That top makes you look like an Afghani prostitute

I really missed House. Last night's episode was one of the better episodes of this season. It was really funny and there were so many good lines! I have to admit, I really hate that the writers are keeping C.B. around this long. I hope she gets the axe soon. Anyway, there were only two Huddy scenes so check em out! The last scene when House says, "You're desperate to have someone jump on you and tell you they love you, one grunted syllable at a time..." Is this a hint to another hook up between these two?

Finally!

The new episode of House airs tonight @ 9 on FOX!! Don't forget to watch. In honor of tonight's episode here are a couple of Huddy (House/Cuddy) vids. Check em out!

I hate boys

Why are they all completely clueless and act like jerks? I can't stand it. I think I'm officially done with relationships.

My new fave song

So my new fave song is "Sea of Love" by Cat Power. If you don't know it, it's used in the movie Juno. That may be my fave song of all time. It's the sweetest and most beautiful song ever. The first vid is the scene when it's played. The second vid is just a fan video, there's no dialogue. Enjoy!


Come with me
My love
To the sea
The sea of love

I wanna tell you
How much
I love you

Do you remember
When we met
That's the day
I knew you were my pet

I wanna tell you
How much
I love you

Come with me
My love
To the sea
The sea of love

I wanna tell you
How much
I love you

Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust

Xanadu's Kerry Butler to Release Solo CD Due in May; Track List Announced

By Andrew Gans
18 Apr 2008

Kerry Butler

Kerry Butler, who plays Kira/Clio in Broadway's Xanadu and Reese on NBC's "Lipstick Jungle," will release her debut solo recording on the PS Classics label in May.

Entitled "Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust," the new recording boasts songs from the Disney canon and is scheduled to arrive in stores May 13. The recording features musical direction by Michael Kosarin with orchestrations by Tony winner Michael Starobin and Spamalot's Larry Hochman.

To celebrate her new disc, Butler will offer a special performance and CD signing May 15 at the Barnes & Noble at 66th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.

The complete track listing for "Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust" follows:

"This Only Happens in the Movies" by Alan Menken & Glenn Slater (from "Who Discovered Roger Rabbit?," c. 1998, unreleased prequel to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?")

"When You Wish Upon a Star" by Leigh Harline & Ned Washington (from "Pinocchio," 1940)

"I'll Try" by Jonatha Brooke (from "Return to Never Land," 2002)

"Call Me a Princess" by Alan Menken & Howard Ashman (cut from "Aladdin," 1992)

"Colors of the Wind" by Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz(from "Pocahontas," 1995)

"It's a Small World"/"God Help the Outcasts" by Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman/Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz (from Disneyland's "It's a Small World"/from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," 1996)

"Baby Mine" by Frank Churchill & Ned Washington (from "Dumbo," 1941)

"Minnie's Yoo Hoo" by Carl Stalling & Walt Disney (from "Mickey's Follies," 1929)

"Second Star to the Right" by Sammy Fain & Sammy Cahn (from "Peter Pan," 1953)

"The Bare Necessities" by Terry Gilkyson (from "The Jungle Book," 1967)

"When She Loved Me" by Randy Newman (from "Toy Story 2," 1999)

"Disneyland" by Marvin Hamlisch & Howard Ashman (from "Smile," 1986)

In a previous statement Butler said, "I've wanted to do an album for a long time, and with the success of Xanadu, the timing seemed right. Recording the Xanadu recording for PS Classics was such a joyous experience, we decided to continue our relationship on my solo album. I knew I wanted to keep the album personal and intimate, and in thinking of songs that made me smile, or had a theme of hope or optimism that I felt was so important, I kept coming back to songs that were Disney-related. I love so many of the Disney themes – when I'm sad or stressed, I know I need a dose of Disney! The challenge for me was to see if I could rediscover the Disney catalog in a very personal way, because for me, Disney World isn't about the rides, it's about the message."

Prior to Xanadu, Kerry Butler was most recently on Broadway as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. She portrayed Penny Pingleton in the original Broadway cast of Hairspray, and her other Broadway credits include Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Eponine in Les Misérables and Ms. Jones in Blood Brothers. Off-Broadway she was seen in Bat Boy The Musical, The "I" Word, Prodigal and The Folsom Head. She was also part of the cast of the musical The Opposite of Sex, which premiered in San Francisco.

For more information about PS Classics, visit www.psclassics.com.

Cover art for Kerry Butler's solo CD.

