal, “Burn Notice,” “Supernatural”) and thus caused his son to put a bullet in his own head. As the jurist embarks on his campaign of vigilante justice, his social-climber wife, Crystal (Dana Delany, “Body of Proof,” “Desperate Housewives”), thinks her husband has lost his mind. She is ready to move on from the tragedy but the judge’s antics – such as in the pilot’s opening scene where he’s standing naked in a public fountain and chanting in tongues – won’t allow her to. And the audience is left to wonder whether his visions are real or just the product of a traumatized psyche. “I like that Ben (Watkins, creator/executive producer) rides a fine line with that,” Delany says. “I don’t think we will ever know for sure. I’m not sure. You know, it’s like in life, when you see a sign and you think, ‘Oh my God!’
Pictured: Dana Delany and Ron Perlman
And then later you think, ‘Well actually, no, that was just a leaf falling.’ But who knows?” “I think she thinks he’s sick. There’s no way she buys into it. No. She thinks that he’s grieving and that’s his way of manifesting it. But if it starts screwing with her plans,” she says with a laugh, “that’s when things get bad.” Yes, Crystal is not a woman to be underestimated. According to Delany, her character is someone from rough-and-tumble beginnings, who married her way out of poverty and was living a comfortable life until tragedy was visited on her family. Now, she’s pulling her husband out of the mental ward and doing damage control. But while she’s concerned with Pernell’s well-being, she also has her own agenda, which will become clear as the season progresses. “I feel like that’s one thing that Ben did really well,” Delany says, “is every character has their own agenda. You just don’t quite know what it is yet. And I’d say that mine has more to do ... with my own advancement.” “She kind of was the one who helped him get his s... together and be successful because she had the drive,” she continues. “... What I love about them is you can tell they’ve been married a long time, like, ‘C’mon.’ ”
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STORY
Exploring the ivory wars
The new “Explorer” episode, “Warlords of Ivory,” premieres Sunday on National Geographic Channel. Story on next page
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STORY
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NatGeo’s ‘Explorer’ returns with ‘Warlords of Ivory’
By George Dickie
Pictured: Bryan Christy
After a five-year hiatus, National Geographic Channel’s venerable “Explorer” documentary series relaunches with an investigation of the illegal ivory trade in Africa.
tracker you can embed in a python and follow it through the Everglades to see where exactly pythons are. It was sort of a dream-team scenario and then let’s do it.”
In “Explorer’s” new episode “Warlords of Ivory,” premiering Sunday, Aug. 30, National Geographic Fellow, correspondent and veteran of the wildlife trafficking wars Bryan Christy tracks the path of ivory from the site of the kill to ivory carvers.
Not only did the weight of the tusk have to be right, so did the size. If it was too big, it would have to be cut down to be transported, which would reveal that it’s a fake.
Ivory poaching is well documented. Some 30,000 African elephants are slaughtered every year for their tusks and thousands of men and women are attacked, raped and murdered in the maelstrom of destruction. But “Warlords” takes the investigation a few steps further, illustrating how the ivory is stripped from the carcasses by increasingly militarized poachers, then transported across Africa to be traded for money and ammunition that is then used to sustain campaigns of crime and terrorism. The key component of the investigation are artificial tusks implanted with a tracking device that enabled Christy and his team to follow their path through the marketplace to ivory carvers. “One of the world’s best taxidermists, George Dante, makes this tusk for me,” explains Christy, who also wrote National Geographic magazine’s September cover story, “Tracking Ivory.” “It’s a combination of things. A very heavy resin. We experimented with a lot of different materials and the weight has to be exactly right. These things are very dense but basically it’s a resin. It’s painted with the same acrylic that NASCAR cars are painted with so that it can be thrown around. And the tracker inside was designed by a guy named Quintin Kermeen ... . Quinton does radio collars for all kinds of species. ... Quinton came up with a
“You want it to fit in a backpack,” Christy says, “because probably the most popular way of moving ... right after the poaching incident, is it’s going to be put in a backpack, the guy gets on a motorbike and goes to the local consolidator. It’s a lot of anticipating. We’ve been on this project for a few years so I know a lot of techniques in the field. I’ve spent time with ivory dealers. I’ve spent time with ivory carvers and I know what they’re looking for. So it’s all anticipating, ‘OK, I want it to get all the way to the carver. So what does it need to look like to get there?’ ” At this writing, Christy and his team had tracked their ersatz tusks through three countries, all the while fearing the transmitters would be discovered and destroyed once the tusk was cut into. And at several steps along the way, they thought their fears had been realized when the radio signal was lost. But the signal so far has reappeared. “Our estimated battery life goes into the fall,” Christy says. “... At some point, it will stop talking and in fact ... once it goes past its last battery date, we’ll know, OK, the battery has died. But in the interim, you don’t know.”
