It looks like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has lost some weight. At least that's what CNN's Piers Morgan noted when interviewing Christie on Tuesday night's show. When asked if he was "on a mission" to slim down, Christie said, "You know, I'm intermittently on a mission on this stuff. So that's why I'm very reluctant to say anything more than just that I'm trying to be healthier. I'm eating better - I've been working with a trainer on a regular basis and worked before we met today." Though the governor has made light of jokes about his weight in the past, he admitted to Morgan that he's viewing his size differently as he nears his 50th birthday. "I'll be 50 this fall, and I'm starting to feel my own mortality," he said. "And I got to be around for my kids and hopefully for grandchildren. And so, you start to think about it in that way that you don't really think about it as a younger man."
The historic Howard Theatre in Shaw will open its doors once more in April after a $29 million renovation. To celebrate the occasion, a bunch of top musical acts and bold-faced names will be parading through the fully restored venue this spring.
We hear that Smokey Robinson and comedian Wanda Sykes will be on hand at the Grand Opening Gala Fundraiser on April 12, which will honor Motown Records founder and producer Berry Gordy, who plans to attend.
The space officially opens the week of April 9, with performances from D.C.-based rapper Wale, The Roots, Chuck Brown and Sykes, who will do stand-up. Other artists including Chuck Berry, Chaka Khan, Esperanza Spalding and Boyz II Men have committed to play dates at the venue as well.
The Howard Theatre was originally constructed in 1910 as a vaudeville and live theater venue, was briefly converted into a church after the 1929 stock market, and then was restored to a theater for musical acts, starting with Duke Ellington, in 1931. In 1980 the theater closed after helping launch the careers of Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye and The Supremes.
FamousDC has taken some Oscar-like initiative and announced its nominees for the Political Academy Awards. Nominating categories include Sound Editing (our favorite is the Huntsman daughters video), Visual Effects (Duggar family photo opp, obviously), and Supporting Actor (Mark Block's cigarette from the Herman Cain campaign spot). It's a honor for them to be nominated, as there will be no winners. How they passed up Sarah Palin for Best Actress in "Irrelevance" we'll never know.
Media critics may have given her lukewarm reviews when she stepped into the spotlight in December, but the word around the water-cooler is that Chelsea Clinton isn't done with TV journalism. The New York Times is reporting that she's close to extending her contract with NBC as a special correspondent, continuing her "Making a Difference" segments for "NBC Nightly News" and "Rock Center" with Brian Williams — according to sources familiar with the negotiations. So far, NBC reps have declined to comment on the extension of Clinton's three-month contract, but NBC News president Steve Capus has said that Chelsea's contract would be contingent on her desire to stay with the network. (In other words, she'll get the last word.)
Hot on the heels of the second anniversary of her "Let's Move!" campaign, first lady Michelle Obama is gracing the cover of the journal "Childhood Obesity" in a special edition featuring a forward by the first lady and a piece from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 — which focuses on improving nutrition standards for school lunches. The issue, which is available in print and online, features articles about treating and preventing childhood obesity with BMI screening in schools, after-school obesity prevention programs, better nutrition standards for school lunches, gaming and technology for weight control, a "roundtable discussion" about some of the mysteries surrounding the epidemic itself, and success stories from the first lady's "Let's Move!" campaign.
Are you a pet owner disturbed by the tale of Mitt Romney strapping the family dog to the car roof on a drive to Canada? Would you like to buy a T-shirt?
Scott Crider would be happy to provide you with one. The Alabama resident is largely responsible for keeping the story of Seamus the Irish Setter alive with his blog, Dogs Against Romney, and a store of anti-Romney animal-themed merchandise. After hearing in 2007 about the decades-old incident, in which Seamus, locked on the station wagon roof in a crate for 12 hours, defecated and was hosed down by Romney at a car wash, Crider launched his website. Traffic petered out at the end of Romney’s 2008 GOP nominee run but roared back to life in 2011.
Crider, 47, tells Yeas & Nays that the site draws between around 8,000 unique visitors a day, and its companion Facebook page is nearing 34,000 fans. The latter is deluged with comments from dog lovers haranguing Romney for the episode or simply expressing support through comments like “woof” and “grrr.”
