BW Manilowe

When I saw his (creepy) picture I remembered Ralph Nau. I probably knew about Michael Owen Perry too, but I didn’t remember him. I’m really glad he’s in prison. I hope Ralph Nau’s locked up somewhere too. It looks like he is, but it’s also a little confusing if he still is in that second link you posted.

Peter is actually named Patrick, regarding the bolded. I have a store logo sweatshirt, at least 1 t-shirt, & at least 1 shopping bag from Koala Blue somewhere (I’m not sure they fit me anymore but, unless my mom got rid of them behind my back, I still have them). Yes, I even kept store packaging from places my favorite celebs opened like Koala Blue, if I was lucky enough to go there or someone else in my family went for me (like if they were going where a favorite celebrity’s store or restaurant, etc., was opened & I wasn’t—I got lots of Hard Rock Cafe & Planet Hollywood shirts that way). My parents went to LA for a Rose Bowl game & mom got me the sweatshirt, I think shortly after the original store opened on Melrose in LA. Then I went to LA for New Year’s Eve 1987 going into 1988 & got at least 1 store logo t-shirt from a store that had subsequently opened in an LA-area mall (maybe the Glendale Galleria). I know the movie you mean. But I can’t remember the name of it. “Suddenly” is 1 of my favorite songs by Olivia. She & Sir Cliff definitely have chemistry, but I’ve heard rumors (& some really controversial ones, but I don’t remember those) practically forever that he doesn’t “play for the same team” as Olivia (but they’ve also said the same thing practically forever about Travolta, with whom she also has excellent chemistry & a great friendship). Regardless, I think I’ve played practically every version of “Suddenly” that I can find on YouTube at least once—even the concert/live appearance ones with Olivia’s background vocalists replacing Sir Cliff on them. Yeah, Two of a Kind was a dud as a movie. But, musically, it gave us “rocker” Olivia, with “Twist of Fate” & “Livin’ in Desperate Times”; “Take a Chance”—which I think is probably actually my favorite duet she’s done with John Travolta, & “Shakin’ You”, which is another beautiful song off the soundtrack but I’m not sure it was ever a single; at least not here in the US (I think it should’ve been 1).

It’s on Hulu too. I haven’t seen anything about them dropping it.

They also didn’t mention the Koala Blue stores Pat & Olivia started in the ‘80’s(?) or their failure. I guess the only failures they were interested in were Olivia’s relationship failures. Who’s Peter? Am I forgetting someone?

They did have a disclaimer at the start of the movie about how certain things in it were fictionalized. I’m trying to remember if the stalker was & haven’t gotten that looked up yet. I never said anything about Michael Beck needing a stand in/stunt double for roller skating or anything else actually in the movie. I was just talking about how Matt was allegedly picked for Olivia to rehearse with, at least the first day, & the guy who introduced her on set referred to whomever she was gonna choose as Michael’s stand in for rehearsing with Olivia that day, or at least until he could get to the set.

So are half the Beatles. Sir Paul & Sir Ringo/Sir Richard are the only ones left, like Micky & Mike are the only Monkees now.

It looks like Whoopi Goldberg’s NOT gonna be a surprise Oscar Host after all. Darn it... ET Online reported yesterday that Joy Behar said on The View, also apparently yesterday, that Whoopi’s been at home recovering from pneumonia. She visited her at home what’s now the night before last (if I figured right); that would make it Tuesday night, I think, since it’s VERY early on Thursday morning, Eastern time, as I type & post this.

I thought the guy who introduced Olivia to all those people (the dancers?) on the first day of rehearsals, which I guess it was supposed to be, said something to Olivia about picking out “a Michael Beck stand-in” to rehearse with & play whatever age Danny was to her Kira, apparently because Michael Beck wasn’t there that day (at least for the movie’s purposes in showing Matt & Olivia meeting for the first time)? I’ve seen the movie 4 times already & I know the guy in the beginning of the Xanadu-related section says something about Olivia needing “a Michael Beck stand-in” (to rehearse with) so she should pick 1 & she picked Matt (at least in the movie; I have no idea if that’s how they really met on the set).

