[dl] Movies
 Office Face
Melora Hardin
is changing workplaces this month. She’s going from NBC’s The Office to
work as a magazine editor in 27 Dresses. But here’s the thing about
that: Hollywood lies. See, we’re magazine editors. And, trust us,
magazine editors don’t look anywhere near as good as Hardin does.
Ignore our jealousy and turn the page to check out her stylish travel
tips.
Dressy Destinations
When Melora Hardin isn’t playing Jan Levinson on NBC’s The Office,
she’s moonlighting as a singer (she has released two CDs), a dancer
(she trained at New York’s Joffrey Ballet), and this month as a
magazine editor — the role she plays in the movie 27 Dresses, which
stars Katherine Heigl as a woman who has been a bridesmaid 27 times but
never a bride. Hardin has been both. So we asked her about weddings of
all kinds, including possible Office vows. By Allison Winn Scotch
Word of advice:
Don’t go alone to Siena, Italy, the town Hardin thinks would make for
the perfect wedding setting, or to Venice. “Siena is an amazing town
that is lost in time, with cobblestoned streets and lovely little
balconies,” Hardin says. “There is an incredible town square, where
they have dangerous and crazy horse races every year, but at other
times, the square just makes you feel like you are in a time gone by.
You can take a train from Florence and spend the day [there] and then
have your wedding-night celebration back in Florence. “Or do a
weekend and have the ceremony in Siena on a narrow little cobblestoned
street draped in flowers, spend the night, go to museums and eat in
Florence, and then honeymoon in Venice, one of the most romantic places
in the world. “I backpacked through Europe when I was 20, and I
planned on spending three days in Venice. I had to leave after one day
because Venice was so unbearably romantic and I was all alone.”
With a husband of 10 years and two kids, she’s not alone anymore.
“My husband, Gildart [Jackson], and I have a long love story. We met
over 20 years ago, then dated for six months, then broke up, and then
were off and on for many years. We finally got married 10 years ago.
When he said he wanted to marry me, well, he wanted to marry me right
away. So we got married immediately and went on a one-day honeymoon.
Then, three months later, we got married again in my mother’s old
church in Pasadena. I wore my 90-year-old grandmother’s dress. She was
in attendance. It was pretty amazing. But we have yet to go on a proper
honeymoon.”
Her dress collection isn’t quite as impressive, or as horrible, as Katherine Heigl’s character’s in 27 Dresses.
“I’ve been a bridesmaid three times and a maid of honor once. I had a
fabulous dress when I was a maid of honor. The bride’s only
requirements were that the dress be black and cocktail length. And, oh
yes, I had a very horrible dress a while ago. I don’t want to make my
friend feel bad, so I don’t want to say too much. It was just so …
’80s. Ugh.”
Her own wedding had an ugh moment, too, but it had nothing to do with the dresses.
“For my bridesmaids, I tried to pick something simple and clean, so
they wore this beautiful chocolate-brown velvet. I treated my
bridesmaids well, except for one incident on the day of the actual
wedding. We were coming back from the church to go to my parents’ house
for the reception, and I was in an old Rolls-Royce with Gildart. My
bridesmaids were supposed to be right behind me, but they completely
disappeared. By the time they got there, I was in a complete dither —
where were they? Had they died? Had they abandoned me? It turns out
that they had just decided to stop and grab something to eat. They were
so busy attending to me that they’d forgotten to eat lunch. But I
completely freaked out on them and burst into tears because I was so
worried and upset.”
Jan Levinson would have done the exact same thing. But will she get married to Michael Scott?
“We’ve often joked that at the very end of it all, instead of the
Jim/Pam wedding, it would be the Michael/Jan wedding. They can
certainly do a lot of growing together.”
And Kelly , that chatty Office mate, could do a lot of drinking.
“There would definitely be a drunken Kelly — still fighting with Ryan!
You know, I think it would be surprisingly genuine and would really
show a full circle of where they’ve come. You’d have to see that they
really do love each other. And have arrived at a better place.”