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STORY
Fix the hotelier, fix the hotel in Season 6 of ‘Hotel Impossible’
A
By George Dickie
ny dog trainer will tell you that most problems with a problem pet usually stem from the owner.
66 came into play, all of a sudden you had all of these hotels popping up along the roadway. And then all of a sudden they open up an interstate, and Route 66 goes The same can be said of failing hotels, and that’s by the wayside and it’s not federally funded anymore, and all these little towns are now responsible for keeping their why hospitality expert Anthony Melchiorri is dedicating Season 6 of his Travel Channel series “Hotel Impossible” little part of Route 66 alive. to those hoteliers who don’t listen and learn. “And to see those towns and the different businesses and their marketing ideas really trying to keep Route 66 alive “One of the things that I find fascinating after six because it’s really part of our history, part of Americana, seasons,” the 50-year-old native of Brooklyn, N.Y., says, more so than almost anything, it was really heart-warming “is (owners) really think it’s still about the hotel and it’s and just beautiful to see these small towns trying to stay about their employees and it’s about the guests and alive and the entrepreneurship that goes into it. And these the guests complain too much on TripAdvisor and the hotels that I went into, these people care.” employees are a pain in the butt – and it’s everybody’s fault but theirs. So not by choice, this season is really about the owners because this season they’re so set in While Melchiorri demurs as to whether these businesses their ways ... very focused on all the problems but not the survived or indeed, if the owners took any of his advice, solutions. So this was a season of tough love.” he does mention that the trip wasn’t without incident. At one point, Melchiorri’s driver took their plus-size RV down a steep and narrow mountain road that had no guard rail, The Tuesday, Sept. 1, opener finds Melchiorri and his which left one production staffer overcome. team in Arizona, traveling the legendary Route 66 in a tricked-out RV, stopping to try to work their magic on a struggling luxury inn, a former bordello that’s on the “We literally had our director throwing up and he had National Registry of Historic Places and a campground/ to get off the RV. So ... it was a fun road trip,” Melchiorri RV park. says with a laugh, “because I didn’t know there were still routes like that – Route 66 – that were that narrow and that insane. It makes you realize, before the interstates, “If you think about Route 66,” Melchiorri says, “it’s really how people traveled.” where the hotel business was born. It’s like when Route
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STORY
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TCM goes to war
with veteran directors’ work By Jay Bobbin
Pictured: Ben Mankiewicz
Among those motivated to do their part during World War II were several of Hollywood’s greatest directors. Much of their work related to that period will be showcased by Turner Classic Movies on Tuesdays throughout September, tied to author Mark Harris’ similarly themed 2014 book “Five Came Back.” He joins TCM host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss the intentions of the filmmakers, all Oscar winners, in their wartime dramas and documentaries. Frank Capra is the first spotlighted on Sept. 1, and subsequent weeks showcase John Huston (Sept. 8), John Ford (Sept. 15), William Wyler (Sept. 22) and George Stevens (Sept. 29). TCM’s Capra attractions include “Meet John Doe” and also draw heavily from his “Why We Fight” series, which Mankiewicz cites as “landmark documentaries, using animation incredibly effectively while telling a vital story, even if they weren’t always timely from a propaganda point of view. Historically, though, they serve as the high-water mark of our wartime propaganda; they are well-paced, informative, moving and at times, inspiring without beating us over the head.” Harris didn’t foresee TCM basing a month-long series on his book, though he says he used the channel “extensively as a research aid” while writing it, “so I couldn’t be more delighted and grateful. “Each of the directors had a different reason for joining the war effort,” Harris notes. “Capra was an immigrant
