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Category: Cher News (Page 15 of 17)

Cher Odds and Ends

SandcSome clips that have come across Cher Scholar’s desk this week:

A Cher Investment: songs written by Bon Jovi, Cher, Celine Dion and Justin Timberlake now form part of the investment portfolio of Dutch civil service pension fund ABP.

Dinner Date Night Idea: stay at home, watch Moonstruck and bake a pizza; here’s how.

Good News: the paparazzi are starting to get arrested in LA when their volume and tactics put people in jeopardy. Uh…it’s about time. Read about such an arrest.

And if you recall my gripes last week or so about Cher’s modern dance routines compared to her 80s Vegas ones, here is a story on her choreographer Doriana Sanchez and how they hooked up.Donnymarie_5

And Cher may not support Obama but he supports Cher: in a joke last week Jay Leno said: "In an interview in People Magazine, Barack Obama said he was more a fan of Sonny and Cher than he was a fan of Donny and Marie. Well, that should answer the question of whether he’s black enough!" That’s actually very kewl. Sonny & Cher got soul…we knew it!

A party of Sonny, Chers, Donny and Maries

Dolls_2   

   

   

 

    

 

   

A soulful Cher among honkey Osmonds

Osmond_cher_2 

A Week in Cher-time

The Latest News Clips
(as posted on Cher groups)

Honestly, a good source for the latest Cher clips is always Cherworld.com. It’s an amazing Cher site that fishes out the late-breaking Cher news so you don’t have to. Cherworld’s on it!

Chermoths_3 Items covered in latest interviews

• Farah Fawcett’s cancer treatments with embalization and cyber knives
• Dangerous pug-faced paparazzi
• Cher’s good genes
• Cher’s good ex-boyfriend Gene
• Sonny ghost
• Cher’s Elvis teen crush (and she still didn’t go to Vegas with him?? Imagine if your teen crush invited you to Vegas for the weekend. Tell me, who is it? Would you go? I just got over my teen crush…last month. So no, I guess I wouldn’t go now.)
• Cher’s good health habits with the succinct quote: “I never saw drugs do anything good for anyone.”
• Her other tips for longevity including love well…and often.

So, it irks me that latest press reports state Cher is set to record her 27th album (one source even said 25th). Not to be a Cher nerd (too late), but It’s only 25 when you only count studio solo albums. But why leave out Sonny & Cher, Allman and Woman, Black Rose and the live albums? It’s so much more impressive to say she’s starting to record her 36th album (which includes the three major live albums and the Good Times soundtrack album –with all its original material– but not Chastity because it was mostly instrumental.)

It’s all about me

And this Cher nerd is feeling a little wiped-out and overwhelmed at the moment. Basically too much going on right now and I need to simply simplify. Helping my parents with their reunion/50th Anniversary party this summer, planning for my trip to Paris with the bf (which includes brushing up on my French, planning our itinerary and buying suitable non-American looking clothes so I wont be ostracized as a tourist), working on a somewhat large poetry project, and studying Spanish, Information Architecture (and now Project Management) for work.

I’ve had to put off my second class in ceramics for the time being. Which smarts.

At least Valentines Day is a hurdle that has passed. My bf and I have really sorry luck on romantic holidays including anniversaries. This year traffic made my bf late and our restaurant had some crisis and couldn’t seat anybody. After hearing angry comments from other couple’s left waiting in the lobby for 40 minutes, we left and went to a Mexican dive (my favorite, Rosa’s, on PCH). But overall, better than some fiascoes of years past. This year I got my bf a slew of chocolates and a singing Johnny Cash card. I also bought a singing Sonny & Cher card for myself. They were $4.99 each. The S&C card said:

“You got the honey,
I got the bees.
You got the mac,
And I got the cheese.
You got the hand,
I got the glove.
But the best part of all is…

Inside: we got the love.”

And then the card played:

“I got you to kiss goodnight
I got you to hold me tight
I got you and I wont let go
I got you to love me so
I got….you babe.”

Really loud. Honestly, it was lame. I guess it’s important to have it for historical purposes. To document the crap our Hallmark society puts out. I hope the estate of Sonny Bono received a good chuck of that $4.99.

Grammys: What are you wearing?

For more information on Cher’s outfit last week at the Grammys, visit Julia Gerard who designed Cher’s fitted skirt. J. Gerard holds shop on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. My obsession with the show Project Runway makes me wonder if Cher would like Jeffrey Sebelia from last year.

The new show

In the Feb 10 edition of the La Times there was a full-page ad that said:

Cher
opening may 2008
The Coliseum
Caesars Palace
Las Vegas

Barry1 I almost got excited until I noticed it was in the same Cher font as used for the Farewell tour and Living Proof. This goth font has been used for so many years it’s becoming like that Barry Manilow font he on all his albums from the first one in 1972 to the Even Now album in 1978. It was a butt-ugly font, too. Cher’s font is not butt-ugly but it does make me worry that the Vegas show will recycle things. I saw the Farewell show about…um….5 times. Which seems like a lot but in Willie Wonka terms is like that scene when Charlie was in class and asked by his teacher how many Wonka bars he had Barry2_2 Barry2_3 bought hoping for a golden ticket and all the other kids were like “you only bought two? How insane is that?” and Charlie felt like a dolt. Well, that equates to how I feel when I tell other Cher fans I only saw 5 or so farewell tour shows. But believe me, five was enough. Nothing changed except an incredibly shrinking set list.

