Pop-o-Matic

Okay, so Chevy Chase is not my father. But he reminds me of my dad, who manages to turn many Brown family moments into “National Lampoon’s” events.

But back to the topic: According to the Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly, Josh Holloway—who graduated from Canton High in Cherokee County and attended UGA before becoming a male model, actor, and now “Sawyer” on ABC’s Lost—will be starring in a slated-for-09 movie called Stay Cool.

The premise is this: Actor Mark Polish (his brother, Michael Polish, is the director; they co-wrote the screenplay), returns to deliver a commencement speech at his high school alma mater as a successful author, only to run into his high school crush (Winona Ryder) and her ex-boyfriend—former jock Holloway. Other stars include Hilary Duff, Jon Cryer (Duckie = instant high school rom com cred!), Sean Astin, and my hero, Chevy Chase.

I love “going back to high school” movies, including one of my all-time favorites, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (“I’m the Mary! I’m the Mary!”) and others, such as Grosse Point Blank. If Stay Cool is anything like those flicks, I’m there.

I’ll leave you with some Josh Holloway tidbits, courtesy of IMDb.com:

-Still considers himself a “Blue Ridge mountain boy”

-First job? Picking up dead chickens at a farm

-Favorite film: The Shining

-Born the same day (July 20, 1969) Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon

-Favorite foods: (oh yeah!) Fried chicken and chocolate pie

-Was the “purse thief” who steals Alicia Silverstone’s handbag in Aerosmith’s “Cryin’” video

What about you? Does Stay Cool look cool? What are your favorite “going back to high school” movies? Who else is obsessed with Lost? Where did the island go? Know any other Holloway factoids?

An extra tidbit for you: Check out this video of Holloway's Lost audition ... He's a natural! ... Matthew Fox's audition for the same role, Sawyer? Awkward!

The answer? I don’t know. I think there’s something wrong with me.

I’m not usually too overly emotional. But for the past few weeks, whenever a commercial has come on for Pixar’s new movie, WALL-E (which is already generating Best Picture buzz), my eyes have welled up with tears, and one occasionally made it down my face.

As I drove home from work Friday afternoon, my fiancé read the New York Times’s extremely long, extremely glowing review of WALL-E aloud to me, and I may or may not have sobbed and sniffled as he read the paragraphs.

After a weekend away visiting family, he and I finally went to see WALL-E last night. He insisted I take Kleenex, but I forgot, so he pulled out a dozen napkins at the concession stand; I was armed well.

I think I contained myself overall, but there were some moments—even ones that shouldn’t necessitate tears or that would typically not evoke sadness!—that caused me to silently cry . . . and blow my nose a few times. Which wasn’t anything compared to the nonsensical noise two little kids next to me were making.

(Sidenote: Are you allowed to get mad at loud children in a children’s movie? Talk amongst yourselves.)

This isn’t giving anything away, but WALL-E is, as my fiancé so accurately described it, a beautiful work of art. It’s not typical Pixar; while most are comedies, I would venture to describe WALL-E as a drama with many funny moments interspersed. That being said, it’s not really a “sad” movie, and WALL-E himself, though his little droopy, mechanical eyes would have you believe otherwise, is, though at times lonely, not a sad robot.

And yet, the tears.

Have you seen WALL-E? Did any of you have the same reaction I did? Anyone? If so, what do you think it is about him or the movie that makes one react in such a way? Or does the cheese stand alone?

I’ve known that filming for Bravo’s latest installment of its Real Housewives series has been going on in Atlanta for a few months now (a boutique in town helped put on a fashion show for one of the “housewives”), but I didn’t know which city women would be participating. 

Now we do. Yesterday, Bravo sent out a press release detailing the Southern lineup. From the release:

“The seven episode series will follow five women from Atlanta’s social elite—from NBA to NFL wives to sassy single moms—as they juggle their burgeoning careers and busy home lives with the whirl of the South’s hottest city.”

That’s some whirl!