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[dl] Small Screen
 Road Wars
Not too long ago, in a place not so far, far away, a new road-trip movie joined the five others in this listing.
Kings of the Road
The granddaddies of all road trippers, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, are traveling together again on DVD.
In
their seven “road” pictures, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby traveled
everywhere from Singapore to Zanzibar. Fictionally, anyway — the
journeys took place largely on Hollywood back lots. But they weren’t
exactly typical fare. The road films satirized Hollywood’s biggest
stars, studios, and conventions — parodying everything from action
films to love stories to Westerns — at the time when movies and their
stars were still larger than life. Only Hope and Crosby could have
pulled off this feat with such ease. Stars of the stage first, they
existed almost outside the industry that would make them megarich. So
when Hope goes from fighting a giant squid in Road to Bali
to talking directly to the audience, warning us, among other things,
that Crosby is “gonna sing, folks. Now’s the time to go out and get the
popcorn,” it seems perfectly natural, even if it is highly
unconventional. But that’s where the legacy of the road pictures gets
odd. Unusual as they were for their time, they created a blueprint for
all road-trip movies to come. Bickering travelers? Check. Wacky
situations? Check. Pursuing evildoers? Love interests? Check and check.
Of course, the one thing most of today’s movie road warriors can’t
pull off is the self-referential feats. When Jackie Chan and Chris
Tucker repeat the line, “Do you understand the words that are coming
out of my mouth?” in all their Rush Hour films, it’s painful to watch. Not so when in Road to Rio
Hope and Crosby enact one of their old vaudeville routines —
patty-cake, no less — as a ruse to knock out some criminals. At the
end, Hope offers a line we should all remember: “That’s what they get
for not seeing our pictures.” — Rob Gilmour
New Road-Trip Movie: Fanboys, to be released later this year. Stars: Veronica Mars’s Kristen Bell and Sam Huntington, who was Jimmy Olsen in Superman Returns. Vehicle of Choice: A van. Purpose of Journey:
It is 1998, and a group of friends drive across the country to steal
the print of the first Star Wars prequel before it is released. Geek Alert:
Along the way, the pals obsessively drop dialogue from the original
three Star Wars movies. Also, like their outer-space heroes, they even
dive down a garbage chute to escape from guards. Yes, the walls do
close in on them. Double Geek Alert: The archenemy of the fanboys? Trekkies. Apparently, the universe isn’t big enough for both of them. Triple Geek Alert: Not all Trekkies are bad. William Shatner provides the keys for the theft. Best Line: “Nobody calls Han Solo a dirtbag.”
Old Road-Trip Movie: It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, 1963. Stars: Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, and just about every other 1960s-era comedy star you can think of. Vehicle of Choice: Cars, mostly, although a biplane is also involved. Purpose of Journey: To secure $350,000 of stolen money. Remember: That was a lot more money in 1963. Best Line:
Hackett, who plays the brilliantly named Benjy Benjamin, says to the
group chasing the money, “We’ve figured it 17 different ways, and each
time we figured it, it was no good. Because no matter how we figured
it, somebody don’t like the way we figured it. So now, there’s only one
way to figure it. And that is, every man, including the old bag, for
himself.”
Old Road-Trip Movie: Easy Rider, 1969. Stars: Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. Vehicle of Choice: Motorcycles. Purpose of Journey: Self-discovery and a search for the true soul of America. Plus, Mardi Gras. Best Line:
Nicholson’s character asks, “What’s dude? Is that like dude ranch?”
Fonda, as Wyatt, explains, “Dude means nice guy. Dude means a regular
sort of person.” Dude. How could he not know?
Old Road-Trip Movie: National Lampoon’s Vacation, 1983. Stars: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, and Randy Quaid. Vehicle of Choice: The Wagon Queen Family Truckster. Purpose of Journey: A family trip to Walley World. Best Line:
Chase, to a hotel clerk after his credit card was rudely declined, “I’m
making a check out for $1,000. All you have to do is give me $300 in
cash and keep the $700, all for doing nothing more than acting like a
total creep.”