“Dog and pet people are very passionate,” says Crider, who identifies as a political independent and says he worked on issue campaigns for both sides of the aisle in his homestate of Arkansas. “For pet people, it’s just a mortifying thing. He put a dog on the car. The luggage was on the inside.” The staying power of the story, Crider believes, is that it provides a concrete anecdote for people to pin their feelings about Romney. “Policy issues like Romneycare vs. Obamacare,” he says, “are really difficult for people to take time to understand.”
Consumer demand prompted Crider to expand into merchandising, and he says he’s selling apparel and bumper stickers at a healthy clip. Sales of T-shirts, particularly designs featuring slogans like “Remember Crategate” and “Dogs Aren’t Luggage,” have topped 1,000 items. A portion of proceeds from sales will go to benefit an animal welfare organization.
The USA Network has been on a crusade to promote tolerance with its Characters Unite public service program, in October bringing Meghan McCain and Forest Whitaker to the Newseum to talk about the times in their lives that they've faced discrimination. (Yeah, McCain's was a stretch, but whatever.)
Now as part of Characters Unite Month in February the cable network has tapped talent from its own ranks to come to D.C. and spread the message. Next Tuesday, Willie Garson of "White Collar" (he also played Stanford Blatch, for all you "Sex and the City" fans out there), Coby Bell of "Burn Notice" and Timothy Omundson of "Psych" will stop by a Farragut Square park to meet fans. In addition, those who come by the USA pop-up structure will get free "I won't stand for..." T-shirts and can take pictures wearing them in a photo kiosk, which will also be on hand.
The all-day event takes place Feb. 28 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. with the characters expected to arrive around 11 a.m.
Tuesday night's "In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues" saw President Obama getting drafted to sing the last number, joining bluesmen B.B. King and Mick Jagger to perform Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago." Of course, he didn't do any bombastic dancing like Dan Aykroyd in "Blues Brothers," but Obama wasn't shy about stretching his vocal chords. But it's fair to say he sang plainly - not adding much in the way of soulful flourishes, like he did when he sang the first bars of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" back in January.
Racecar driver Danica Patrick knows she's often referred to as that "girl" driver, but she's OK with that.
Patrick visited the National Press Club in downtown D.C. on Tuesday in advance of Sunday's Daytona 500 to talk about her racing career, explaining that when she began racing and winning on Go-Karts as a kid, she had no idea that being a "she" was a big deal. "I felt pretty cool, but at no point did I really think that it was because I was a girl," she said of the early media attention her racing career caught. "I was always taught to just strive to be the best, it wasn't about being the best girl."
That being said, the GoDaddy.com spokesmodel also said she was comfortable using her sex appeal to boost her profile. "I am going to use the package, I am going to use it for all that I am and all that I can," she explained, saying she would never do anything outside her comfort zone. "It takes the team at least two hours, but I would rather you see me in photoshop rather than right here, right now, in real life, but it's something that I like to do," she said of her many commercials for the domain name and web hosting company.
Patrick also talked about her future, if any, in the entertainment industry seeing herself as a director before ever being an actor. "Well I'm not really very funny, and I'm not super duper pretty so I think, I don't know, I think I'd rather be on the other side of the camera," she said. "I almost feel like it's a little bit more artistic."
Consider this the Republican response. On March 11, the pro-Sarah Palin documentary "The Undefeated" will air for the first time on network television on ReelzChannel, the same channel that broadcast the controversial political mini-series "The Kennedys" last April. The date is significant because it comes just one day after the highly anticipated Palin-centric drama "Game Change" debuts on HBO.
We caught up with "The Undefeated's" writer and director Stephen Bannon recently at CPAC. "My film was very simple," he explained. "I try to show that she's a reformer...she's everything that populists and even liberals want." Bannon also railed against Palin's portrayal in the film "Game Change." "My film was trying to show, through facts, that she's not a combination of Caribou Barbie meets Bible Spice, what 'Game Change' is trying to show is trying to reinforce that meme that she's a white trash tart airhead," Bannon said.
Besides the Palins, the documentary features interviews with conservative media types including Andrew Breitbart, Tammy Bruce and Mark Levin. "The Undefeated" is scheduled to air at 8 p.m.
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