Bravo will be airing a thirty-minute preview special of the season on Wednesday, July 30 at midnight. Here’s the lineup:

1) DeShawn Snow

Neighborhood: Alpharetta

Relationship status: Her husband, Eric, is captain of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers

Children: Three sons

Extracurriculars: New Birth Missionary Baptist Church; The DeShawn Snow Foundation (a non-profit focused on improving the self-esteem of teenage girls); “juggling her busy social calendar”

2) Kim Zolciak

Neighborhood: Duluth

Relationship status: “Single, but happily dating with hopes to marry again in the near future.”

Children: Two girls

Extracurriculars: Aspiring country singer working with Dallas Austin; “a staple on the Atlanta scene”

3) Lisa Wu Hartwell

Neighborhood: Duluth

Relationship status: Her husband, Ed Hartwell, is a former Falcon currently on the Oakland Raiders roster

Children: Three children

Extracurriculars: Owns her own real estate firm, as well as a jewelry line, Wu Girls, and a baby clothing line Hart 2 Hart Baby; juggling a budding acting, modeling, and writing career (Sidenote: How does she have time to do all this? I can’t even make it to the grocery store.)

4) NeNe Leakes

Neighborhood: Sugarloaf

Relationship status: Her husband, Gregg, is a “successful real estate investor and business consultant”

Children: Two sons

Extracurriculars: Founder of The Twisted Hearts Foundation, which brings awareness of domestic violence against women; “Never one to sit still, the outspoken social butterfly also hopes to open a luxury boutique hotel”

5) Sheree Whitfield

Neighborhood: “the exclusive” Sandy Springs area

Relationship status: Single mom

Children: Three children

Extracurriculars: She closed her West Midtown clothing boutique, Bella Azul, to focus on a clothing line, “She by Sheree”

From left: Lisa Wu Hartwell, DeShawn Snow, Kim Zolciak,
NeNe Leakes, Sheree Whitfield

So will you watch Atlanta’s “Real Housewives”? Are you surprised none of them are from Buckhead? Does anyone know anything else about these ladies? Do you think things will get as catty as they have in past installments? If you could nominate another Atlanta woman as a housewife, who would it be?

Coming soon: interviews!

I spent several birthdays—mine and other children’s—at Chuck E. Cheese (although back in MY day it was known as Showbiz Pizza . . . I digress). In fact, one of my germophobic father’s worst memories is of me losing my Coke bottle–thick glasses in the plastic ball pit. He had to crawl through the balls, tainted by who knows what—dirty diapers, grocery store feet, slobber—to find them amongst the gritty detritus of youth, sifted like flour to the pit’s bottom. 

My favorite part of Chuck E. Cheese was the band of life-sized animatronic bears and wolves and birds that would perform as we ate our mediocre pepperoni pizza at elongated tables. The curtains would draw back, and for ten minutes I would be both entranced and horrified by their mechanical rock ‘n’ roll show.

Now, a brilliant mash-up of the Chuck E. Cheese band performing a song by one of Atlanta’s own has appeared on YouTube. You must see it to believe it!

Ladies and Gentlemen, give it up for Usher’s “Love in This Club”!!!!!!!!!!!

To the feminist in me, some aspects of beauty pageants seem outdated, offensive, and exploitive. Take the bikini parade, ahem, the swimsuit competition, for example—who wears three-inch stilettos to the beach? And then there are the awkward interview questions (aka the attempt to add gravitas to the whole affair), probably best (worst?) exemplified by the now infamous embarrassment to my home state, Miss Teen “Such As, The Iraq” South Carolina USA Caitlin Upton.

Need a reminder? Here goes:

However, when it comes to the state scholarship pageants that lead to Miss America (which actually weighs the pre-pageant interview, community service platform, and the talent portion quite heavily—Miss USA has none of these), I happen to have an insider’s advantage: One of my best friends, and then-college roommate, was Miss South Carolina.

I know, then, that a lot of work goes not only into preparing for the pageant—studying world events, hours of talent practice, and working toward developing your platform—but that the scholarships these women win can help them afford to pay for college and further study more easily.

