Issue Date: June 9, 2002
Patti LaBelle had an advice book out last year, and that was the last we heard of her. Is the music diva still touring?
Michael Hudson, Birmingham, Ala.
She's "spot" touring this month but plans to "simmer down" afterward. "The road gets rough," she tells us, "and I'm a young 57! I just want to sit home and watch the flowers grow." We doubt that. LaBelle has a second cookbook, an album of inspirational songs and a new pop CD all tentatively due next year. Currently, she is part of a traveling photo exhibit of women going through menopause. LaBelle's own experience was "very bad" until she started hormone replacement therapy. (She's now a spokeswoman for one particular brand.) Before HRT, "I was unruly and unbalanced," LaBelle says. "My doctor came to a show and saw me having a moment, crying onstage and forgetting my lyrics. She said I'd better come to her office the next day or she would come to get me."
I found Robert Redford's fall action drama, The Last Castle, very powerful. Tell me more about co-star Mark Ruffalo, who was also great in "You Can Count on Me".
Keely Dunham, Topeka, Kan.
Look for Ruffalo in the World War II drama "Windtalkers", due next Friday, and then early next year in "A View From the Top" as wanna-be flight attendant Gwyneth Paltrow's romantic interest. And, the handsome Ruffalo, 34, is currently working with another of America's favorite movie actresses: He's shooting an erotic thriller, "In the Cut, with Meg Ryan in New York. A former bartender from Kenosha, Wis., Ruffalo lives in the Big Apple with his wife and their toddler son, Keen.
What became of the two handsome members of Savage Garden after the Australian pop duo broke up last fall?
Tara Bridget Moseder, Brooklyn, N.Y.
In March, Darren Hayes, 30, put out a solo CD, Spin, with the current hit single "Insatiable"; his Garden partner, Daniel Jones, 28, went back to Australia to become a music producer. Always more business-focused, Jones never wanted to be a pop star. The split wasn't a surprise to fans. Although Savage Garden had two hits -- "Truly Madly Deeply" and "I Knew I Loved You" -- they had gone on "hiatus" after a 2000-'01 tour.
Who played Drew Barrymore's blonde friend in last fall's "Riding in Cars With Boys"?
Adrian Garcia, Rochester, N.Y.
With that chick flick now on video, new audiences are discovering Brittany Murphy, 24, who also was the eerie "I'll never tell" girl in the Michael Douglas thriller "Don't Say a Word". It was in that movie that we first heard her sing. Once an aspiring pop star, the 5-foot-1 actress started playing '60s rocker Janis Joplin in a film, until it was canceled because of licensing difficulties. "Playing Janis is one of my ultimate dreams," Murphy says. "If it doesn't happen, at least I got to play her for nine hours." In the upcoming movie "8 Mile", starring and based on the life of Eminem, Murphy plays his girlfriend. Despite the rapper's bad-boy reputation, she found him "professional and kind-hearted."
Where is Good Morning America's former news reader, Antonio Mora?
Gloria Turnello, El Paso
He's anchoring two local newscasts on Chicago's CBS-owned station, WBBM. Mora, wife Julie (a Windy City native) and their children, ages 5 and 2, plan to move into a Victorian house in the city this month. Why leave Diane Sawyer, Charlie Gibson and a national profile? "In New York, I was always the sidekick," Mora, 44, tells us. "It was time for me to do my own thing." WBBM's offer came out of the blue, he says; ABC countered, but "it wasn't enough for me."
Contributing: Nancy Mills, Evelyn Poitevent, Patty Rhule, Frappa Stout
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BIRTHDAYS
June 9: Natalie Portman, 21; Johnny Depp, 39; Michael J. Fox, 41
June 10: Leelee Sobieski, 20; Elizabeth Hurley, 37
June 11: Joshua Jackson, 24; Joe Montana, 46
June 12: George Bush, 78
June 13: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, 16; Ally Sheedy, 40; Tim Allen, 49
June 14: Steffi Graf, 33; Donald Trump, 56
June 15: Leah Remini, 32; Ice Cube, 33; Courteney Cox Arquette, 38; Helen Hunt, 39
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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