Issue Date: April 14, 2002
What can you tell me about the talented and adorable young composer Michael Hersch? I know he has a world premiere coming this month.
Jolene McConnell, Connoquenessing, Pa.
His is a hot name in classical music -- not bad for a 30-year-old. Hersch will debut his anticipated Symphony No. 2 with the Pittsburgh Symphony on April 26 and at Carnegie Hall four days later. Amazingly, the Washington, D.C.-area native didn't compose a note until he was 19. "I have two lives: pre-discovering music and post-," Hersch says, and it was a video of Sir Georg Solti conducting Beethoven's Fifth Symphony that changed his life. Divorced in 2000 from soprano Jennifer Tibbetts, the Philly resident has been abroad the past two years, in Rome and now in Berlin after winning the 2001 Berlin Prize. He likes traveling "in detail" and observing musical cultures. But he doesn't compose for fame: "I'm not writing so people will like it. It's a nice byproduct if they do."
TV's best-kept secret is Chi McBride of "Boston Public". Tell us all about him.
Roger E. LaPointe Sr., Clarksville, Tenn.
Chi (pronounced SHY) McBride, 40, who plays principal Steven Harper on the Fox show, started in music. The Chicago native had one hit ("He's the Champ", a parody about Mike Tyson) in the mid-'80s. In 1998, the former MCI operator, who has two sons, starred in the controversial UPN series "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer", a satire about a fictional butler of President Lincoln. McBride, whose new show has made waves by tackling teen suicide, the "N" word and cybersex, says to expect more "gritty and real" episodes if "Boston Public" returns -- and he "can't see why it wouldn't" -- next fall.
News anchor Julie Chen from CBS' "The Early Show" is fantastic. Is she married?
Scott McGaugh, Great Falls, Mont.
Chen, 32, is unattached. The New York native doesn't have much time for late evenings out: She's up by 2 a.m. to anchor "CBS Morning News", then on to "The Early Show". But she doesn't mind; she gets to work with Bryant Gumbel, who is "charming" and "the big brother I never had." Speaking of "Big Brother", Chen will return as host of the reality show when it comes back to L.A. this summer. The University of Southern California journalism grad insists her work on "Big Brother" hasn't affected her integrity. "I'm still at CBS News. I was sent to the Middle East after 9/11" -- and landed an interview with the father of terrorist Mohamed Atta.
I'm a really big fan of St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Tino Martinez. What's his story?
Amy Lalas, Santa Rosa, Calif.
After six seasons with the Yankees, Martinez, 34, left New York last year with $25 million, four World Series rings and legendary-slugger status. (Jason Giambi replaced him.) He signed a $21 million, three-year contract with St. Louis and has big shoes to fill as the replacement for the retired Mark McGwire. Martinez (named Constantino after his Spanish grandfathers) is the middle boy of three, all of whom grew up playing baseball in West Tampa, Fla. After high school, despite an offer from the Boston Red Sox, Martinez opted to play for the University of Tampa, where he was a three-time All-American; he's a semester shy of a business degree (and his mom is still after him to get it). His primary home is in Tampa with his wife, Marie, and three children, Olivia, 10, T.J., 9, and Victoria, 6.
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Mia Kirshner was carving a nice niche playing bad girls, until now. The Toronto-born actress played a psychic dominatrix in 1993's "Love and Human Remains" and an assassin in this season's "24" on Fox. But in "New Best Friend", out this weekend, the gray-eyed brunette plays an innocent poor girl lured into three rich girls' nasty scheme. The premise is edgy enough for Kirshner, 27, who prefers to work in indie films; her breakthrough role was in the much-discussed Atom Egoyan movie "Exotica" as a stripper in a Catholic schoolgirl uniform. Not one to shy from controversy, Kirshner also gave a sloppy kiss to an older woman in last winter's "Not Another Teen Movie". Now based in Los Angeles, the petite actress studied Russian literature at McGill University in Montreal and recently visited Morocco. Kirshner has no boyfriend, a spokeswoman tells us, but a Maltese named Pablo keeps her company.
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BIRTHDAYS
April 14: Sarah Michelle Gellar, 25; Cynthia Cooper, 29; David Justice, 36; Brad Garrett, 42; Pete Rose, 61
April 15: Jason Sehorn, 31; Emma Thompson, 43
April 16: Martin Lawrence, 37; Diana Krall, 38; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 55
April 17: Liz Phair, 35; Lela Rochon, 36
April 18: Melissa Joan Hart, 26; Conan O'Brien, 39; James Woods, 55
April 19: Kate Hudson, 23; James Franco, 24; Ashley Judd, 34; Tim Curry, 56
April 20: Luther Vandross, 51; Jessica Lange, 53
Contributing: Emily Dupuis, Evelyn Poitevent, Patty Rhule, Frappa Stout
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