The Truth Is Out There

`X-Files' movie title is out there: `I Want to Believe'

By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie WriterWed Apr 16, 12:45 PM ET

The truth is finally out there about the new "X-Files" movie title.

The second big-screen spinoff of the paranormal TV adventure will be called "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," Chris Carter, the series' creator and the movie's director and co-writer, told The Associated Press.

Distributor 20th Century Fox signed off on the title Wednesday.

The title is a familiar phrase for fans of the series that starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents chasing after aliens and supernatural happenings. "I Want to Believe" was the slogan on a poster Duchovny's UFO-obsessed agent Fox Mulder had hanging in the cluttered basement office where he and Anderson's Dana Scully worked.

"It's a natural title," Carter said in a telephone interview Tuesday during a break from editing the film. "It's a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. `I Want to Believe.' It really does suggest Mulder's struggle with his faith."

"I Want to Believe" comes 10 years after the first film and six years after the finale of the series, whose opening credits for much of its nine-year run featured the catch-phrase "the truth is out there."

Due in theaters July 25, the movie will not deal with aliens or the intricate mythology about interaction between humans and extraterrestrials that the show built up over the years, Carter said.

Instead, it casts Mulder and Scully into a stand-alone, earth-bound story aimed at both serious "X-Files" fans and newcomers, he said.

"It has struck me over the last several years talking to college-age kids that a lot of them really don't know the show or haven't seen it," Carter said. "If you're 20 years old now, the show started when you were 4. It was probably too scary for you or your parents wouldn't let you watch it. So there's a whole new audience that might have liked the show. This was made to, I would call it, satisfy everyone."

Hardcore fans need not worry that the movie will be going back to square one, though, Carter said. The movie will be true to the spirit of the show and everything Mulder and Scully went through, he said.

"The reason we're even making the movie is for the rabid fans, so we don't want to insult them by having to take them back through the concept again," Carter said.

Carter said he settled on "I Want to Believe" from the time he and co-writer Frank Spotnitz started on the screenplay. It took so long to go public with it because studio executives wanted to make sure it was a marketable title, he said.

The filmmakers have kept the story tightly under wraps to prevent plot spoilers from leaking on the Internet, a phenomenon that barely existed when the first movie came out in 1998.

"We went to almost comical lengths to keep the story a secret," Carter said. "That included allowing only the key crew members to read the script, and they had to read it in a room that had video cameras trained on them. It was a new experience."

USA Softball rules!

Softball season has started and I'm so excited!! Because of the Olympics, I'm even more excited this year. USA has dominated the past Olympics and I can't wait to watch it this summer. Cat Osterman is one of my fave players. She's so much fun to watch! The entire team is unbelievably crazy good. ESPN will be airing 11 games of the "Bound 4 Beijing Tour." The tour is the USA team going around the country and playing different college teams. Here's the tv schedule and a pretty rad Cat Osterman commercial.

Air Date Game Time (EST) Network Tues. April 15 USA vs. Arizona 7 p.m. ESPN2

Tues. April 22 USA vs. Oklahoma St. 7 p.m. ESPN2

Tues. April 29 USA vs. Oklahoma 7 p.m. ESPN2

Tues. May 6 USA vs. Virginia Tech 7 p.m. ESPN2

Wed. May 7 USA vs. DePaul 7 p.m. ESPN2

Tues. May 13 USA vs. Michigan 7 p.m. ESPN2

Wed. May 14 USA vs. Tennessee 7 p.m. ESPN2

Sun. June 8 USA vs. China 11 a.m. MSNBC

Sat. July 5 USA vs. NPF All Stars Noon ESPN

Sat. July 12 USA vs. Bloomington Lady Hearts 2 p.m. ESPN2

Sat. July 12 USA vs. Canada 7:30 p.m. ESPN

Sun. July 13 USA vs. NPF All Stars 1 p.m. ESPN

I'm just a Broadway baby...

Bernadette Peters is coming to Buffalo! woohoo!!

Bernadette Peters and the BPO Pops

Bernadette Peters, the Broadway singer, is an original, and the last time she appeared at Kleinhans Music Hall, it was a riot. Peters, resplendent in a slinky gown, went about tormenting the men in the front row. She put them on the spot, asking them who their first celebrity sighting was. One man, I remember, stammered, "You, right here." Peters, astonished, said, "I was here??" The man, trying desperately to correct the situation, said, "No, I mean.. now." The poor guy!

