It has been reported that former 'American Idol' star Jessica Sierra is expecting a baby in jail.
MTV News reports that the website TMZ.com quoted sources as saying that Sierra is on a pregnancy diet in the infirmary at Falkenburg Road Jail in Tampa, Florida.
Sierra was arrested on 2 December outside a bar near Tampa and is facing charges of disorderly intoxication, resisting arrest and violating parole.
The 22-year-old was the 10th place finalist on the fourth season of 'American Idol' in 2005.
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
AFTRA sends deal to members
SAG steps up the fight
AFTRA's national committee on Friday "overwhelmingly" voted in favor of the tentative primetime/TV agreement reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers last month. The contract now goes to its 70,000 members for ratification.
Earlier in the day, SAG leaders voted to try to torpedo that ratification vote, with its national executive board agreeing by a narrow margin to spend an initial $150,000 on a campaign to encourage dual card members to vote down the tentative AFTRA deal.
The SAG vote was taken during an in-person and video conference meeting with SAG's national executive board. One source put the vote at 13 in favor, 10 opposed.
SAG and AFTRA share 44,000 members, and SAG is looking to those members to vote against the AFTRA contract. Results are expected to be announced on or about July 7.
SAG's vote comes after president Alan Rosenberg and national executive director Doug Allen sent AFTRA a letter Thursday asking it to delay the member ratification vote. AFTRA refused.
"It has become clear over recent days of bargaining that the prospect of an immediate ratification vote on the proposed AFTRA Exhibit A contract is distracting the industry from seriously engaging on SAG's proposals and has the unfortunate prospect of interfering with SAG's ability to exercise its leverage for the benefit of all actors, members of either or both of our unions," the letter stated.
In response, AFTRA president Roberta Reardon and national executive director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth told SAG "in our view, delaying this process would not be in the best interest of our members. Nor do we believe there is anything about AFTRA's ratification process that would 'distract' either SAG or the industry from good faith negotiations or in any way be 'interfering' with the guild's negotiations with the AMPTP."
Sources say AFTRA board members were furious over SAG's letter, calling it "blackmail." They are also angry about their sister actor union's push to get members to vote down the AFTRA contract.
Sources close to SAG said the vote over the fight against AFTRA was divided between the West Coast members who are part of the "Membership First" faction, which received the majority, and East Coast members.
Said one member who attended the meeting: "Basically, it was all the Membership First people rabidly embracing this idea and the others opposing it, as predicted."
Asked about the campaign to sway AFTRA voters, Allen said: "We will be communicating the results of (our) analysis to our membership and will be educating SAG members about the impact of the AFTRA deal on our negotiations and on our effort to secure the best possible contract for actors."
SAG plans to hold a "solidarity rally" on Monday morning at its Wilshire Boulevard headquarters in Los Angeles. Susan Savage, a SAG board member and member of Membership First, has described it as an anti-AFTRA contract rally.
In an e-mail on Thursday, Savage encouraged members to vote down the AFTRA contract and also inferred that Tom Hanks and George Clooney had phoned Rosenberg to tell them that they supported SAG's position.
Hanks and Clooney denied the claim. A SAG spokesperson said Savage has since apologized for not being clear in her message, noting that Savage meant to say that Hanks and Clooney are in support of SAG's overall negotiations, not the anti-AFTRA contract initiative.
For 27 years, SAG and AFTRA had jointly negotiated the primetime/TV portion of their performers contract. But AFTRA voted to suspend the agreement and bargain on its own after more than a year of locking horns with SAG leaders over various issues.
AFTRA reached its tentative deal on May 28. SAG is in negotiations with the AMPTP; its deal expires June 30.
AFTRA's agreement includes a bump in actor rates over three years, jurisdiction over new media and retaining, for now, consent over the use of clips in new media for nonpromotional use.
In an open letter Friday to members, AFTRA negotiating committee member David Basche wrote the union "won a great contract," including a 10% increase in minimums over the contract term that was "far greater than the AMPTP wanted to agree to and were achieved only because we did not back down and stayed focused, calm and strong on the members' behalf."
"I think it's damn good, more than expected," he wrote, "and some of these increases are the first in almost a decade: Hard won and well deserved."
See Also
New Sondheim Musical Finally Opening This Fall, Directed by John Doyle
Photo: Getty Images
Playbill is reporting that casting notices have appeared for Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's looonnnng-delayed musical Bounce, which is now scheduled to open at the Public Theater in October. The musical, about turn-of-the-century confidence men the Mizner brothers, has a checkered development history; Sondheim started working on it in 1996, and since then it's gone through two workshops, a legal battle with Scott Rudin, a roadblock from Roger Berlind, several different leading men, two different directors (Sam Mendes and Hal Prince), three titles (previously, Wise Guys and Gold!), and a modestly received premiere at the Goodman in Chicago. Nonetheless, a new Sondheim show in New York is always worth cheering about, especially when directed by the new king of Sondheim, John Doyle, whose revivals of Sweeney Todd and Company set the bar pretty high. We're officially excited!
Sondheim and Weidman's Bounce Will Bow at Public Theater This Fall [Playbill]
Playbill is reporting that casting notices have appeared for Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's looonnnng-delayed musical Bounce, which is now scheduled to open at the Public Theater in October. The musical, about turn-of-the-century confidence men the Mizner brothers, has a checkered development history; Sondheim started working on it in 1996, and since then it's gone through two workshops, a legal battle with Scott Rudin, a roadblock from Roger Berlind, several different leading men, two different directors (Sam Mendes and Hal Prince), three titles (previously, Wise Guys and Gold!), and a modestly received premiere at the Goodman in Chicago. Nonetheless, a new Sondheim show in New York is always worth cheering about, especially when directed by the new king of Sondheim, John Doyle, whose revivals of Sweeney Todd and Company set the bar pretty high. We're officially excited!