Old Road-Trip Movie: Midnight Run, 1988. Stars: Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, and Yaphet Kotto. Vehicle of Choice:
Trains. Purpose of Journey: De Niro is a bounty hunter chasing Grodin,
a white-collar criminal, across the country before a bunch of mobsters
find him. Best Line:
De Niro, as Jack Walsh, says to FBI agent Alonzo Mosely, played by
Kotto, “Can I ask you something? These sunglasses — they’re really
nice. Are they government-issued, or do all you guys go to the same
store to get them?”
Old Road-Trip Movie: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, 2006 Stars: Sacha Baron Cohen and a bunch of people who probably shouldn’t have signed releases to be on camera. Vehicle of Choice: A mulepowered car and an ice cream truck. Purpose of Journey: Um, for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan. Duh. Best Line: Borat’s buddy, Azamat, asks, “What’s in California?” Borat replies, “Pearl Harbor is there. So is Texas.”
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 Battle of the Pro Road Warriors
Who’s
the best TV traveler? We rate five top contenders.
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TV Travel Show
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Hook
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Destinations
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Telling Moment
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Bottom Line
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No Reservations
with Anthony Bourdain, Travel Channel
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A chef turned
traveler sees the sights and eats the native cuisine while smoking too much
and offering constant, cranky narration.
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Tuscany, New York City, Paris, Ghana, Beirut,
and more
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He eats seal in a
Canadian Eskimo village. Raw seal. Raw seal eyeball.
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Since he’s always
visiting “friends” in faraway places who take him well off the beaten path,
you’re going to get annoyed when he berates you for being a bad traveler. It’d
be nice if we all had a camera crew to take on our trips. Still, Bourdain’s
travelogues, when not condescending, can be inspirational.
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Globe Trekker
with Justine Shapiro, Ian Wright, and Megan McCormick, PBS
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Gen Xers, backed
by Lonely Planet, travel in rad ways and do their trips to the X-treme, even
if they’re far too old to be staying in hostels.
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Indonesian islands,
New York, rural England, and pretty much everywhere
else
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Wright, the
morning after drinking too much tequila in Mexico, visits a restaurant where
beef stomach and fish tripe are on the menu. He chooses not to eat there.
Totally bogus.
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The travelers may
be poorly attired, and the show may get a little too cute at times, but the
hosts usually know their history, have respect for local customs, and do an
excellent job of making us interested in places we had never considered
going.
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Giada’s Weekend
Getaways with Giada De Laurentiis, Food Network
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De Laurentiis
sees some sights, eats several meals, and changes outfits a few times.
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Miami, New York City, Santa Barbara,
New Orleans, Seattle,
Charleston,
and More
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In New Orleans, De
Laurentiis has dinner at Emeril’s Delmonico. Now that’s cross-promotion.
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De Laurentiis
suffers by comparison with other TV travelers because she’s only going
somewhere for a weekend. How much can you learn in that short of a time?
Still, she could do more than make us watch her eat. One idea: Go talk to the
chef instead.
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Rick Steves’ Europe with Rick Steves, PBS
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Mild-mannered
everyman traveler gives detail-oriented tours of European towns and cities.
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Rome, Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid,
etc.
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Steves, in Madrid’s Museo
Nacional del Prado, goes on and on about the history of some artist whose name
you will not be able to remember (it’s El Greco) because your eyes already
will have glazed over. Meanwhile, someone is probably drinking sangria
nearby.
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Steves scores
high for telling you the practical things other travel shows don’t, like how
to get a train ticket, how to approach a local in a shop, and how to score an
inexpensive hotel room that’s not a hostel (usually). He will not, however,
eat seal eyeballs.
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The Amazing Race,
CBS
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Teams of
travelers are sent around the globe on a nerve-racking, nailbiting scavenger
hunt race.
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Dublin, Sydney, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Rio de Janeiro, and so on
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A pair of
contestants beg for cab money. In Miami.
They’d have more luck in Timbuktu.