I didn’t think Delta Goodrem (adult Olivia—she’s also a friend of hers in real life & they’ve recorded together before) looked like Jennifer Lopez at all. Mileage varies, I guess. The Faux Travolta sorta had his face, but the hair wasn’t right at all, I thought; not in their “real life” scenes or in their Grease scenes. I knew a lot about Allan Carr (the fat guy with the glasses, who produced Grease; he also produced the Academy Awards the year Rob Lowe & Snow White did that horrible opening number, but he still apparently got great ratings for the show), but I thought he maybe was kinda creepy in the movie. At least I don’t think they had the movie version wear the caftans the real person loved to wear. They didn’t do too badly casting here either, I think. Agreed. The actor who played Matt Lattanzi was probably the 1 who looked the most like the person they played. At least as I remember how he looked when they were seen together during his & Olivia’s relationship & marriage. But their “meet cute” scene in the movie was weird when Faux Olivia just said “him” in picking Matt as her “Michael Beck stand in” for the moment (even though people who are fans/know a lot about Olivia but still might not be fans who watched the movie knew she’d pick the guy who looked like Matt, because they met filming Xanadu), it seemed like without pointing at him or describing him/his clothes. I think just the “him” might’ve confused people/viewers who knew little to nothing about Olivia & just watched this because it was about a celebrity (& maybe might’ve been trashy, as such). I was sorta worried Matt & Olivia broke up because they weren’t at the same level of fame, professionally, but I don’t think I ever read anything that explained why they split either—not that they owe the public an explanation. Olivia has a memoir, cleverly titled Don’t Stop Believin’, coming out on March 12th in the US (I’ve already pre-ordered it from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble—I forget which). Maybe she’ll discuss it there. Patrick & Olivia broke up shortly before he bailed to Mexico, like in the movie; but she apparently still loved him afterwards. I heard the movie refer to Olivia, I think, as his “longtime (or “former longtime”) partner” after he disappeared. I’m still amazed he worked on the film/audio crew for an interview of hers & didn’t seem to know how famous she is. But I loved how Delta seemed to get how enthusiastically Olivia always starts her interviews/personal videos, like that cheery “Hi Australia!” & her voice in the video where she & young Chloe are talking about the release of her Back to Basics compilation CD. I have a feeling the entertainment news reporters in the movie were supposed to have been composites of all the famous ones from the syndicated/cable networks entertainment news shows back when the events they were covering happened. I wanna know who that blond guy reporter was who was supposed to be reporting on the Grease premiere. If it was supposed to have been John Tesh, who was with Entertainment Tonight, like forever, before he left to pursue his music as his career, the hair was SO TOTALLY WRONG!

It’s possible. Back when the Olympics were in Canada last (I think in Calgary?), singer Anne Murray told her Twitter followers, before the games opened, that she was going to be away for a few days, doing a certain thing, & the next thing we knew, she was singing in the Opening Ceremonies. What she had said she’d be doing—which I can’t remember now—was totally different than being in the Olympics Opening Ceremonies because, as I remember, Anne Tweeted afterwards her appearance was supposed to have been a surprise. So, yeah, it’s entirely possible (more possible than the Jussie Smollett attack NOT being a hoax at this point, unfortunately) Whoopi could be in LA or NYC right now prepping for the host gig. I noticed the other day Joy Behar, who takes over as host moderator when Whoopi’s off, seemed to be struggling with her explanation for Whoopi’s continued, now rather lengthy, absence. Like you could feel she wanted to roll her eyes over it & she was thinking this better be over soon because it’s getting to where Whoopi’s been off so long nobody’s gonna believe the excuse & start thinking Whoopi either quit & they’re trying, not yet successfully, to convince her to come back or she got fired. If Whoopi’s not secretly rehearsing to host the Oscars right now, the only other excuses I have are she’s legitimately sick—like hospitalized sick—or she’s had major plastic surgery & is still recovering. Or she’s quit & they’re trying to get her to come back & she won’t; or they’ve either suspended or fired her over something she’s said or done on air regarding the government. The only problems with those excuses are: Nobody’s reported seeing Whoopi in LA recently, which you’d think would get out so close to the ceremony. And if she wasn’t on The View anymore, for whatever reason, you’d think that would’ve made the news too (it certainly did both times Rosie O’Donnell left the show).