Sondheim and Weidman's Bounce Will Bow at Public Theater This Fall [Playbill]
Gillian Anderson Expecting Third Child
Gillian Anderson is pregnant with her third child.
The former X-Files actress, 39, and her longterm boyfriend Mark Griffiths already have a 20-month-old son, named Oscar, together.
Anderson also has teenage daughter Piper, 13, from her first marriage to Clyde Klotz, who was an assistant art director on the hit sci-fi programme, reports People.
The former X-Files actress, 39, and her longterm boyfriend Mark Griffiths already have a 20-month-old son, named Oscar, together.
Anderson also has teenage daughter Piper, 13, from her first marriage to Clyde Klotz, who was an assistant art director on the hit sci-fi programme, reports People.
Hub jitterbuggers find '30s-inspired dance craze in full swing
You won’t find the music touted as the next big thing. Yet around Boston, the swing inspired by Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Woody Herman is still doing what it did back in the ’30s and ’40s when it was America’s sound: keeping the dance floors packed.
Today those floors are mostly in church halls, not swanky ballrooms. And swing dance die-hards who grew up with the music have been joined by new generations of spiffily dressed lindy hoppers and jitterbuggers who are as likely to have Bellevue Cadillac pouring through their earbuds as Gnarls Barkley. Like their elders back in the day, these new swing fans are drawn to both the music and the scene.
“There’s nothing better than dancing with a 20-year-old and then dancing with a 70-year-old,” said 30-something Mary Ann Hill of Back Bay, who goes to at least one swing dance event every week. “Where else can you do that?”
Hill and other swing enthusiasts find the action in spots such as St. James Armenian Hall in Watertown, St. Mary’s Orthodox Church in Cambridge and the Swing City event at Dormition Greek Orthodox Church in Somerville.
At those events, live bands often lead the party. Dance lessons are offered beforehand.
“The music is fabulous,” Hill said. “It’s nothing you can turn on the radio and hear.”
Olaf Bleck recently took over Swing City’s Friday-night tradition from founder Dan Mezrich, who had run the weekly event since 1994. At first glance, Bleck is an unlikely successor, being best known as founder of SalsaBoston Entertainment, which hosts salsa events around town.
“As a salsa promoter, I thought they were different but similar,” he said. “What it really boils down to is that when people discover partner dancing they get hooked. Young people get sucked into the whirlpool of partner dancing once they find out how interactive and social it is. Both swing dancing and salsa have that. It’s just fun.”
“I’ve been swing dancing for about two and a half years and I’m loving it,” Hill said. “Rarely do you have different generations coming together like this and having a fun time. I’ve never experienced that anywhere else in my life.”
The Compaq Big Band at Swing City, Friday at 9 at Dormition Greek Orthodox Church, 29 Central St., Somerville. Lessons at 7:30. Tickets: $15; 617-513-9841. Rocco & the Stompers at Boston Swing Central, June 13 at 9 at St. Mary’s Orthodox Church, 8 Inman St., Cambridge. Lessons at 8. Tickets: $12; bostonswingcoop.org. The Blue Suede Bopper, June 14 at 9 at St. James Armenian Church, 465 Mount Auburn St., Watertown. Lessons at 8. Tickets: $15;bostonswingdance.com.
Today those floors are mostly in church halls, not swanky ballrooms. And swing dance die-hards who grew up with the music have been joined by new generations of spiffily dressed lindy hoppers and jitterbuggers who are as likely to have Bellevue Cadillac pouring through their earbuds as Gnarls Barkley. Like their elders back in the day, these new swing fans are drawn to both the music and the scene.
“There’s nothing better than dancing with a 20-year-old and then dancing with a 70-year-old,” said 30-something Mary Ann Hill of Back Bay, who goes to at least one swing dance event every week. “Where else can you do that?”
Hill and other swing enthusiasts find the action in spots such as St. James Armenian Hall in Watertown, St. Mary’s Orthodox Church in Cambridge and the Swing City event at Dormition Greek Orthodox Church in Somerville.
At those events, live bands often lead the party. Dance lessons are offered beforehand.
“The music is fabulous,” Hill said. “It’s nothing you can turn on the radio and hear.”
Olaf Bleck recently took over Swing City’s Friday-night tradition from founder Dan Mezrich, who had run the weekly event since 1994. At first glance, Bleck is an unlikely successor, being best known as founder of SalsaBoston Entertainment, which hosts salsa events around town.
“As a salsa promoter, I thought they were different but similar,” he said. “What it really boils down to is that when people discover partner dancing they get hooked. Young people get sucked into the whirlpool of partner dancing once they find out how interactive and social it is. Both swing dancing and salsa have that. It’s just fun.”
“I’ve been swing dancing for about two and a half years and I’m loving it,” Hill said. “Rarely do you have different generations coming together like this and having a fun time. I’ve never experienced that anywhere else in my life.”
The Compaq Big Band at Swing City, Friday at 9 at Dormition Greek Orthodox Church, 29 Central St., Somerville. Lessons at 7:30. Tickets: $15; 617-513-9841. Rocco & the Stompers at Boston Swing Central, June 13 at 9 at St. Mary’s Orthodox Church, 8 Inman St., Cambridge. Lessons at 8. Tickets: $12; bostonswingcoop.org. The Blue Suede Bopper, June 14 at 9 at St. James Armenian Church, 465 Mount Auburn St., Watertown. Lessons at 8. Tickets: $15;bostonswingdance.com.
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