who wanted to prove his American-ness; Wyler (‘Mrs. Miniver’), also an immigrant, was Jewish and knew that the survival of his family, friends, and hometown were all at stake; Huston (‘Across the Pacific’) liked adventure; and Ford (‘They Were Expendable’) had always wanted to go to sea. For George Stevens (‘The Diary of Anne Frank’), it was simply a sense of patriotic duty, coupled with his knowledge that as a filmmaker, he could offer a special contribution ... as they all could, and did.” Several of Mankiewicz’s relatives were in World War II, including his father, journalist and political adviser Frank Mankiewicz. “A soldier in the 69th Infantry, he was at the Battle of the Bulge toward the end of the battle, nearly losing his toes to frostbite,” says the TCM staple. “He was awarded a combat infantry badge and a Bronze Star. When he died in October, I immediately started wearing his dog tags, which have his next-of-kin notification on them.” Partially because of that, but also for the specific purposes of TCM’s September initiative, Mankiewicz reports his “preparation was intense. I hadn’t seen many of the documentaries, and even if I had seen them, it was a long time ago ... and not in the context of a project like this one. So I watched every movie – rewatched plenty of them – plus read Mark’s book in a more academic way than I would normally read a book. I took a ton of notes as I read.”
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SPORTS
Badgers hope to ‘Stave’ the Tide Story on next page
Born: May 16, 1992
Team: Wisconsin Badgers
Birthplace: Greenfield, Wisconsin Position: Quarterback Height/Weight: 6 foot 5 inches/220 pounds
No.: 2
Passing Yards: 4,948 Touchdowns: 37 Interceptions: 26 Major: Civil Engineering
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Honors and Achievements: Big Ten Champion (2011, 2012), 2013 Rose Bowl, 2014 Capital One Bowl, 2015 Outback Bowl
SPORTS
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By Dan Ladd For Wisconsin Badgers’ senior quarterback Joel Stave and firstyear head coach, Paul Chryst, it is a reunion of sorts this season. Chryst, a Wisconsin alumni, was an offensive coach for the Badgers in Stave’s red-shirt season in 2011 and he now returns as head coach after the departure of Gary Andersen to Oregon State. They’ll have to get reacquainted in short order though, as the Badgers face a formidable foe when they open their 2015 college football season at home against Alabama on Saturday, Sept. 5, on ABC. The Crimson Tide, still reeling from a Final Four loss to the Badger’s Big Ten rival, the Ohio State Buckeyes, will be looking to give Stave trouble. The Buckeyes also dismantled Stave and the Badgers in the Big Ten Conference Championship game on their way to a National title last season. For Stave, this season is a chance to establish himself as a viable NFL prospect. Another good season on his part and he could emerge as one of the top quarterbacks in the 2016 NFL draft. Especially, if he and the Badgers can continue to be competitive without the running game they had courtesy of last season’s Heisman Trophy candidate Melvin Gordon, who is now in the NFL.
JoelStave
Once they get beyond Alabama, the road to another Big Ten Championship game gets easier. With Ohio State and Michigan State battling it out in the East, Stave and Wisconsin should emerge as the favorite in the West.
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MOVIES JAY BOBBIN's Theatrical movie review
review
James Bond has had a successful reboot under Daniel Craig’s stewardship, but if anyone can give him a run for his spy cred, it’s Tom Cruise in the “Mission: Impossible” series.
takes off and goes airborne. Just as it was in the Dubai building-scaling stunt in the preceding “Ghost Protocol,” that’s really Cruise clutching that fuselage, and it’s thrilling to know it and see it.