Another fan couldn't talk at all. Peters teased him, saying, "He doesn't want to talk!" Who could blame him? Peters has a presence that is charming but also, somehow, intimidating. No one who saw her swaggering around singing "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" will ever forget it.

I had the fun of reviewing Peters' last concert, and at the end, I wrote that I wished she could come back sometime. And lo, I am now getting my wish. I wish I could say the same about everything I have asked for in the pages of The Buffalo News! My church wouldn't have been closed, the Aud wouldn't have been condemned, the Sabres would forever be wearing those classy blue and white jerseys, and we'd still have "Artemis and the Stag."

But I can claim this victory. Peters will be back Sept. 20 to inaugurate the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's 2008-2009 Pops concert season. Which is a dandy, if you ask me. Another concert, on Valentine's Day next year, features a singer I love, the soprano Sylvia McNair. McNair sings classical music but she also sings some jazz and the Great American Songbook, and she sounds natural and good, not cloying or awkward in that kind of music the way some classical singers sometimes do. I don't think she has ever sung in Buffalo before. I am looking forward to seeing her.

Thanks to the Philharmonic for presenting us with talent we'd probably never see otherwise.

-- Mary Kunz Goldman

One of the good things about living in Buffalo...

Buffalo has an amazing theatre district. I love it! Shea's is probably the most beautiful theatre I've ever been in. Shea's just announced the 2008-2009 season. I cannot fucking wait!!

Shea's announces 2008-09 Broadway schedule

By Colin Dabkowski -- News Arts Writer
Updated: 04/10/08 9:27 PM

Aiming at a wide range of ages and musical appetites, Shea's Performing Arts Center has announced its 2008-09 season of six Broadway tours, along with a pair of special engagements.

The season will begin with "Legally Blonde: The Musical," in town from Oct. 14 to 19, based on the 2001 film of the same name that starred Reese Witherspoon. The show is a favorite among MTV viewers and teens. Next, "The Radio City Christmas Spectacular" revue returns to Shea’s after a four-year absence, from Nov. 13 to 30.

From Feb. 10 to 15, 2009, Shea’s will bring back “Mamma Mia,” a jukebox musical based on the songs of ABBA, followed by a tour of “The Wizard of Oz” from March 17 to 22, 2009.

A new tour of the popular show “A Chorus Line” will kick its way across the Shea’s stage from May 5 to 10, 2009, and the season will end with a production of the popular new show “The Color Purple” from June 2 to 7, 2009.

Shea’s has also announced two special engagements, a production of “Annie” from Dec. 19 to 21 and a farewell tour for the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1996 musical “Rent,” featuring original Broadway cast members Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp.

For more on the new season, as well as this weekend's production of "Hairspray" at Shea's, see Gusto in tomorrow’s Buffalo News.

Meryl Streep rules!

I love this movie.

Sometimes shook up old ladies...get cut!

Here's a cool article about Cry-Baby. FYI, the title of this post is a quote from the movie, one of my fave movies ever!

Backstory: Cry-Baby and John Waters' Journey to Broadway
by Kimberly Kaye

Cry-Baby Poster - Johnny Depp & Traci Lords

“Cry-Baby,” the new musical based on John Waters' 1990 film of the same name, opens at the Marquis Theatre on April 24. Here, Broadway.com looks back on Waters' unique history as a filmmaker—and how his work came to inspire a pair of Broadway musicals.

Good Morning, Baltimore
Childhood could not have been more unassuming for future “Pope of Trash” John Waters, born in 1946 to an upper-middle-class Catholic family in suburban Baltimore. There were no painful divorces (his parents are still married), no violence or abuse to offset his proper upbringing; he went to Sunday school and visited his grandmother on holidays (though there was one Christmas when the family found Grandma, uninjured but clearly chagrined, trapped under her own fallen Christmas tree, a scene so twisted it later made it into one of Waters' films). But the signs that he, possessed of a mind from which the scandalous gross-out film Pink Flamingos would spring, was…well…different from the other kids, materialized at an early age.

To say that Waters had an inclination toward film may be an understatement. A fan of any flick denounced by the nuns at his Catholic school, Waters would watch B-movies at the local drive-in through binoculars on his roof; as a teen, he snuck in via car trunks. Sometimes he would go on two- or three-day film binges, leaving theaters only to sleep and use the restroom. He was captivated by shows like Howdy Doody and Leave it to Beaver, and recalls charging admission to his own neighborhood puppet shows and “scare houses” at just 10 years old.

