Los Angeles, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/20/13 – If you’re looking for some fine, family fun, a for sure ‘Don’t Miss’ this weekend is scheduled in your own back yard: The 40th Annual Topanga Days – a Memorial Day tradition. LA ’s longest running bohemian festival and country fair is held at the Topanga Community Club Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
A true family weekend is in store on a 12-acre property, which became the Topanga Community Center in 1949. There will be live music on two stages, Kid Zone will provide family fun with traditional games like egg tosses, watermelon spitting and pie eating contests, face painting and tattooing. Food and beverages are available as are healing arts and a weekend highlight,: the Topanga Days Parade begins at 9am on Memorial Day. [Read more →]
Mel Brooks Actor/Director/Writer Mel Brooks speaks onstage during the PBS panel for ‘AMERICAN MASTERS “Mel Brooks: Make a Noise” ‘ of the 2013 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at the Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa on January 14, 2013 in Pasadena, California. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images North America)
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
By Valerie Milano
Pasadean, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/20/13 – In a recent interview with Hollywood Today and other reporters American Masters producer Susan Lacy, director Robert Trachtenberg and comedy great Mel Brooks discussed the new documentary American Masters Mel Brooks: Make a Noise. Susan Lacy described Mel as a“…comedy giant and a 60-year showbiz veteran who has won more major awards than any other living entertainer. He’s a Kennedy Center honoree and one of a small, elite group of EGOT winners, people who won an Emmy, Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.” Brooks chimes in quickly, “I’m not such a comedy giant. I’m five six. There are guys not as funny, but they are bigger, and I think that counts.” This new career-spanning documentary features interviews with Brooks, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Cloris Leachman, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Tracey Ullman, and many others.
Brooks discussing his early childhood explained, “I said to myself, ‘one day I’m going to have a Broadway show! No factories for me, no driving in a cab, no working or renting bicycles. I’m going to write things that are in my soul, that are in my heart and I’m going to be in show business. And I knew it. And I was going to enjoy my life and have fun and live that kind of life.’ And I did.” He goes on to say, “being rather bizarre looking and being rather short, I needed another tool so that I would be accepted. So then, I used comedy.” In the documentary, well-loved Hollywood director Rob Reiner discussed Mel’s craft, “Mel works best when he’s put in a corner. My father has a way of leading him to places that are so uncomfortable and awkward for him that it forces him to have to figure out a crazy funny way to get out of it. And Mel, I think, is his best when he’s with my dad.“ [Read more →]
Crowned Univision’s Nuestra Belleza Latina (Our Latina Beauty)
By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/20/13 Marisela Demontecristo, the contestant with a number of unprecedented votes (over 10 million) has been crowed the 7th Miss Nuestra Belleza Latina and the 1st Salvadoran to have such honor bestowed.
Marisela Demontecristo, born in El Salvador and living in Las Vegas, NV, was seen as the least likely to win the coveted crown during the 3 month contest. However, each weekend the “Cinderella” of the group won over the audience with her candid smile, humble beginnings, and perseverance. Hollywood Today sat with her prior to her crowning and asked – what would she do with the $250,000 winning prize. Her response was like no other. Marisela wasn’t looking to buy a house, to vacation at the most exclusive resort, “All I want to be able to pay for my niece’s surgery and enrich the education of the poorest children in my country,” said the humble queen. Her niece was born with an intestinal failure and is in need of surgery in order to live life normally. [Read more →]
Sausalito, CA (Hollywood Today) May 19,013- Tonight the Sausalito Film Festival strong in its 5th season premiered “The Defector: Escape from North Korea ” written and directed by Korean-Canadian filmmaker Ann Sin, to a pack house.
“THE DEFECTOR: Escape from North Korea” was produced, directed and written by Ann shin. Narrated by the filmmaker it tells the story of a smuggler and five young North-Korean women attempt to escape from China where they have landed, and are living in constant fear of being caught and repatriated back to North Korea, and out a life of servitude. Their only hope is to make it into South Korea, or to another country as a refugee.
The documentary traces these women’s journey and their smuggler, a man who operates under the name of Dragon as they make their way out of China through Laos and then Thailand, and travel for over 3,000 miles to what they hope will be a second chance at life and freedom. [Read more →]
The only thing better than the Stones – is more Stone!
Anaheim CA,(Hollywood Today)5/17/13/— What else can be said about “a band” that has done it all in their 50 years of playing? Is there any other band who can match the Rolling Stones music library and dedication? On Wednesday, May 15 at the Honda Center in Anaheim the Grrrrruesome Foursome of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood proved to the world that the still are the best Rock and Roll band in the world.
Crowd-funding takes center stage on CNBC’s new reality competition series Crowd Rules.
Worthy of Respect
By Valerie Milano
Pasadena, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/15/13
“It’s business on a smaller scale, fewer zeros, but the stakes remain high,” says Jim Ackerman, Senior Vice President of Alternative Alternation Programming at CNBC.
With Kickstarter trending so hard, it was only a matter of time before there was a reality competition show that nominally follows the concept of the crowd funding a company. Crowd Rules on CNBC Prime showcases 3 small businesses, has an expert visit the company and highlights both its strengths and areas of concern. The audience votes and the business that gets the most votes wins $50,000 to help grow their business. [Read more →]