It’s amazing to think that movie franchise is now bordering on its 20th birthday, and it can be argued successfully that it’s stronger than ever creatively. In fact, there’s really no counterargument to be made, and “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” stands as solid proof.
There’s also a fantastic set piece that involves an underwater vault, rather reminiscent of the CIAheadquarters break-in in the first “Mission: Impossible” movie, but exciting in a fresh way because of the water element. And let’s not forget a motorcycle chase that redefines what such sequences can be, even for an earlier one in this series itself.
The fifth big-screen edition makes Cruise’s Ethan Hunt truly a rogue agent after the Impossible Missions Force is disbanded, but he’s determined not to let an organization known only as The Syndicate wreak havoc on the world. To accomplish that, he reunites with the former colleagues played by Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, with Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson a vital new member of the gang.
Christopher McQuarrie, the “Jack Reacher” screenwriterdirector who has worked with Cruise multiple times in recent years, gets into the groove quite well here. Usually a plot-heavy filmmaker, he clearly knows what the audience expects, and he delivers. Supporting performances by an amusingly bureaucratic Alec Baldwin and a supremely villainous Sean Harris also help.
It’s your basic espionage-story turf, but more than for its plot, “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” will be remembered for its stunts ... and there are several whoppers. It doesn’t take long to get to the first one, which sees Hunt cling to the outside of a plane as it
As always, though, it’s Cruise – and, frankly, his physique and derring-do – that really drives any ‘Mission: Impossible” movie. He clearly remains up to the task in the pulsating “Rogue Nation,” which makes it very good news that “Mission” No. 6 already is in the works.
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MOVIES JAY BOBBIN's movie review movies to watch
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“MAD MAX: FURY ROAD”
Top Pick
DVD
The franchise that launched Mel Gibson to global stardom gets a reboot, though original director George Miller still calls the shots – and still keeps the proceedings grim and grueling. Tom Hardy (“The Dark Knight Rises”) assumes the role of the post-apocalyptic Australian loner newly aligned with a warrior (Charlize Theron) who has turned against her former leader (Hugh Keays-Byrne, another alum of the original “Mad Max”), an enemy of Max. Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley also are featured, as is plenty of impressive vehicular action. DVD extras: six “making-of” documentaries; deleted scenes. ››› (Also on Blu-ray and On Demand)
Pictured: Tom Hardy
upcoming DVD releases
Coming Soon on DVD... “THE AGE OF ADALINE” (Sept. 8): Blake Lively plays a woman who stops aging, posing emotional complications for her; Harrison Ford also stars. (PG-13: AS, P) “FURIOUS 7” (Sept. 15): Paul Walker’s last film in the franchise finds Dom (Vin Diesel) and his hard-driving comrades hunted as well as hunting. (PG-13: AS, P, V)
Pictured: Blake Lively
“LOST IN SPACE: THE COMPLETE SERIES” (Sept. 15): The Irwin Allen-produced 1960s sci-fi classic makes its Blu-ray debut, with Guy Williams and June Lockhart as the heads of the family stranded among the stars. (Not rated: V)
“PITCH PERFECT 2” (Sept. 22): The Bellas return to take part in a global a cappella competition; Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson reprise their roles. (PG-13: AS, P) “ENTOURAGE” (Sept. 29): The movie continuation of the former HBO comedy series reunites cast members including Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon and Jeremy Piven. (R: AS, N, P) “POLTERGEIST” (Sept. 29): A revision of the horror tale casts Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt as a couple whose child is taken by evil spirits. (PG-13: AS, P, V)
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FAVORITE SHOWS
James Van Der Beek stars in “CSI: Cyber”
