usa weekend usa weekend
 

Who's News Blog latest postings



advertisements









Home Page
Site Index
Celebs
Health
Food
Personal Finance
Cartoon
Frame Games
Stickdoku
Trickledowns
Special Reports
Home & Family
Classroom
Talkin' Shop
Back Issues
Make A Difference Day
 
contact us
back issues
jobs

email


Issue Date: November 27, 2005
In this article:
Birthdays
Last week's Who's News
Also:
Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
Who's News


USA WEEKEND: 20 Years Young
Who Was News in November 1985: Auburn running back Bo Jackson wins Heisman Trophy
...John Poindexter named President Reagan's national security adviser
... TV movie "Perry Mason Returns" tops ratings

I am addicted to Fox's "Prison Break" and its handsome cast, particularly Wentworth Miller. With a name like Wentworth, he has got to go by a nickname.
Sarah Fowler, Washington, Pa.

"As a kid [in Brooklyn, N.Y.] I was Wentworth, which was a mouthful," Miller, 33, tells us. "When I got to college, I decided to give people a break and went by 'Went,' " but that was Ivy-League Princeton, so naturally "no one blinked an eye" at the longer name. Whatever he's called, Miller and his show are hot. He thinks it's because "prison, in general, is compelling and frightening." Also, it's about an innocent man, "a real-life horror story that could, in fact, happen to you."

What's going on with Orlando Bloom and Kate Bosworth? Together or not?
Celestina Sawin, Wagener, S.C.

At press time, together. But Bloom has family issues far more interesting. He grew up in England thinking that law professor Harry Bloom, his mother's late husband, was his father. When Orlando was 13, his mother told him that his real father was family friend Colin Stone. Harry, who died when Orlando was 4, was older, and Bloom says his mom "desperately wanted to have children." Stone, a student, was close to the couple. "I think my mother and father ended up having an affair, which led to me and my sister," Bloom says.

Go to top


If Jessalyn Gilsig looks familiar, it's because she has been popping up a lot lately. She is Julian McMahon's sex-addicted, trouble-making ex-girlfriend on "Nip/Tuck" this season and was featured in early episodes of "Prison Break." At 32, she's as lovely as any of the young actresses in Hollywood, but she feels pressure to keep her good looks any way she can. "I'd like to say I live above it," she says about considering plastic surgery. "I don't think I ever thought that when I was in my early 30s I would be made to feel so conscious of the changes. I thought it would come later."

Go to top


ASK LORRIE GOLDEN GLOBE QUESTIONS
TV sweeps month is over, holiday movie season is underway, and I'm looking ahead to January's Golden Globes. I want to know what you think: Which actors who are predicted to be nominees do you want to know more about? Felicity Huffman, who portrays a transsexual in "Transamerica?" Or Joaquin Phoenix, who does all his own singing in the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line?" All questions are welcome, so send yours now to whosnews@usaweekend.com with your star, show or film name in the subject field. Phoenix, with co-star Reese Witherspoon.

Witherspoon and Phoenix: Mark Seliger, 20th Century Fox

Is Republican Sen. John McCain actually eligible to run for the presidency? I thought he was born outside of the United States.
Tom Washington, San Mateo, Calif.

McCain is a U.S. citizen, born to American parents in the Panama Canal Zone on Aug. 29, 1936. (It was then a U.S. territory.) His father was stationed there with the Navy. McCain believes he is eligible to be president; as of yet, no one has contested him.

Did Matthew Perry, my favorite from Friends, ever get married? What is he doing now?
Barbara Helm, Battle Creek, Mich.

Although he once told us he'd love to be married by 35 "to someone to work and play with," Perry, now 36, remains single. He reportedly split with girlfriend Rachel Dunn last spring to focus on his sobriety. On the work front, he has been in Calgary filming "The Ron Clark Story," a TNT movie based on a real-life teacher who left North Carolina to work in one of New York's most difficult schools.

Go to top


It's no accident that a famous Chinese producer picked 12 young women to make up what is now the country's hottest musical export, the Twelve Girls Band. The number has mystical significance in China. With its just-out second U.S. album, "Romantic Energy," the instrumental band offers a funky take on traditional Chinese music and tackles more Western tunes. Its 2004 album featured covers of songs by Coldplay and Enya; it cracked the "Billboard" 200 album chart. Member Jing Jing Ma, who plays the Yang Qin (think souped-up xylophone with strings), tells us the 25- to 26-year-old band members are all accomplished musicians, classically trained on traditional Chinese instruments. Ma says she chose her instrument because "it seems important; it's usually in the center, as if you're the conductor." The women make some time for fun on tour, singing karaoke or clubbing together.

The Twelve Girls Band added a 13th for backup. "We're like a big family of sisters," says Jing Jing Ma.

Go to top


BIRTHDAYS

November 27: Caroline Kennedy 48
November 28: Jon Stewart, 43
November 29: Don Cheadle, 41
November 30: Clay Aiken, 27; Ben Stiller, 40
December 1: Bette Midler, 60
December 2: Britney Spears, 24; Nelly Furtado, 27; Lucy Liu, 37
December 3: Julianne Moore, 45

Contributing: Gayle Jo Carter, Nancy Mills, Elissa Petruzzi, Brian Truitt

Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!


Copyright 2009 USA WEEKEND. All rights reserved.
A Gannett Co., Inc. property.
Terms of Service.   Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights.