Pageant goes back in time
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – Contestants in this year’s Miss America pageant made their debut in Atlantic City on Sunday, dressed in fashions from the 1950s.
A crowd of several hundred people gathered on the city’s boardwalk to watch introductions of the 52 contestants. Their attire was a tip of the hat to the 50th anniversary of the first Miss America telecast, but strong winds made it hard for the women to keep on their pillbox-style hats.
Miss Louisiana, Jennifer Dupont, was wearing a silk suit with a mink collar and a mink piece of headware that looked like a halo.
“I would like it if this came back in fashion,” Dupont said.
The pageant finals are scheduled for Sept. 18, and the telecast has been extensively revised. The program has been trimmed from three hours to two. Instead of seeing the talent performances of all five finalists, viewers will see only the final two.
Viewers will also see scenes from backstage.
The contestants represent all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Bada Bing!, Bada Boom
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) – A vehicle driven by James Gandolfini, who plays mob boss Tony Soprano on the HBO series “The Sopranos,” was hit by a suspected drunken driver over the weekend. The actor was not injured, police said.
Gandolfini was in town for Saturday’s Rutgers-Michigan State football game when his sport utility vehicle was hit broadside by a driver who police said ran a red light. Gandolfini is a Rutgers alumnus.
Charles Collins, 72, of New Brunswick, was issued a summons for drunken driving and was released, police said. He was not hurt.
Gandolfini and three friends stopped for dinner at a local restaurant after the crash. He then returned to his home in New York City, police said.
Scarlett’s surreal press tour
VENICE, Italy (AP) – “Lost in Translation” star Scarlett Johansson came to the Venice Film Festival to promote her latest picture, but found herself fending off romantic advances.
During a packed press conference for her film “A Love Song for Bobby Long,” the 19-year-old was ambushed by an unusual question by a young journalist from Chile.
“This is kind of a confession: I can’t sleep at night thinking about you. Sorry, I have to tell you. I’m a journalist but I’m an actor, too,” the Casanova said Thursday. “Please, could you choose one of your favorites (movies) to make with me. Come on Scarlett, please.”
“Oh God. … Uhm. ‘Single White Female,’ maybe,” Johansson quipped, referring to the 1992 film about a woman whose roommate becomes dangerously obsessed with her.
“I’ve never seen it,” the reporter said. “What is it about? It is a love one?”
“Of sorts,” Johansson replied.
This same journalist has made unusual comments at other press conferences, suggesting Steven Spielberg make a sequel to “Savi ng Private Ryan” called “Saving Private Bush” but “at the end of the film no one saves him.” And he advised Denzel Washington to run for president. Neither star responded to his remarks.
Gilligan not hot on redo
PRINCETON, W.Va. (AP) – The original Gilligan doesn’t think a new reality television show based on his classic sitcom will work well.
“‘Gilligan’s Island’ is one show that they’ve never tried to copy. They couldn’t burlesque it, because we had done so much of that. And they couldn’t satirize it, because we had done so much of that, too. So producers just left it alone. I really don’t think this show is going to work,” Bob Denver, who played Gilligan on the original “Gilligan’s Island,” said.
“The Real Gilligan’s Island,” is set to debut on TBS in November.
The castaways will even relive some of the bizarre scenarios from the original series, an idea that made Denver chuckle.
“I’d like to see them put a lion or a tiger on the island, but I really don’t think that would happen. Or they could get real headhunters from Borneo and put them on the island,” Denver said.
Weird Al’s weird world
Things got pretty hairy for parody singer “Weird Al” Yankovic as an unwanted flock rushed onstage during his performance at an Illinois fair last week.
Performing this week at the DuQuoin State Fair, the screechy song parodist was swarmed by a cloud of big green moths. Many of the insects even nestled in Yankovic’s trademark long curly locks.
Perhaps this is why so many established singing stars such as Britney Spears choose to lip-synch on stage – so bugs won’t fly down their throats.
Yankovic didn’t seem bugged by the moths, though, as he plugged along with his self-described “rock and comedy multimedia extravaganza” to support his recent album, Poodle Hat, which spoofs songs by Eminem, Avril Lavigne, Bob Dylan and others.
“My band asked me if I could find a concert where we would be attacked by insects,” Yankovic told his audience. “I said I would see what I could do.”
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