Issue Date: May 3, 2009
When can we expect a new album from pop singer Vanessa Carlton?
Roshan Thomas, Findlay, Ohio
She's working on one now. After traveling from New York to the Arctic to London and back to the USA late last year, Carlton, 28, is officially "out of my cave," she tells us, and has written half of a new record, which she's producing herself: "I feel in control more than ever of how I'm going to connect my music to a stranger." Carlton, who had a huge hit with 2002's "A Thousand Miles," also is thinking of scoring instrumental music for films. Her inspiration? John Williams' "Jaws" soundtrack and its famous two-note theme. "It's always stuck with me -- how music can alter the way you absorb a film."
Carlton: Scott Gries, Getty
Carlton: at work on new music
Go to top
Please tell me about Shemar Moore on CBS' "Criminal Minds." Was he ever a model? Is he married?
B. Cody, Rochester, N.Y.
Moore, 39, has "single rings on all the wrong fingers," he says. And yes, he was a model, but now he's FBI profiler Derek Morgan on the show, which ends its season May 20. "There is a gruesome twist," he tells us. In real life, he "would need a psychiatrist" to do such a job. "I am glad I look at ketchup and good food coloring on actors pretending to be dead rather than real blood on dead people."
Go to top
We know Stephen Colbert, of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," is funny. But we don't know much else about him.
Ella Seaton, Amarillo, Texas
Colbert, 44, is married with three kids. He's Catholic and was the baby of 11 growing up near Charleston, S.C. When he was 10, he lost his dad and two brothers in a plane crash. As a kid, he noticed TV characters with Southern accents were stereotyped as less intelligent. That prompted him to imitate the speech of news anchors.
Colbert: Brad Barket, Getty Images for Comedy Central
Go to top
I'd like some details about "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl. Any other projects?
Dick Castelhano, Port Orange, Fla.
She's a creator of and contributor to wowOwow.com, a website aimed at women over 40. "I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur, to own something, to be a part of the new medium," Stahl says. As for personal details: She's 67; was born in Swampscott, Mass.; is married to writer Aaron Latham; and is mom to daughter Taylor, 31. No grandchildren, "but I'd like them," she tells us. Stahl credits her own stay-at-home mom for inspiring her pioneering entry into journalism. "She told me to get a career, not a job," she says.
Stahl: Charles Eshelman, FilmMagic
Go to top
After starring -- to some acclaim -- in "The Notorious Bettie Page" four years ago, Gretchen Mol was seen more recently in a prim police uniform on "Life on Mars." She had hoped the ABC time-travel show, which ended last month, would have a long run because, as the mother of a 19-month-old son, Mol, 36, found that a TV schedule suited her real life. Still, she's sure to find life after Mars. In the past two years, she has made three films. "An American Affair," in which her character has an affair with JFK, was recently released. But the fate of the other two is unclear. In Tenure, she plays a professor in a relationship with another professor (Luke Wilson). In "Trainwreck: My Life as an Idoit" (that's not a typo), she says, "I got to sing and dance."
Mol: Steve Mack, FilmMagic
Go to top
Peter Jacobson, who plays Dr. Taub on Fox's House, came to realize early in his career that "I can't play Romeo. I'm going to play a lot of lawyers, doctors, agents." That mind-set propelled him to success in both TV and movies with roles in TV's "Law & Order" and "The Starter Wife" miniseries and in movies such as Good Night, and Good Luck. The good news for character actors, says Jacobson, 44, is that "we are hitting our stride as we age. Didn't you hear? Dr. Taub is the new sex symbol." He says his career wouldn't be possible without his wife, who's "holding down the fort" at home in New York with their 6-year-old son while he works in L.A.
Go to top
What are the Grammy-winning Dixie Chicks doing these days? I haven't heard a peep about them in a long time.
Leore Graves, Hannibal, Mo.
"The Chicks" are on hiatus to spend time with friends and family. But we're told they're writing new material, even if they have no official studio plan just now. Last December, they released the single "Lucky Ones" on Bono's AIDS benefit site redwire.com.
Go to top
BIRTHDAYS
May 3: Greg Gumbel 63; Frankie Valli 75
May 4: Lance Bass 30; Randy Travis 50
May 5: Danielle Fishel, 28; Kurt Loder 64
May 6: George Clooney 48; Roma Downey 49; Tony Blair 56; Bob Seger 64
May 7: Amy Heckerling 55
May 8: Enrique Iglesias 34; Melissa Gilbert 45
May 9: Rosario Dawson 30; John Corbett 48; Billy Joel 60; Candice Bergen 63; Mike Wallace 91
Contributing: Gayle Jo Carter, Nancy Mills, Jon Tollestrup, Brian Truitt
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
|
