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Blogs:
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Pet telethon re-airs
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Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30
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Late surge gives Zips ugly road win
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
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QB in Browns future: another mock draft
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
Varsity Letters:
Garfield at Buchtel basketball
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Law, Love and Chocolate
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
OFCCP Report
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Thursday, Jul 30, 2009
If it's Thursday, this must be the mailbag. . . .
Q: I am hooked on ''Beowulf'' with Ray Winstone. What else has he been in? What does he really look like?
A: The burly, 52-year-old Englishman has far more credits than I can list here; according to the Internet Movie Database, he has half a dozen productions in the can right now, and more in the works. But you may have seen him as Mac in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, as Moe in the Kate Hudson-Matthew McConaughey comedy Fool's Gold or as Mr. French in Martin Scorsese's The Departed.
Q: I recently saw part of a 1986 comedy starring Whoopi Goldberg as Terry Dolittle. I don't have the name of the movie. Can you locate it for me and tell me if a DVD is available?
A: That was Jumpin' Jack Flash. Dolittle is a computer programmer who gets pulled into a spy caper. It is the first feature film directed by Penny Marshall, who went on to movies like Big and A League of Their Own. There's also a nice version of the title tune sung by Aretha Franklin. And it is on DVD.
Q: We were wondering about Abby Ham's sudden departure from WKYC (Channel 3). Was there a problem?
A: Ham, who left the Cleveland NBC affiliate in June, decided to return to Knoxville, Tenn., where she had worked before coming to WKYC in November 2007.
''This was a personal decision that took a lot of thought and prayer,'' she said in WKYC's Director's Cut blog. ''My family lives in Knoxville and I miss them terribly. It was just too hard to be away.''
Ham's parents live in Knoxville and she married there while working in Cleveland. After marriage, she told the Knoxville News Sentinel, the lure of working in a bigger TV market waned.
''I definitely thought that was what I wanted in a career when I left Knoxville,'' she said. ''I realized there were more important things in life than work. Coming back to [Knoxville station] WBIR, I get to do more than work. I get to be with the people I love.''
Q: I love ''The Victory Garden,'' the old ''VG.'' Hate the current host, Jamie Durie. All that is shown now are reruns. Are they ever going to show new shows again?
A: Interesting that you want to see new shows with a host you don't like. In any case, there should be new telecasts sometime this fall. But you are right that it has been some time since new ones aired. The most recent season, which began in September 2008, consisted of just six episodes.
Q: Do you remember a TV movie with Valerie Harper where she plays a lone woman driver terrorized by a psycho male driver over the course of a long road trip? It was such a thriller that I have never forgotten it. Available anywhere that you know of?
A: That would be Night Terror, a 1977 TV movie. I do not know of an authorized release on video.
Q: Is ''Crusoe'' going to be back for another season?
A: No. But there is a DVD set of the episodes NBC aired.
Q: Is the actor Teddy Sears from the movie ''Firehouse Dog'' (2007) the same Teddy Sears that played Chad on ''One Life to Live'' in 2002?
A: He is. If you want to see him now, the actor is part of the cast of Raising the Bar, the legal drama on TNT.
Q: What was the name of the movie where two women robbed banks using a lit stick of dynamite? Made in the '70s/'80s. It was shown on TV, but I think was made for the big screen.
A: The first answer that came to mind was The Great Texas Dynamite Chase, also known as Dynamite Women, from 1976. It starred Claudia Jennings, famous from her appearances in Playboy, and Jocelyn Jones as two women using dynamite on a crime spree.
•
Do you have a question or comment about movies, TV and other popular culture? Write to rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com or the Akron Beacon Journal, 44 E. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44309. Please mark the note for Mailbag and do not phone in questions.
Letters may be edited. Individual replies cannot be guaranteed.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://heldenfels.ohio.com and on Twitter.
If it's Thursday, this must be the mailbag. . . .
Get the full article here.
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