SUNDAY 10 p.m. on CBS CSI: Cyber Going “Die Hard 2” – in which all of an airport’s flights were threatened – one better in terms of specific targeting, “L0m1s” imperils several planes that departed from the same airport. The attack is conducted via Wi-Fi, making the case ideally suited to the skills of Avery (Patricia Arquette) and her colleagues. Jason George (“Mistresses”) and Sarah Butler guest star. James Van Der Beek, Peter MacNicol and Shad Moss also star. 10 p.m. on TNT Falling Skies Several climactic details are being
Lily Rabe stars in “The Whispers”
Jane Lynch hosts “Hollywood Game Night”
kept under wraps as the sci-fi/action series wraps up its run. The story line takes the Mason family, the 2nd Mass and some new allies into what a press release describes as “the bowels of an iconic American location,” where new and unpredictable challenges await them. Given that the title of this series finale is “Reborn,” we’re feeling optimistic about the outcome. Series Finale New
finale, “Game Over.” Notice that we said “season,” not “series finale,” but “The Whispers” – which saw its audience share steadily fall throughout the summer – wrapped production on Season 1 not knowing whether the show would be picked up. ABC allowed its options on the cast to expire, so don’t expect a lot of closure. Season Finale New
MONDAY
TUESDAY
10:01 p.m. on ABC The Whispers After long weeks of speculation, Claire (Lily Rabe) and the other members on the team of heroes scramble into action as Drill’s mysterious endgame finally is put into motion in the season
10:01 p.m. on NBC Hollywood Game Night Two “civilian” contestants lead teams of three celebrities apiece in a series of party games to win a $25,000 grand prize. Stars in the game pool for the new episode “Everything’s Coming
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FAVORITE SHOWS Up Jonas” include singer-actor Joe Jonas, comic Jeff Dye, Cheryl Burke (“Dancing With the Stars”), Jenna Elfman, Seth Green and Michelle Trachtenberg. Jane Lynch hosts. New WEDNESDAY 10 p.m. on NBC Last Comic Standing To winnow the top 10 contenders into the season’s five finalists, the comics are randomly divided into pairs for five sets of head-tohead faceoffs in a new episode called “The Showdowns.” Judges Roseanne Barr, Norm Macdonald and Keenen Ivory Wayans decide which performer from each pair will be among the final five to compete for the title. Anthony Jeselnik is host. New
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SATURDAY
profit from their investments. FRIDAY 11:35 p.m. on CBS Blue Bloods The NYPD goes up against an international criminal in “Most Wanted.’’ Frank and Danny (Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg) pursue the slippery felon who has evaded murder convictions numerous times – but with the Reagans on his back, it’s likely his number is up. The cost of sending Nicky (Sami Gayle) to college makes Erin (Bridget Moynahan) consider starting her own practice, prompting her to consult a law-school friend (guest star Rebecca Mader).
11:36 p.m. on FOX Minority Report Two-time Tony Award nominee Stark Sands (Broadway’s “Kinky Boots’’) and Meagan Good (“Think Like a Man’’) share the leading roles in this series adaptation of a hit science-fiction film from Steven Spielberg about a futuristic man and a cop trying to stop crimes before they are committed. Wilmer Valderrama, Nick Zano and Laura Regan also star in this extended preview of the fall drama, due to premiere Sept. 21 on Fox. New
Adam Richman hosts “Food Fighters”
THURSDAY 8 p.m. on NBC Food Fighters In the season finale, “This Soccer Mom Sizzles,” a stay-at-home mother of three from Washington tries to win $100,000 by pitting her kitchen skills against those of some versatile culinary experts, then faces off against celebrity chef, molecular gastronomist and “Top Chef” bad boy Marcel Vigneron. Adam Richman is the host. New Season Finale 8 p.m. on ABC Beyond the Tank What happens after those who pitch ideas on “Shark Tank” get the support they seek? That series has shown some of the results, but this show deals exclusively with them. Sharks including Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec traverse America to offer more of their expertise in helping the entrepreneurs make new business ideas work. It’s not entirely altruistic for the Sharks, since they want to
Anthony Jeselnik hosts “Last Comic Standing” Sami Gayle stars in “Blue Bloods”
Stark Sands stars in “Minority Report”
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