Archive: December, 2008
Comedian Jimmy Fallon introduced The Roots as the house band for his upcoming late night show in an online video he posted yesterday. The former “SNL” player takes over for "Late Night" host Conan O'Brien when O'Brien moves into the "Tonight Show" slot of Jay Leno who is not leaving as expected, but staying on for a new 90-minute weeknight show at 10 o'clock. We reported a month ago that Fallon and the Philly hip-hop heroes were shooting something at Kung Fu Necktie (1250 N. Front) in Fishtown which was followed a few weeks later by confirmation that the band would be joining the comedian on his show. In this video clip Fallon says he plans to tape daily web bulletins and that his show starts taping in March. It will debut online, but the Fallon/O'Brien/Leno shuffle doesn't take place until the summer.
Porn starlet Sunset Thomas will be in-studio with 94 WYSP's Danny Bonaduce at 8:20 Thursday morning. Thomas will be accompanied by Chris Bellis, of Wind Gap, Pa. He's a fan of hers who won a contest Thomas held to co-star with her in a scene for her most recent movie, "Into the Sunset," which will be released next year. Thomas will dance Thursday through Saturday at Scarlet's (2131 Lehigh) in Allentown.
Lee will speak at 7 p.m. at the Great Court at Mitten Hall (1913 N. Broad). The lecture is open to the public but Temple students will get priority seating. The Academy-Award nominated director most recently released “Miracle at St. Anna,” about four black American soldiers in WWII based on Philly-author James McBride’s book. At the event, Temple’s Main Campus Programming Board will be selling tickets for a raffle for a chance to dine with Lee after his lecture.
West Philly's Ben Morgan, who books bands at the Mill Creek Tavern (42nd & Chester), didn't want a dog, but his live-in girlfriend, Allison Paul, did. In March, Morgan, who also plays in the Rare Birds and occasionally performs as a German rapper, MC Digga, told Paul they could get a dog when "Chinese Democracy" came out. Morgan assumed the long-awaited Guns N' Roses record, 17 years in the making, would never come out. He was wrong. The record, which can be listened to here, was released Nov. 23, days after he agreed to take care of his mother's 3-year-old Chihuahua, Rizza. "I like the dog a lot more than the record," says Morgan, who's still getting used to the new project by Axl Rose and an army of musicians he brought in over the lengthy recording. If you ask us, out of 14 songs, five or six are pretty good, and the rest are so-so. "Shackler's Revenge" is the best track, but it's still not Guns N' Roses without Slash, Duff, and Izzy.
Tina Fey's composer husband Jeff Richmond could be sleeping on the couch for a while.
Richmond says Fey was cut by a stranger when she was five. “It was in, like, the front yard of her house, and somebody who just came up, and she just thought somebody marked her with a pen,” he told Dowd. “That scar was fascinating to me” Richmond continued. “This is somebody who, no matter what it was, has gone through something. And I think it really informs the way she thinks about her life. When you have that kind of thing happen to you, that makes you scared of certain things, that makes you frightened of different things, your comedy comes out in a different kind of way, and it also makes you feel for people.”