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Yeah, it’s a game
show. And, no, you won’t really learn much. But you don’t get this window to
the world from, say, Jeopardy! Remember when Paul and Amie were lost
in the Sahara? The desert has never looked
more beautiful. Plus, no museums!
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Homeward  Bound
What to watch when you're not on the road. By John Ross
My Name Is Ponch
If you’re anything like us, you can’t get enough of Erik Estrada
on TV — his acting, that is. We’re no fans of his stints (or anyone else’s
stints) on The Surreal Life and Armed & Famous. Those are not
the kinds of places you want to see a throwback, hirsute fellow like Estrada,
the self-proclaimed King of Hunkdom. Preferably,
we’d see Estrada in CHiPs ’08 , but since that project isn’t happening,
we have to settle for watching him on Husband for Hire , which will air
on Oxygen. In this TV movie, onetime officer Francis Llewellyn “Ponch”
Poncherello is the father of My Name Is Earl’s Nadine Velazquez. She
hires Kelly Ripa’s husband, Mark Consuelos, to pretend to be her husband so she
can claim a family fortune. Or something. We are really just watching to see if
Estrada makes any traffic stops.
U2 + 3D = Best Movie You’ll See
There is not a better movie in theaters this month than U2 3D,
which, given the quality of most releases this time of year, probably doesn’t
sound like much of a compliment. But it is. The film, the first ever
live-action movie to be shot, produced, and shown in digital 3-D, captures the
band on their Vertigo tour, playing in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. The
digital imagery is a true breakthrough. The cameras come in pairs — a right and
a left eye, so to speak — that produce a deep image that is almost true to
life. Focusing both “eyes” on the performances was the job of codirectors Catherine
Owens and Mark Pellington, who have long relationships with the band.
Pellington directed the video for “One,” and Owens, who has served as U2’s
visual-content director for several years (we’re not sure if that means she
supplies Bono with sunglasses), has been friends with the bandmates since she
and they were teenagers growing up in Dublin.
For U2 3D, Owens and Pellington manage to swing the camera sets — which
are large and not the easiest things to move — from audience to stage to behind
the scenes, giving viewers a perspective on the concerts that’s better than what
you’d get from a seat. That this latest breakthrough in concert moviemaking comes not
from, say, Martin Scorsese, who famously captured the Band in The Last Waltz,
but from a pair of novice directors is surprising. Just as surprising is that
the film’s distributor isn’t a big studio but a division of the National
Geographic Society — the outfit best known for producing undersized (though
brilliant) 2-D images. What’s not a surprise at all: Ahead of U2 3D’s
release, there’s already demand for Bono-style 3-D glasses.
The Doctor Is In
In Treatment, HBO’s newest — and very frequently
aired — show, as told in numbers. 43 Total
number of episodes HBO has committed to for the series, which stars Gabriel
Byrne as a therapist. 9 Number of weeks, in succession, that the show will be on the air. 5 Number
of nights, per week, the show will air. (Monday through Friday in its regular
slot on HBO. Technically, though, there are more airings on HBO’s other networks.)
30 Number of minutes each episode will run. 5 Number of
patients Byrne will see each week. (The same five patients will appear
throughout the course of the show’s 43 episodes.) 1 Number
of times per week that Byrne’s character will see his own therapist. 6 Number
of stars in the show joining Byrne. Josh Charles, Embeth Davidtz, Melissa George,
Blair Underwood, and Mia Wasikowska are Byrne’s patients. Dianne Wiest is his
psychiatrist. 28 The date in January when the premier episode airs. Mark your calendar
— repeatedly.
Great Caesar’s
Ghost? Maybe Not.
The
Tower of London. Haunted. The Roman Forum. Haunted.
Paris’s
catacombs. Haunted. Right? Well, hopefully we’ll soon find out. This month,
Sci Fi is sending a team of ghost hunters overseas to find out if the Continent
is as scary as the current euro-dollar exchange rate. The channel is hoping to
capitalize on the success of its Ghost Hunters, a show about skeptics
who search for the paranormal mainly in the United
States, with Ghost Hunters International, a show
in which the skeptics will work exclusively in Europe.