It’s easy to scoff at pageants but when my friend won, she didn’t spend her “reign” trotting across South Carolina in her stilettos and bathing suit, or even an evening gown, but she did put tens of thousands of miles on her car speaking at schools, churches, conventions, what-have-you on her platform, teen suicide. Her mother had committed suicide our first year of college, and her firsthand story affected many she met on the road. Teens and adults alike would come up to her after her speeches and ask about the warning signs of depression, or share their stories or concerns about their family members, or themselves. So yeah—it’s not all panty hose and padded bras and fashion tape.

Which leads me to today’s “Pop Culture Flashback,” a scene from the set-in-Atlanta late-eighties/early-nineties sitcom Designing Women, one of my favorite shows EVER! And this is one of my favorite scenes ever, when Julia Sugarbaker (Dixie Carter) confronts a woman at the Miss Georgia World pageant making fun of her sister, Suzanne (Delta Burke). I could watch it all day. Best line?

“Suzanne was the only contestant in Georgia pageant history to sweep every category except congeniality—and that is not something the women in my family aspire to anyway!”

Enjoy!

This year’s Miss Georgia pageant will take place next week, June 25 to 28, at the River Center in Columbus. You can order tickets here.

What do you think about pageants? Don’t you miss Designing Women? What’s your favorite scene or episode from the Atlanta-set show?

Jack of all TV trades and Dunwoody native Ryan Seacrest has added two more production efforts to his mile-long resume.

For NBC, he’s developing Momma’s Boys, a reality show that allows mothers to help their sons pick the “right woman.” A sample:

“Are you a mom looking to find love for your son?

“Are you a mom who is frustrated that her son is not dating the right women? Do you look forward to the day your son finds the love of his life and you get the wedding of your dreams?

“Maybe you are still living with your son under your roof, and it is time he found a mate, and a place of his own?

“Producers are looking for moms and their sons who are willing to work together as a team to find the perfect mate. These mothers should have strong opinions about whom their sons should date and be willing to separate the good from the bad.”

And it’s casting now. It could be your mother’s dream come true—or, your worst nightmare. But then again, if you’re already living this reality sans cameras, you might as well gain some faux fame on primetime TV! Click here and scroll down to download an application.

In cableland, Seacrest’s production company is also behind Bromance, an upcoming MTV reality show “starring” (term used loosely, term used loosely!) Brody Jenner of The Hills “fame” (loosely, loosely!).

The show will feature a group of “regular guys” who will go to Hollywood and compete for Jenner’s attention. Challenges are likely to include skydiving, “dealing with the paparazzi,” and being a tool (oops, there goes my editorializing!).

The pièce de résistance? The contestants are kicked off in “Hot Tub Elimination Ceremonies”—aka, the Bros are handed their bags and booted, dripping swim trunks and all. The winner (loosely!) will get a chance to hang with Brody and his “entourage.” Yay.

Says an MTV veep: “Bromance takes a successful TV format and turns it on its head. Brody is the perfect fit for this concept; he is the type of guy everyone wants to hang out with.”

Except non-tools. Oops, again! Don’t let my editorializing get you down—you should totally click here to apply.

What do you think? Will you watch either of these upcoming Seacrest productions? Or will you try out??

Tim Russert, moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, died earlier this afternoon from an apparent heart attack. Russert, 58, died at NBC’s Washington bureau while recording voiceovers for MTP. Though this has nothing to do with Atlanta, it does have something to do with me.

My dad also works for NBC, as an assistant news director at a South Carolina affiliate. Growing up, NBC and its myriad news programs and morning fluff and sitcoms and soap operas and hospital dramas and skit shows were like a third parent to me—always to be counted on for knowledge and entertainment. Tim Russert, who always vaguely reminded me of my dad, was a part of that pixilated comfort, not only as part of Sunday morning’s Meet the Press, but as a ubiquitous presence and political commentator on Today, NBC Nightly News, and as a moderator for many of this election season’s debates.

As such, I sort of feel like a family member has died today, and I may have just cried here a little at my desk.

I think Russert would probably have hated missing out on the rest of 2008’s pivotal election season—but I think would probably approved of going out doing something he loved.

Rest in peace, Tim Russert. You can read MSNBC's detailed death notice here.