Issue Date: November 9, 2003
I was a huge fan of NBC's summer reality show "For Love or Money 2." I particularly liked that Erin Brodie picked Chad Viggiano, but I've read that she is moving to Los Angeles while Chad remains in San Francisco.
Amy Corben, Scottsdale, Ariz.
At press time, the couple remained a good match and had moved to L.A. together. The beautiful Brodie, 31, left her San Francisco-based software sales job when she agreed to do the second installment of ratings winner "For Love or Money." You'll recall she was the chosen one on the first installment but picked the $1 million prize over bachelor Rob Campos. She's now hoping for a showbiz career; she co-hosted "E!"'s Emmy preshow. Viggiano, 30, is a VP of his family's Bay Area-based Raybern Quality Foods and apparently can work from southern California.
In "Kate Remembered," Pulitzer-winning biographer A. Scott Berg writes that Meryl Streep was Katharine Hepburn's least favorite actress. Did she view the highly respected Streep as a threat?
Tricia Marrapodi, Tucson, Ariz.
Berg tells us Hepburn's view of Streep had nothing to do with professional rivalry. "Mechanical" was the word she used to describe Streep's acting, Berg says; she felt "it seemed too studied." Hepburn, who died in June at age 96, had seen only a few Streep films, including "Sophie's Choice" and "Out of Africa," when she made that remark. "The accents and internalizing made Katharine crazy," says the author, 53. They got friendly after he interviewed her for a magazine article: "Immediately after the interview, Katharine gave me a house tour. After the tour, she invited me to her country house in Connecticut for the weekend. After that, she invited me to dinner five nights in a row. Then she handed me the key to her house in New York and said my room was upstairs."
Please tell me all about Gen. Wesley Clark, who in September declared his candidacy for president.
Dee Feci, Aptos, Calif.
The retired four-star general, 58, who quickly became a Democratic darling, is focused on two issues: jobs and national security. Given his experience (34 years in the military, three as NATO supreme allied commander and two as strategist for the Joint Chiefs), the latter may prove easier than the former. Clark, married 36 years with one grown son, is smart; he was at the top of his class at West Point and a Rhodes scholar. But he's not necessarily politically savvy; he's never run for elected office. That may not matter. At press time, the general, who grew up in Little Rock, Ark., had a campaign largely made up of ex-Clinton staffers who know how to win.
What became of TV reporter Ashleigh Banfield? She was all over MSNBC on the big stories, then disappeared.
Susan Keough, Kouts, Ind.
You aren't the only one missing Banfield's fearless reporting. I've had plenty of reader questions on her whereabouts, so clearly she isn't getting the same high-profile exposure in her current role as a reporter for NBC News. Tenacious during the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center and in further assignments in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Mideast, Banfield, 35, is a proven and insightful journalist who only added credibility to MSNBC's reports. Her contract is up in January, so it's possible a smarter network will snap her up and put her back where she belongs -- on the big stories of the day.
There have been so many rumors about Chelsea Clinton. I hope you have the facts. What does the former first daughter do for a living, and does she still have a beau?
J. Marks, Savannah, Ga.
In September, Clinton began a job with New York-based McKinsey & Co., a management consulting firm. Her salary: a reported $100,000 to $150,000. Clinton, 23, who graduated in June from Oxford University with a master's in international relations, shares an apartment in the city with a girlfriend; boyfriend Ian Klaus, an American she met at Oxford, also moved to New York. As you note, Clinton and Klaus have been tabloid fodder, here and in London. British tabs went wild last spring over an alleged pregnancy scare; the couple has been photographed on the town, playing in the surf on vacation and more.
Chelsea Clinton and Ian Klaus kept the canoodling out of this shot.
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Maybe Michael Payne should just become a marriage counselor. After all, that's a lot of his job as designer on HGTV's popular "Designing for the Sexes." He has some sneaky strategies for getting couples to compromise. For instance, "I might say, 'You know, you never told me how you guys met. Isn't that time the best? Remember back then, when differences didn't seem to matter?' " Payne, whose Thursday show began a new season last month, says he's learned a few basics about the sexes: "Men want function -- clean, unadorned spaces. Women want decoration and color. I've never had a man look me in the eyes and say, 'Michael, how about a soft blue?' " Besides defusing potential conflicts -- part of the fun of watching the show -- Payne, 59, keeps up with what's hot. What's our post-millennial style? "Mid-century modern. Young people haven't a clue about the '50s and '60s. They like things like circular chrome legs on chairs, molded plastic seats."
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BIRTHDAYS
November 9: Sisqo, 28; Nick Lachey, 30
November 10: Eve, 25; Brittany Murphy, 26
November 11: Leonardo DiCaprio, 29; Calista Flockhart, 39; Demi Moore, 41
November 12: Sammy Sosa, 35; Megan Mullaly, 45; Neil Young, 58
November 13: Jimmy Kimmel, 36; Chris Noth, 47 ;Whoopi Goldberg, 54
November 14: Laura San Giacomo, 42; Prince Charles, 55
November 15: Kevin Eubanks, 46; Sam Waterston, 63
Contributing: Evelyn Poitevent, Paul Tokarz
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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