All I am saying is that I yearn for new font assets. It’s not that I hate these goth assets. They’re strong and ballsy and look like they’ve been around for centuries. What’s not to like?Barry3_2

This all may sound crabby but I’m really looking forward to this year’s show. I hope to see lots of stupidly large headdresses. Headdresses like in Celebration at Caesars – so big Cher could only make it down a few steps before cute male dancers are forced to come to her aid.

And is Cher at the Coliseum really the official title of the show? Not quite the pizazz of The Showgirl Barry4 Must Go On or the simple artistry of The Red Piano.

 

Lots of new news clips to watch

Accesswig 

   

   

    

    

   

Access Hollywood

http://video.accesshollywood.com/player/?id=215877

http://www.accesshollywood.com/article/8327/Cher:-Farrah-Fawcett-Is-Cancer-Free/   

  Etwig

   

   

   

   

   

Entertainment Tonight
http://www.cherworld.com/news/?p=462

Extraglasses_2

   

   

   

   

   

   

Extra

http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2008/02/cher_gene_simmons.php

http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2008/02/cher_gives_us_her_three_tips_t.php

   

Behold the New Wigs: Cher Announces a Celebration at Caesars, Part II

Darkwig I’m very very psyched about the fact that Cher is returning to Vegas. It’s always been one of my regrets that I never somehow cohersed my parents into taking me to see one of her shows at Caesars Palace all those moons and decades ago, before her phoenix-like rise to Oscardom.

The new Cher news appeared on two ABC news programs yesterday, Good Morning America and Nightline (basically the same short interview, give or take a shot of her Malibu patio) and longer pieces in USA Today. (Part 1 and Part 2)

I have to say, I dearly love the new wigs. I never liked the straight-style hair Cher sported in the 90s after the fabulous chaos of curls she wore in the 80s. Those Believe wigs always looked desperate to me. No amount of glitter and spackle on them could convince me otherwise. The new wigs are wonderful because they simultaneously give Cher maturity and yet make her look younger, too. Sounds tricky but it works.

And one thing I’ve started to love about Cher articles in the last ten years: the fabulous new "adjective of accolade" they invent to describe her career. Nightline used the word Indomitable.

Press facts at a glance

  • Cher’s up to a 44-year career
  • Caesars Coliseum contains 4,100 seats
  • Cher will perform four shows a week (Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday) in dates set to run in May and then August through October of this year.
  • Ticket prices are $227 for orchestra, $159 for rear-orchestra and $127 and $86 for the balcony seats.
  • She has a three year contract with AEG (three years!!)
  • Rumor has it she will make $60 million for these shows
  • To put that into perspective, the Farewell tour earned about $192 million and was the 9th highest grossing tour in history according to Billboard Boxscore, who also said “Cher was a remarkable endurance test.”
  • Cher told the I-bought-two-frying-pans-in-1965-because-I-thought-I’d-always-return-to-poverty-someday” story again
  • Her estimated worth is $600 million

Other Points of Note

Cher also said it must be hard to be her manager cos she doesn’t know her address or where she is half the time but does still go to grocery store, mostly for Mallomars. Why is the ability to grocery shop always the litmus test of the common man?

Cher talked more openly about depression and how work is a good counterbalance. She said with a smile, “I could make something of my life if I didn’t have depression” and I wasn’t sure if that was tongue-in-cheek or sincerely bittersweet. It was news that she’d had another debilitating bout with Epstein-Barr last year which meant a trip to see those German doctors. This might esplain those cancer rumors.

Cher also scooped up some love dish. Cher talked about Sonny being a scientologist and how she just didn’t get it. She confirmed the Tom Cruise date story. (Where are the pictures, goddammit?) And admitted she was propositioned by both Elvis and Marlon Brando (I can totally see them both being so in to her), but admitted she was too scared to act on a weekend away with Elvis (who knows why she didn’t hook up with Brando, aside from the crazy thing) and said she has regretted it ever since.

Her I’m-still-looking-for-love speech sounded like a bad eHarmony ad, hoever – I must say. My bf would tell her, “stop asking for what you want and start advertising what you could offer to someone else?" (aside from 600 million dollars worth of bling bling.) The ubiquitous “make me laugh” requirement should go out the window for all women universally. Should someone have to make you laugh or should you just laugh. I swear, we just had this very conversation while giving advice to a friend looking for love on Chemistry.com. But Cher’s comment “you just stub your toe over guys” was very funny and astute.

To get into shape for the Caesars shows, Cher plans to start yoga and loves her Power Plate fitness machine. She’s not impressed with American Idol and like Jack Nicholson is supporting Hillary Clinton for president. She said “the guys have had it.” True enough although I would advise keeping that sentiment out of her dating profile for now.