He also was fascinated by the peculiar or forbidden, idolizing local juvenile delinquents (or “drapes”, which later became the inspiration for Cry-Baby), rock 'n' roll, shoplifting, criminal trials and movie villains (the Wicked Witch of the West is cited frequently).

For his 17th birthday, his parents gave Waters an 8mm camera, transforming their son into a bona fide filmmaker who pursued his craft at NYU's film school (until he was expelled during freshman year for smoking marijuana on campus). After Waters' less-than-glorious return from the big city, the same camera inadvertently turned his family's well-groomed lawn into a studio-come-soundstage for low-budget flicks, most funded by his father and one scored by his mother playing piano. These included Hag in a Black Leather Jacket and Mondo Trasho, which starred his own cast of bohemian, “post-beat, pre-hippie” outcast friends—including one neighborhood star-to-be.

Divine Intervention
Waters met awkward, overweight Harris Milstead, who lived just down the block, in high school. Not surprisingly in 1950s Baltimore, the effeminate Milstead had problems fitting in at school, but absolutely no trouble existing in the bizarre world of John Waters. It was Waters who helped transform Milstead into an epic cross-dressing diva of stage and screen, and he who christened “her” with the name Divine. Using the innovative skills of costume and make-up talent Van Smith (who invented Milstead's lentil-filled prosthetic breasts), Divine became a willing conspirator and unchecked phenomenon in nearly all of Waters' films, most notably Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos and Hairspray, in which he created the role of larger-than-life mom Edna Turnblad.

At the end of the 1960s, Waters and his rag-tag crew began screening their underground, subversive films in coffeehouses and local church basements, advertising through leaflets and word of mouth. Most of his work outraged the community. (One scene in 1969's filthy Mondo Trasho got Waters arrested for “conspiracy to commit indecent exposure.”) College students, outcasts and artists, however, celebrated Waters' trash-tastic body of work, starting a midnight screening revolution in Baltimore and carving an audience for 1970's Multiple Maniacs. In 1972 fledgling New Line Cinema distributed Waters' infamous Pink Flamingos and went on to release Female Trouble (1974), Desperate Living (1977), the “Odorama” (read: scratch and sniff) classic Polyester, and, in 1988, an unexpected mainstream hit: Hairspray.

The Drape Sympathizer
The family-friendly Hairspray did more than just propel Waters into the mainstream; it paved the way for his first big budget film in more than 20 years of filmmaking. “This was the only time ever that every studio wanted to make my next movie,” Waters explained in the documentary It Came From Baltimore. "Hairspray had just come out—it was a huge sort of success. Everybody thought it was a bigger deal than it was. There was a bidding war! That'd never happened to me before.”

The bidding war was for Cry-Baby, Waters' rockabilly tale of Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker, a Baltimore “drape,” and his class-defying love for upper-class local “square” Allison Vernon-Williams, a good girl who wants to be bad. The director ended up with a budget of more than $12 million (Hairspray, by comparison, was shot for just $2.5 million), with Imagine Entertainment footing the bill. The film was, in Waters' eyes, his first full-scale musical, set to classic '50s songs lip-synched by the cast. “Everyone thinks Hairspray was my big musical because it's a big Broadway musical now,” Waters told documentary director Mark Rance in 2005. “That was my dance movie. THIS was my musical.”

The story was loosely motivated by headlines from the Baltimore Sun newspaper, which reported frequently on the bad behavior of drapes and their supposed threat to the community during Waters' youth. As a proud “drape sympathizer,” Waters says he began to formulate his story after The Sun covered the murder of young drapette Carolyn Wells, a Baltimore teen found strangled to death. “It was very, ‘this is what happens to girls who hang out with drapes,'” he said of the scandal surrounding the case. The director, ever the fan of rebellion, felt drape persecution to be unjust—a class issue in his own backyard. And so the story of bad boy-with-a-heart Cry-Baby was born. “The inspiration was a guy who lived across the street from me when I was seven years old that had a hot rod, that was a drape, that I never talked to, that I was scared of, and that my parents hated,” Waters told Broadway.com. “He was Cry-Baby.”