Well, Olivia may not have had a good leading man/love interest in the movie, but she sure got a pretty good 1 out of it, for probably around a decade or maybe a little longer (& she indirectly got a daughter out of it too), since that’s where she met Matt. Though I do feel kinda sorry/sad for him (& both of them/the family they had with Chloe), I guess, if they broke up because of his success (or lack of it) relative to hers like in the movie. I know it happens. But I hate that stuff like that makes the men in that situation (in any profession) feel so emasculated (for lack of a better word), while I don’t think women whose careers in the same profession as their partner (entertainment or anything else) are less successful than their partner’s (specifically male partners) feel any less feminine over it. If that scene came from real life, I know Chloe didn’t know what she was saying, ‘cause I know she was pretty young at the time; & she was, & presumably still is, proud of Matt, but I really wish she hadn’t implied/stated Olivia was more famous than Matt like that (there are probably more tactful ways to say it). But I guess it was “Out of the mouths of babes....” in that situation. By the way, I looked on IMDb & it looks as if Matt hasn’t acted since 1993. He’s supposedly been a construction worker since, was married again (which apparently ended in 2007), & is apparently last known to be living off the grid somewhere. At least he hasn’t disappeared like Patrick did (I know that sounds cold, but I was thinking it)—although I thought they eventually found Patrick in Mexico, maybe living under a pseudonym?

From ET Online: Charo’s Husband, Kjell Rasten, Dies by Suicide (Reports) If you don’t know her, Charo is the Spanish-born entertainer who is best known, mainly from the 1970’s & ‘80’s, for her mangled version of the English language (“misconscrewed” for “misconstrued”, etc.) & the catchphrase “cuchi cuchi”, accompanied by a shake of her body. She also did a number of guest shots on The Love Boat & voiced the character of Mrs. Toad in Don Bluth’s animated movie version of Thumbelina.

If you happen to have Hulu, & your subscription includes live TV (at least I think you have to have live TV on your Hulu subscription) you still have access to the movie, even though it isn’t currently running, or running any time in the near future apparently, on Lifetime. I ended up watching it Saturday through my own Hulu subscription (though I did have to add live TV access to it, & you can get a week-long free trial if you don’t have live TV access), then I was surprised to find, last night, it was still a viewing choice upon opening the app. I was even more surprised to see some scenes in the movie yesterday, watching it off-air, that I don’t remember being in it when I watched all (or most all—I may have actually missed 1) of the airings on Lifetime. That was at least 4 times; I should almost have it memorized by now (laughs). Most of the missing stuff was either full scenes that were also clips in the montage we saw at the end as fictional Olivia sang “I Honestly Love You” during a concert at the Sydney Opera House, like Pat & Olivia singing in the black dresses, Chloe’s birth, the food fight when Olivia & young Chloe were cooking/baking; or they were small parts of other scenes that might’ve explained some things better had Lifetime kept them in, examples of which aren’t coming to my mind right now; or random other things—like Matt & Olivia’s wedding—that, for some reason, Lifetime’s editors decided weren’t important enough to keep in when they were editing the movie to add commercials. So if you thought there were some weird scene transitions, or things were missing from the movie, you were right. But they never mentioned the ill-fated Koala Blue boutiques at all. Just FYI.

That’s right. Ingo Rademacher played the father of a private school student who was kidnapped along with a bus load of his classmates, his teacher, the bus driver & maybe a school/classroom aide on the way to a field trip, in retaliation for Five-0 seizing a stash of cocaine (I think it was) that was being stored at a warehouse Rademacher’s character owned during season 2. Then he was cast in S6, or maybe S5, as the brother (who I think was an SFPD cop) of an HPD Internal Affairs investigator who was killed by Chin’s criminal brother-in-law, Gabriel Wainwright, while he was investigating Chin for being a dirty cop & Ingo’s new character wanted to bring Chin & Five-0 down for his brother’s death so he sent an SFPD cop to infiltrate the team & find anything they do that could get them shut down (apparently not knowing the late Governor Jameson gave them full immunity & means when she created the team), under the pretext of learning & observing their methods because she was part of a similar task force that just started with SFPD (& which didn’t actually exist at the time). Of course the only thing that happened there was the mole couldn’t find anything to use against the team, she & Chin fell in love, & they eventually moved to San Francisco with Chin’s niece Sara (the daughter of his now-deceased brother-in-law, Gabriel Wainwright), whom he was now the legal guardian of, where they started a real SFPD task force similar to Five-0. Another example of an actor playing 2 different characters on the same show would be when Harry Morgan did a guest spot on an early (McLean Stevenson era) episode of M*A*S*H as an Army General who was visiting the 4077th for an inspection of the troops & he was totally looney tunes—or at least he exhibited that kind of behavior—during his inspection; then he was cast, after McLean Stevenson decided to leave the show about 3 seasons in (I think), as Colonel Sherman Potter, the new Commanding Officer of the unit.

