FRESH AIR The American Film Institute (AFI) has named the top ten American films in ten popular genres. From sci-fi flicks to classic Westerns, the lists include some of the most influential works in American cinema. Today’s Fresh Air presents archival interviews with several of the actors and a screenwriter whose work has been recognized on the new list: Eva Marie Saint, star the AFI’s seventh-ranked mystery movie, North by Northwest, speaks with Terry Gross about her career, her Oscar-winning role in On the Waterfront and being typecast as a “sexy spy lady.” Screenwriter Robert Towne and actress Faye Dunaway […]
IMITATION OF LIFE: Ben Franklin To Wed Betsy Ross
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Wedding bells will ring in Philadelphia July 3 for Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross. Ralph Archbold and Linda Wilde, who are well known for their portrayals of the historical figures, plan a very public ceremony on the steps in front of Independence Hall. They met Sept. 1 after Wilde hired Archbold for a friend’s wedding toast. Archbold had initially declined, saying he doesn’t “do weddings,” but Wilde begged and he relented. The couple then found a love of history and education that soon evolved into love for one another , and this spring announced their engagement.Wilde, a pharmacist, […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A ‘Terrorist Fist Jab’ Of Truth
KNIVES OUT: Alycia Lane Sues KYW’s Ass A fired Philadelphia newscaster sued her former employer Thursday, alleging that the television station maliciously damaged her reputation and contributed to a number of her embarrassing off-camera episodes. Alycia Lane sued KYW-TV in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, alleging the station and its management deliberately got her personal life into the news in order to get free publicity. She is seeking unspecified damages. Lane was fired in January, a month after being arrested in New York City following a late-night scuffle with plainclothes police. In her lawsuit, she said she believed she was witnessing […]
BY POPULAR DEMAND: Men Who Wear Speedos
via SCRAPPLE TV RELATED: WTF Is Darren Finizio?
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
WHYY, the leading public broadcasting station in the greater Philadelphia region, presents It’s Our City, a new multi-platform civic engagement project produced by the station’s award-winning News & Information Service. The project will officially launch at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, June 20 with a LIVE 60-minute TV special with Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter and host Dave Davies, senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. Showcasing WHYY’s broadcast capabilities, this interview will be simulcast on WHYY TV12, WHYY’s primary digital channel 12.1 (Comcast Channel 240, FiOS Channel 812), on WHYY 91FM, and the It’s Our City Web site (www.whyy.org/city), which will also launch […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
THE FINEST HOUR: R.E.M., The Mann, Last Night [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA] BY JONATHAN VALANIA First time I heard “Wolves, Lower” live was at the Beacon Theater in New York City, and The Dream Syndicate opened. It was 1984 and Michael Stipe had hair down to his shoulders. The second time I heard it live was last night at the Mann Music Center, and Modest Mouse and The National opened. Hate to sound like Bill Murray reviewing movies he didn’t see on SNL back in the day, but The National? Didn’t see ’em, babe. I blame the traffic planner who […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Comedian Mike Myers has created a slew of memorable characters through his career: Dr. Evil, Austin Powers, Shrek, and Wayne’s World‘s Wayne Campbell all serve as cultural reference points. Now, Myers wants to add another indelible character to that list: The Guru Pitka. In his new comedy The Love Guru, Myers plays a spiritual guide charged with reuniting a hockey star with his estranged wife so that he can lead his team to winning the Stanley Cup. But The Love Guru may be too outrageous for some. Some Hindu groups fear that the movie promotes offensive stereotypes. Some […]
MEOW MIX: Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner!
Last night’s Anderson Cooper 360 featured a lively, if baffling, panel discussion about what Michelle Obama’s racial identity is going to mean to her husband’s supposedly post-partisan, post-racial politics presidential run. At one point, Cooper asked his guest whether discussion is needed of the fact that while Barack’s multi-racial identity has been one of the campaign’s most important cultural signifiers, “her racial identity is less mutable”? Translation: He may be the Tiger Woods of politics but she’s a black woman from Chicago, straight up. Since DoubleSecretThesis-gate didn’t exactly catch fire, do we need to instead debate the cultural implications of […]
I, SWINGER: Obama Now Leads In 3 Key Swing States
QUINNIPIAC POLL: With strong support from women, blacks and younger voters, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the apparent Democratic presidential contender, leads Arizona Sen. John McCain, expected to be the Republican candidate, among likely voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to simultaneous Quinnipiac University Swing State polls released today. This is the first time Sen. Obama has led in all three states. No one has been elected President since 1960 without taking two of these three largest swing states in the Electoral College. Results from the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University polls show: * Florida: Obama edges McCain 47 – 43 […]
KILLADELPHIA: 2 Shot, 1 Dead Since U Went 2 Bed
INQUIRER: One man was killed last night and another man injured in an East Germantown shooting, police said. The slaying marks the 148th homicide in Philadelphia this year. There were 182 murders last year to date. Last night, officers responded to the 2100 block of Godfrey Avenue at 10:16 p.m. and found Jerrett Washington, 22, with a gunshot wound to the back. Nearby, police found a 19-year-old man suffering a gunshot wound to his arm. Washington was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 2:37 a.m. The wounded 19-year-old was also taken to Einstein where […]
VALLEY OF SHADOW: Fear & Loathing In Francisville
BY JEFF DEENEY While everyone else was at City Hall for the press conference concerning the police raid of a Francisville building last Friday, I was on Ridge Avenue hoping to find my old friend Ms. Edna Williams, of the Mary Jane Enrichment Center. I wrote about Edna in a City Paper article about grassroots homeless services not long ago; she’s been serving the needy from her SRO between 16th and 17th streets on Ridge for about 30 years now. Edna’s seen Francisville’s fortunes rise and fall over they years, as it changed from a prosperous commercial hub in the […]