Hip to be Square
Then a fresh-faced heartthrob, actor Johnny Depp would become Cry-Baby—reluctantly. The young actor was cast as the film's hero but was concerned the role would only solidify his unwanted 21 Jump Street image as a hunky teen idol (as legend has it, Depp was once caught defacing his own picture on a Jump Street billboard). The actor also was a self-proclaimed bad dancer. “I mean, I just don't dance. I don't get it,” Depp commented. “So John [Waters], of course, was ‘Ah, you'll be fine, don't worry!'” Waters was right. After convincing Depp that mocking his image would be the antidote to typecasting, the star's performance caught the eye of director Tim Burton, who cast Depp in his breakout role as Edward Scissorhands, beginning a fruitful collaboration that has continued through the recent big-screen version of Sweeney Todd.

For Cry-Baby, Depp was joined by a unique cast, including Amy Locane as Allison, plus Polly Bergen, Iggy Pop, Ricki Lake, Troy Donahue, Joey Heatherton, Patty Hearst and former adult-film star Traci Lords. “The wildest movie I've ever made!” Waters said in reference to the eclectic mix (though he declared Iggy Pop, a notorious drinker, a “complete gentleman”), who would meet at his Baltimore home for pre-production rehearsals.

Despite eager stars and a generous budget, Cry-Baby proved a complicated undertaking. Waters battled near constant rain, on-set flooding, an onslaught of technical problems and even interference from the FBI, who appeared onsite to arrest Traci Lords in relation to a federal case (Lords was in good company: “Every person on that set had been arrested!” Waters said). The director also encountered a career first: answering to a major studio. “It was a really hard movie to make because it was so big,” costumer Van Smith said of the project.

The film opened in 1990 at a star-studded Baltimore premiere. Though critical reviews were mixed, the sweet, candy-colored homage to 1950s class-issues was received warmly by fans and industry folk; at Cannes, the film moved the crowd to a standing ovation during its screening. Since, it has become one of the director's friendliest cult classics.

On Broadway
Inspired by the huge success of the stage adaptation of Hairspray. which won seven 2003 Tony Awards and is still going strong in its sixth year on Broadway, director Jack O'Brien turned to book writers Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell to re-team for Cry-Baby. The new musical features an original rock ‘n' roll and doo-wop score by David Javerbaum (a multiple Emmy winner for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) and Adam Schlesinger (of the pop group Fountains of Wayne). O'Brien tapped Mark Brokaw, a director known for his skill at shaping ensemble performances, to direct and cast newcomer James Snyder in the title role.

In the wake of Hairspray, John Waters has found himself an unexpected darling of the Broadway community. “I've always been an outsider, but now I'm an insider, which is even funnier,” he explained to Broadway.com. “It's the ultimate, final irony of my life.” So it's seemed only natural that Cry-Baby: The Musical would find a home on the Great White Way as well. But after the Tony Awards and accolades, the validation from outsiders and elitists, the dalliances in the art world and even a Christmas album, what on earth will be next for Waters? “Cry-Baby was the only musical I ever did make, and Hairspray was a dance movie—so now I want Pink Flamingos to be an opera!”

Xanadu the Book!

Seriously! You can pick up a copy at the Helen Hayes Theatre in New York or online at Xanadu's Broadway Site

Total Skull

Live it, Love it, Rock it!

I wish I lived in New York City

Sutton Foster to Debut Songs from Solo Recording, "Wish," April 28

By Andrew Gans
01 Apr 2008

Sutton Foster
photo by Aubrey Reuben

Tony Award winner Sutton Foster, the Young Frankenstein star who will portray Princess Fiona in the forthcoming Shrek The Musical, will debut songs from her premiere solo recording April 28 at Joe's Pub.

Foster, according to the official Joe's Pub website, will offer a sneak peek at songs from her debut solo CD, "Wish," which she will soon record. Show time is 11:30 PM.

Sutton Foster received a Tony nomination for her work in the hit musical The Drowsy Chaperone at the Marquis Theatre. The singing actress starred in the title role of Thoroughly Modern Millie and received the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Astaire awards for that performance. She also received a Tony nomination for her performance in Little Women, and her other Broadway credits include roles in Les Misérables, Annie, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Grease!. Foster's regional and tour credits include What the World Needs Now, Dorian, Three Musketeers, South Pacific and The Will Rogers Follies.

Foster currently plays Inga in the new Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein at the Hilton Theatre.

Joe's Pub is located within the Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street. Tickets, priced at $30, are available by calling (212) 967-7555 or by visiting www.joespub.com.