Some of the investigators will be familiar to the Ghost Hunters audience.
Robb Demarest, Andy Andrews, and Donna LaCroix are among the international team
members who will apply scientific principles to reported ghost sightings in an
attempt to prove that natural — and not supernatural — forces are at work. We
wish them luck. But, seriously, should they see the headless ghost of Anne
Boleyn, we suggest they run. Fast.
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[dl] Music
Fun House
What did Kate Pierson do during the 16-year break
between the B-52's albums? She opened her own "love shack" of
course. By Kristin Baird Rattini
YOU’VE HEARD IT BEFORE: A
band takes a break between albums, and its members take off in
different, often dizzying, directions. So it’s no surprise that during
the 16 years that have passed since the B-52’s last studio album,
redheaded chanteuse Kate Pierson has spent time singing with another
group. A supergroup, actually. From Japan. And named NiNa. Actually,
maybe that is a little surprising. But what’s even more unexpected is
that Pierson has also spent her time away from the B-52’s running
Kate’s Lazy Meadow Motel in New York’s Catskills region. The funky
1950s-era motel in Mount Tremper (that’s where it’s at) is a little old
place with nine rooms (and two Airstreams) that’s set way back on nine
acres. There, travelers with an appreciation for kitsch and mod design
can get together. This year, Pierson will be getting away from her
getaway. She’ll be touring to support the B-52’s new album, Funplex.
Due out March 25, the 11-track CD sports an updated, dance-oriented
sound. “It has a more electronica feel,” Pierson says. “It’s more
modern in its approach to the rhythm.” Pierson spoke to us about how
she balances her involvement with the updated B-52’s with work at her
throwback haven for travelers.
What inspired you to open Kate’s Lazy Meadow Motel? When I first saw the land, I fell in love with it. It’s a rustic motel on beautiful land by Esopus Creek. I thought, We’ll decorate, rent them out, maybe make a theme — it will be easy.
But of course, it led to the much more difficult task of [learning] how
to run a hotel. Monica Coleman [Pierson’s partner] was able to get a
grip on the business aspect of it, and we are really rocking now.
You’ve described it as your “cabin-fever fantasy.” It is my fantasy. I have a collection of House & Garden magazines from the 1950s and ’60s. I would stare at them and think, If I had a kitchen like that, a turquoise kitchen.…
Monica found one in this crazy salvage place, a full-on turquoise 1950s
kitchen set with the cabinets, refrigerator — the whole nine yards.
It’s fantastic. We did the whole thing in a ’50s theme, but some of the
rooms have more of a ’60s twist. Some are more ’50s rustic modern. We
have Eames and IKEA, kitschy kitchens, great examples of design. We
have a great setup. There’s a campfire by the creek. The Airstreams are
just beautiful. The rooms are all decorated. We’re putting in some
fireplaces. We’re always improving. It’s kind of like the band in a
way, because people have such a good time there.
Are there any lessons you’ve learned from traveling on tour that you now apply as a hotel owner?
I’m trying to remain true to the rustic roots of this motel. It is a
motel, not a hotel. It’s not about pillow mints or people running
around saying, “My pleasure.” We emphasize the personal contact. The
coziness factor is very high on my list. We want our guests to have a
really cozy experience, like home. Comfortable yet an element of exotic
fantasy and whimsy.
With the
B-52’s new album and tour, you’ll be spending some time in other
people’s hotels now. There’s been such a long dry spell for the B-52’s.
What makes now the right time for making more music? Keith
Strickland got charged up to write the music. He felt he could write
the music and do something that was us and yet different at the same
time. He pushed it in a more advanced rock direction, which we’ve
always been. When we first started, we were new wave but really
danceable, with elements of punk but also with elements of disco. We
had a danceability and party sensibility.
On the band’s website, you declare yourselves the “world’s greatest party band.”
