Issue Date: February 10, 2002
When people speak to or about Tom Ridge, director of homeland security, they still call him "governor." Why?
Dennis Lennox II, Midland, Mich.
No one in authority seems to know; most cite "courtesy" and "protocol." Although Ridge, 56, who was governor of Pennsylvania until October, has Cabinet status and works just a few steps from the Oval Office, he does not oversee a department or control an agency budget, so he's not titled "secretary." In fact, the State Department's Office of Protocol, which is supposed to be expert on these things, says Ridge's "governor" title ranks higher than "director," and the higher title rules. That explained it, until they told us that governors, senators and U.S. Supreme Court justices retain their titles for life, unless they resign before the end of their term, which, of course, Ridge did. (No matter that it was at the request of his old friend President Bush.) When confronted with that wrinkle, the protocol people -- by now growing impatient -- told us we should call Pennsylvania. Officials there say they call him "governor" or "boss" as a courtesy and always will, whether he resigned or not.
Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks, Britney Spears, J. Lo: Whom haven't we seen in a televised concert this season? Is this the newest TV trend?
Lesley Parker, Clarksville, Tenn.
You've got it. Concert TV is definitely hot, says HBO's Nancy Geller. Next Sunday, HBO, which pioneered this kind of TV, will broadcast Janet Jackson: In Concert From Hawaii, her second concert with the cable network. Even bigger will be songstress Celine Dion's return to the stage, to air on CBS in early March (to coincide with the release of her album A New Day Has Come). Putting concerts on the air is cheaper than producing, say, an episode of ER, which makes it attractive to all networks, but Geller tells us not to think it's easy programming. "It's got to be an event show," she says. "I want the subscriber to have a front-row seat." Considering the skyrocketing cost of tickets to see a popular artist perform live, it's no wonder TV concerts are an audience draw. J. Lo, Brooks, Britney, 'N Sync and Michael Jackson all won decent ratings in November. The Grammy show on CBS at the end of this month, featuring Michael Jackson, among others, is expected to do the same.
Is teen singer Mandy Moore, who stars in A Walk to Remember, now planning a movie career?
Jerri Flowers, Mountain View, Hawaii
Movies, music, theater: Moore wants to do it all. While her manager is working out film and stage deals for this year, Moore, who'll be 18 in April, has been finishing high school virtually, through a special program at the University of Nebraska attractive to working young people. More modest, at least when it comes to baring body parts, than contemporaries such as those mentioned above, Moore has found another way to set herself apart: She's become a brunette. She dyed her blond hair for A Walk to Remember, in which she's romanced by Once and Again's cute Shane West, and now loves it. Fans are of mixed opinion, but we're told Moore has no intention of going back to blond.
I'm hooked on the Game Show Network and wonder what happened to show hosts such as Richard Dawson ("Family Feud"), Gene Rayburn ("Match Game") and Jim Perry ("Card Sharks"), as well as those "Price Is Right" girls.
Tesse Gesser, Englishtown, N.J.
Dawson retired to Beverly Hills, Calif., with a "Feud" contestant who became his second wife. Rayburn died in 1999. Perry retired in '89 and wrote "The Sleeper Awakes", a self-help book chronicling the breakup of his 30-year marriage. Some of Bob Barker's "Price Is Right" ladies went out with a scandalous bang involving charges of sexual harassment (against him) or libel (against them), but Barker is still on the air every weekday, with new beauties. If you love oldies, stick with the Game Show Network. For new, syndicated versions of "Family Feud", "To Tell the Truth", "Card Sharks" and others, (produced by Pearson Television), check your local listings.
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Rande Gerber knows a thing or two about drinking establishments: He owns 17 bars in seven cities, including L.A.'s celeb-coddling Sky Bar and New York's Whiskey. A former model and entrepreneur who married Cindy Crawford, 35, in May '98, Gerber, 39, recently opened two more Whiskeys -- one in Las Vegas and the other, a re-creation of the original, in Times Square's W, the first major hotel to debut in New York City since Sept. 11. Gerber's not worried about the troubled economy. "When times are good, people drink," he says, "and when times are bad, sometimes people drink even more." And as long as they're imbibing, Gerber says, they want to be in "a modern version of a lounge but still comfortable, [a place] low-lit with candlelight, so it's almost a modern version of an old supper club." These days, however, the handsome nightlife guru would rather be home. You might, too, if you were married to a supermodel and had two adorable children. A typical evening? "I have dinner at home with my wife, and then I'm out, but only a few nights a week. The rest I'm home playing with my babies" -- son Presley, 2, and daughter Kaia, 5 months. So what's it like to be the guy who wakes up to Cindy Crawford? Gerber answers sweetly: "I turn over in the middle of the night and see her there, and still, it's a beauty that's hard to describe."
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BIRTHDAYS
February 10: Laura Dern, 35; George Stephanopoulos, 41; Greg Norman, 47
February 11: Brandy, 23; D'Angelo, 28; Jennifer Aniston, 33; Sheryl Crow, 38; Burt Reynolds, 66
February 12: Christina Ricci, 22; Josh Brolin, 33; Arsenio Hall, 46
February 13: Mena Suvari, 23; Peter Gabriel, 52; Jerry Springer, 58
February 14: Gregory Hines, 56; Florence Henderson, 68
February 15: Matt Groening, 48; Jane Seymour, 51
February 16: John McEnroe, 43; Ice-T, 44; LeVar Burton, 45
Contributing: Tameka Hicks, Patty Rhule, Frappa Stout
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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