Just a misprint? That’s all I’ve got.

From Amazon.com: The Americans: The Complete Series DVDs Just in case someone wants the series on DVD & didn’t buy the individual season sets. Unfortunately there’s no description about the set (I’ve noticed Amazon seems to have stopped including descriptions about things like DVDs, CDs & I think even books on their item pages in recent years... which I hate), so I have no idea if they just repackaged the individual season sets into a single set or if they added any material that isn’t on the individual season sets because this covers the entire 6 seasons.

From the Honolulu Star-Advertiser: Wallace Smith Broecker, the Scientist Who Popularized the Term ‘Global Warming’, Dead at 87

No, the movie wasn’t produced by, or for, Lifetime. It’s a TV-movie made for, & by, 1 of the Australian TV networks for airing there. Lifetime apparently got the rights, over the other US cable networks, to air it in the US (our commercial networks don’t really show movies anymore, even movies made specifically for TV)—that’s their only connection to the movie (& I’m glad some network got to air the movie here, even Lifetime, ‘cause I really wanted to see it without having to go to Australia or to find a US-compatible DVD version—neither of which I can do).

OK... Having watched the movie again, I think I’m clearer on the guitar player thing. He was actually with Olivia from at least the first time(?) she played Nashville. And he apparently wrote “Hopelessly Devoted to You”, which apparently was supposed to have come from unrequited romantic feelings he apparently had for her, whether she knew it or not (at least he had feelings in the movie... who knows about in real life [maybe her upcoming memoir will touch on that]... but it would be pretty cruddy if he had a thing for his wife’s BFF). But what I’m still not quite clear on is, wasn’t he John Farrar, the guy who married Olivia’s BFF Pat & has been pretty instrumental (no pun necessarily intended) in Olivia’s career for a long time now? I mean, were John Farrar & the guitarist the same guy or different guys? If they were different guys, they sure looked alike.

Yeah. I’ve been a fan of Olivia’s since she really “broke” in the States after “If Not For You”, & I thought they did a good job on the movie too. I thought, from certain angles, Delta Goodrem (who’s actually recorded with Olivia before) kind of even looked a little like Olivia occasionally—I think mainly when she was playing Olivia during her really short hairstyles period; like when she did the Clearly Love album, & the Physical album era, & any other time(s) in between. I also thought the guy who played Matt Lattanzi looked pretty similar to how I remember Matt looked when he & Olivia were together back in the ‘80’s & ‘90’s. So he was pretty well cast, in my opinion. A slight complaint would be that at least the second little girl who played Olivia & Matt’s daughter Chloe had a slight Australian sound to her voice. I’ve heard the real Chloe speak a few times through the years, once she was closer to & in adulthood (like about her bout with anorexia &/or her own music/acting career), & I’ve never once detected an Australian accent in her voice, even with all the time I’m sure she’s spent, & lived, down under with Olivia, & with Matt at least before the divorce. Chloe always sounds completely American to me. Another thing that I noticed that slightly bugged, which I nearly forgot about: As Olivia when Delta Goodrem sang “I Honestly Love You”, she sang “Maybe I’ve hung (past tense, or another part of speech involving the past) around here a little more than I should...”. Olivia always sings, always has sung, & probably will always sing the line as “Maybe I hang (present tense) around here a little more than I should...”. Something I kept wondering about was, what was the deal with all those weird shots where they’d cut between Olivia & the guitar player (the bearded guy who, at least in the movie, gave her “Hopelessly Devoted to You” on the Grease set for the first time, who was either already in her band then or became part of it after Grease) during the music performance scenes? Every time (or almost) there was a music performance scene with Olivia & the guitar player both in it, after the Grease part, it seemed they’d end the scene with them looking at each other like either something was going on between them, or they wanted something to be going on between them. That’s what it felt like to me, anyway. I didn’t get why they did that. At the time when most of those looks came I’m pretty sure she was in relationships, like still with Matt though that might’ve been ending; with Patrick McDermott before he bailed for Mexico; then with John Easterling, whom she eventually married (& this year they will be married for 11 years, according to the marriage year in the movie... so good for them!). I loved how accurately the movie costumes were recreated. Of course for Xanadu, at least, they might’ve also used the costumes they created for the Broadway version (at least for Olivia’s character in the movie). Unfortunately, they would’ve had to recreate most of Olivia’s “Bad Sandy” Grease costume. In the Biography program on Olivia that, if you didn’t see it, ran between the showings of the movie, Olivia said she kept most/all of the costume after filming—but, before she (or presumably anyone else) realized what a cultural phenomenon the movie was gonna become, Olivia actually donated the shoes to a celebrity charity auction somewhere. And I’d swear in recent years I read or heard they were supposedly gonna cut up the pants & do something with the material swatches that were made for charity; that would be kinda sad, if they did that. I don’t know if Olivia still has (or ever had) the black top she wore under the jacket, but she said in the Biography program that she does still have the jacket. Or at least she did when she did the interview for that show. If you’re interested in it, after the movie I went looking around to see if maybe they might’ve done a soundtrack CD for it. They sorta did. It doesn’t have the same title as the movie. It’s called I Honestly Love You, & it’s considered a Delta Goodrem CD, but it has at least most of the songs that were used in the movie, PLUS what’s supposed to be 2 new duets with Olivia. If you get the actual CD, it’s kinda pricey, because it’s an Australian import—$32.29, before taxes & shipping, at Barnes & Noble’s website & $26.79 at Amazon.com as I type this (but, at least right now, you get a free “AutoRip” version of the CD, for your iPod/MP3 player/phone, with your purchase if you buy a hard copy CD from Amazon—& you can stream it for free if you have Amazon Prime). But if you get it from iTunes or download it from Amazon, it’s only $9.99 for the full CD. For all intents & purposes, it’s the soundtrack CD for the movie. The cover shows, like, 4 photos of scenes from the movie, including 1 of the movie versions of Olivia & her friend Pat together (but not as their singing group) & 1 of Delta dressed as Olivia in the “Physical” music video with the blue jacket/wrap thing over her white workout clothes. And the video recreation for that was amazing, I thought.