You know, someone asked me, “Twenty years from now, what will be your
legacy?” At first, I thought there should maybe be a little more
emphasis on the music, that we’re not just the hairdos. The music and
the lyrics are important. We do have messages in our songs. But the
most important thing is that people have fun when they see us. That is
a huge gift.
In addition to touring, you’re planning some YouTube-type promos for Funplex.
We want a much more grassroots approach without things getting
overbloated. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were just massive videos,
with so much money spent on them. People want to see something more
fun, more whimsical. Rock videos have become such a cliché, and there’s
an opportunity to do some really off-the-wall stuff with YouTube.
Hotel Rock
Musicians are such expert road warriors that some create
their own musical getaways. Match each of the hotels we’ve listed below
with its corresponding description at right. Earn extra credit for
naming the band or singer and the year the album or song was released. By James Mayfield
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The Hotels
Elite
Hotel 1
Hotel
2
Heartbreak
Hotel 3
Hotel
California 4
From
the Mars Hotel 5
Hotel
Yorba 6
Morrison
Hotel 7
Yankee
Hotel Foxtrot 8
Hotel
Paper 9
Grand Hotel 10
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A
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The
cover of this album, the L.A.
band’s fifth studio recording in four years, shows the quartet looking out a
window beneath the Morrison Hotel sign. Though the group had no official bass
player as a member, this record featured one of the best bass lines ever,
courtesy of recruited player Ray Neapolitan, on “Peace Frog.” Featured tracks:
“Roadhouse Blues” and “Ship of Fools.”
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F
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Before
becoming one half of the country duo the Wreckers, this singer released this,
her sophomore album. Featured tracks: “Love Me Like That” (with Sheryl Crow),
“Tuesday Morning,” and “Find Your Way Back.”
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B
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Still riding high
from their earlier hit “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” these London-formed prog
rockers — minus then recently departed guitarist Robin Trower — released this
album to even more critical acclaim. Featured tracks: “Toujours l’Amour,” “A
Souvenir of London,” and the title track.
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G
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Recorded in the
band’s hometown of San Francisco,
their seventh album gets its title from a building close to where it was
tracked. Some fans claim that if you hold the album upside down, it has an
alternate title: Ugly Rumours. (Side note: Ugly Rumours was the name
of the Oxford University
band that featured Tony Blair, who went on to become the prime minister of Great Britain.)
Featured tracks: “Scarlet Begonias,” “U.S. Blues,” and “Ship of Fools.”
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C
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The moment this
Alabama-born singer came down from the mountain and out into the mainstream
with her debut in 1968, a legend was born. Her haunting vocals and
interpretations of covers such as Hank Williams’s “Jambalaya,” Buck Owens’s “Together
Again,” and the Beatles’ “Here, There and Everywhere” on this follow-up just increased
her influence and legendary status. Featured track: “Sin City.”
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H
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This record by
former members of Linda Ronstadt’s backup band became an instant classic,
going platinum its first week out of the gate and eventually winning a Grammy
for Record of the Year. Featured tracks: “New Kid in Town,” “Life in the Fast
Lane,” and the title track.
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D
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Although it’s
rumored that the record label originally refused to release this album so the
band bought their session back for $50,000, it’s no lie that the album went
on to be one of the most critically acclaimed records of this decade.
Featured tracks: “Heavy Metal Drummer,” “War on War,” and “I’m the Man Who
Loves You.”
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I
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Though the hotel
in this title didn’t exist when the song was written in 1956, the recording
is the inspiration behind the Memphis
lodging that bears its name today. It was also this artist’s first No. 1
song.
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E
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Richard Melville
Hall (using his stage name) recorded the majority of this double album in his
Manhattan
apartment. It was the first time he left vocal samples off his recordings. Featured
tracks: a cover of New Order’s “Temptation,” “Beautiful,” “Spiders,” and “Lift
Me Up.”
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J
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This song, from
the supposed oncemarried Detroit
duo, was the first single off the garage rockers’ third album, White Blood
Cells. Some of the single version of the song was recorded at the actual
namesake hotel.
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