Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
So Chris Booker, the disc jockey who spawned a million gossip items, has been ousted as morning host from Q102. The Clear Channel station is aiming for a more music-intensive program, the Inquirer's Michael Klein reports.
Hmmm, isn't radio supposed to be music intensive in the first place?
Booker and girlfriend, former anchorbabe Alycia Lane, now can spend all their time together as both are no longer clotting the airwaves.
Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
Following in the grand tradition of political investigative reporting, we ask the following: Is Cindy McCain being honest about her jeans size?
In the June issue of Vogue, currently on newsstands, Julia Reed writes of the Arizona senator's wife "she is a picture of calm vitality in her favorite size 0 Lucky jeans." A good friend thinks not.
McCain appears to be around 5-foot-5, a couple inches shorter than her husband, who is 5-foot-7. Featured in the same issue of Vogue is the pocket-sized Sarah Jessica Parker, also a size 0, and 5-foot-4. SJP looks to be a third smaller than McCain, and a quarter the size of everyone else.
Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
Thursday evening, at 7:30, a splendid rainbow appeared over Center City, arching over the Comcast Center. It was a gift, a rare appearance of a rainbow in an urban environment. Indeed, if you live in cities, you can go fyears never seeing one.
The sky was magnificent, a cover of steel with the sun blasting from the West. People stood on West River Drive and the Ben Franklin Parkway transfixed, as if in a movie, pointing at the sky. The only rub that it was a beast to drive because commuters were leaning forward over their steering wheels trying to get an optimum view. Did you see it? What a treat.
Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
What is it with you guys?
Why is someone like Owen Wilson paying to see naked women?
Isn't the reasoning that he doesn't have to pay given that women are willing to see him naked as he was in You, Me and Dupree, which grossed $130 million globally?
Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
Ted Kennedy has been senator forever, since 1962, the second longest-serving politician in that Congressional chamber. He's always been there.
So it seems especially sad to learn today that the sole suriving Kennedy brother, the only one to live past the age of 46, has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor after suffering a seizure over the weekend.
A preliminary biopsy identified a malignant glioma, the Associated Press reports. Average survival can range from less than a year for very advanced and aggressive types -- such as glioblastomas -- to about five years for different types that are slower growing.
Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
Welcome to Joey Vento's Highway to Hell.
The Spanish firm Abertis Infraestructuras, based in Barcelona, offered $12.8 billion Monday to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 75 years, pending approval by the state legislature.
Wouldn't it be great if the signs started reading "Bienvenidos a l'Autopista de Peaje de Pensilvania!"
Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
"What are you, like 80?"
This is what Shia LaBeouf, as Mutt Williams. says to old Indiana Jones in the rollicking fourth installment of the series opening Thursday.
Not 80, but close.
Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
On the other side of gay marriage, we have the divorce of Gay American, former N.J. Luv Guv Jim McGreevey and his long-suffering someday-to-be-ex wife Dinos Matos McGreevey in state Superior Court in Elizabeth. You can read all about her suffering in the memoir, Silent Partner.
Not-so-silent Dina wants alimony because she lived so well, though not happily, as the Garden State's first lady with access to the governor's manse in Princeton, a helicopter and two -- count 'em, two -- summer houses. (One on the northern and another on the southern Jersey Shore?)
Apparently, despite dueling Oprah appearances and memoirs, neither McG has reaped wealth, except by attachment.
Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
The day after the California Supreme Court overturns two state laws banning gay marriage, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi plan to wed. The betrothal will be announced on Ellen's talk fest today.
Well, that's grand. It's good for the gays. It's good for the wedding industry. It's good for the economy. Think of all those Hers and Hers towels. And it's great for the country's happiness index.
And I love a good gay wedding. One of the best ceremonies I ever attended was the commitment ceremony of possibly Philadelphia's tallest gay couple.
Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
How long should someone nurse a slight or rejection?
In Barbara Walter's best-selling memoir Audition, which is reviewed today, the anchorwoman regurgitates wounds that are half a century old.
Walters, who will speak at the Free Library Central Branch's Philadelphia Book Festival at 5 p.m. Sunday, mentions repeatedly that she was wait-listed at Wellesley, her first choice.She's 78. She received an excellent education at Sarah Lawrence, a terrific college. She appears to have loved the place.
Karen Heller has interviewed Philip Roth and Zsa Zsa Gabor, spent time with Pink and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the celebrated and the exemplary unsung. She's covered Miss America and political conventions. She's been a provocative voice at The Inquirer for nearly 20 years, garnering awards for criticism, feature writing and investigative reporting, and was a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in commentary. Reach Karen at kheller@phillynews.com.