I apologize since the chances are probably slim you might see this in time, if you missed it on Saturday night, but I just discovered Lifetime is airing the movie again in 2 hours as I write this, at 2:04AM Eastern Time/1:04AM Central Time.

Though this movie aired on Lifetime (3 times almost consecutively on Saturday, February 16th... hopefully with at least 1 more showing for those who missed it & didn’t wanna) it was not a Lifetime Original Movie. It was originally produced for, & aired on, at least 1 of the Australian television networks, I think late last year (2018).

These are from earlier this week, or a bit prior to that; both from Extra: ‘The Front Runner’ Author Patricia Nell Warren Dead at 82 ‘All My Children’ Actress Candice Earley Dead at 68

Regarding the bolded: My reasons are Steve’s a softie when it comes to Danny. He knows Danny has had a complicated relationship with Rachel—both in general & regarding Charlie specifically (telling him he was his father as soon as she found out she was pregnant, then lying that he was actually Stan’s baby after Danny didn’t meet Rachel & Gracie at the airport to fly back to NJ & be a family again, like he promised, after all hell broke loose with Five-0 &—among other things—Steve, after he was framed by Wo Fat for Governor Jameson’s murder & arrested for it & Danny decided that needed to be fixed before he could join Rachel & Gracie in NJ; then admitting, years later, that Charlie really was Danny's son after he became sick with an autoimmune disorder, needed a bone marrow transplant from a family member & none of his known/supposed closest family members [Rachel, Gracie, Stan] was enough of a match to donate). Having had a severely messed up family life beginning in his teens, families/ʻohana not having screwed up relationships, being together, & families/ʻohana in general, are important to Steve. Rachel & Charlie evacuating to Danny’s was probably last-minute & not planned (sort of like at the end when Charlie & Rachel were leaving & Charlie asked Danny if they could have another storm soon [so they could come stay at Danny’s again] & Danny said it wasn’t entirely up to him & you really couldn’t plan stuff like that). Considering that, & my other points above, do you really think Steve would say “Well, I’m sorry, Danny, but HPD’s shorthanded & we really need you here.”? And yes I know Rachel & Charlie would probably be perfectly fine at Danny’s by themselves, but Danny would probably worry about them if he wasn’t with them & Steve would know that. So in his mind, Danny’s better off at home with Rachel & Charlie. What I didn’t get was, what was Gracie doing in LA (nice nod to Teilor having moved to LA there) unless she graduated at least 3 months early, is still out of school recovering from her car accident & brain surgery (& how is she allowed to fly to the mainland this soon after the accident?), or she’s there for a school-related competition, or something? I mean, I don’t necessarily think Danny & Rachel would let her miss school just for the hell of it. And I also get Teilor may not have been available for filming then.