Promises, Promises

  1. “Cher insists her Vegas splash wont recycle Farewell motifs.” This is important. I just had a friend who refused to buy a ticket with us because he said he had no confidence Cher would re-invent the wheel. But Cher maintains she’s revamping the songs and taking the visual aspects one step further with surround effects and complex staging (a different stage for each song), things she couldn’t due on a traveling show with limited technology.
  2. Cher promises elaborate choreography and 4 aerialists. I initially hoped the choreography would be more Caesars 1980 than Farewell 2000 but the Robin Leach blog story claims Doriana Sanchez will be the choreograper once again so I’m expecting more of the unsynchronized same. Professional dancers feel free to educate me on this issue if that seems uneducated.
  3. According to the Leach-blog “An album— her 27th—will be produced from the show!” Well, first of all, Cher already has 30 albums. And would this be a live album or a new studio album? It would be great if Cher could arrange duets with visiting Vegas showmen, like Tom Jones.

This show marks Cher stage reunion of a sorts with Elton John and Bette Midler, who both guest-starred on the premier episode of her Cher solo television series in 1975.  Leach-blog called them "a triumph-irate," a sassy run on the words triumphant triumvirate.

My own thoughts

It fully hit me yesterday that I have an unbelievably exciting year ahead – seriously. I hope I don’t get hit by a bus. I have my first trip out of the country, something I’ve been trying to accomplish my whole adult lifetime, to Paris for 10 days with my bf (who speaks fluent French) and a family reunion in Albuquerque and Santa Fe New Mexico (I’m looking forward to showing my bf that absolutely enchanted state). I’ve got very-good-but-moderately-priced tickets to see Cher at Caesars (a dream come true – now if only she’d only start a television show again so I could sit in the viewing audience I could check off that last dream from 1975). Plus the Los Angeles Times Book Festival. Oh heaven!

And adventures with the new house and the new dog, Franz Alonzo, who just started his own Dogbook profile today – what a social networker!

I got very giddy about it all yesterday and suddenly realized in little over a year I’ll be 40! And my poor parents really hoped I’d be over this celebrity obsession thing by age 10!

To be honest, I actually DO feel somewhat smarter and more at peace as an older person. Although I’ve never quite felt “smart.” I surely don’t fall for all the crap I used to fall for as a young turk. I’ve also overcome a slew of fears. But I understand what Cher is saying to this degree: it is a drag when your bodily functions stop running smoothly. What smarts could alleviate that?

Finally, Leach-blog also stated the best-est bit of Cher news of all: “Cher will also be given her own Cher Store at the casino—taking over the former Celine Dion retail space.” I might just pass out! A cute little Cher store! Can I get a job there? Commute from LA?

Last December I was in the Elton John store with my bf and his mom. We stayed at the Paris –  because I just love their public bathrooms. At Caesars’ Elton store, he had scented potpourri pepples for sale. My bf and I showed them to his mom and she exclaimed, “I don’t want to smell Elton John’s rocks!”

I can’t tell you how excited I’m getting. Like when I got the Sonny & Cher stage for my eight birthday and got dizzy. Imagine, a whole store of ridiculous non-sequester Cher merchandise like scented rocks! I remember going crazy in the Barry Manilow store a few years ago: Barry wine. A Barry purse. This is so fucking great! Ahhhhhhhhh!

My mother just put me in my room for some quite time.

Btw, Cher will be a presenter this Sunday on the Grammys. Welcome to follwing Cher in the Tivo century!

 

Tickets are on sale now (and new wig alert!)

Blondewithstyle_2 Hallelujah! Glory be the day! Merry Christmas and Bob’s your uncle! Cher is going to Vegas. Have a beer! Bear hug your dog! As Maurice Cavalier says in Gigi, "have a piece of cheese!"

Go buy your tickets!

I’m going to watch Cher on Nightline tonight and will purge some more thoughts mañana!

Note: She was also interviewed by on Good Morning America this morning by Cynthia McFadden who was friends with Katharine Hepburn. Found this out while I was doing two biography book reviews for Ape Culture.

See the Good Morning America video and article here.

And one last thought: never thought I’d say this about Cher as a blonde…but I LOVE THAT WIG. It makes Cher’s eyes look lovely and serene.

   

 

‘Do you believe’ in life after rumours?

Parisvegas It’s hard times for Cher fans when you don’t know what to believe. Take the recent news of the last month: Cher is gravely ill, Cher is trying to hock around a bad-reality show idea, Cher’s going to Vegas, Cher’s not  going to Vegas, Cher IS going to Vegas, Cher’s growing pot in her basement, Cher’s  forcing forcing Chastity to enroll in clown college, Cher’s moving into a shoe. It’s crazy.

Odd sources have resurrected the gay-reality show story last week but it just never seemed swallowable, even before Liz Rosenberg denied the rumor on ABC News. I’m talking about the show where Cher and Chastity help people come out on television. Cher dying like Greta Garbo in Camille was easier to believe, especially a year or so after Cher was seen shopping for a grave site at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris and months after she was reported to have given Farah Fawcett German doctor tips for cancer.

Where did this story about Cher forcing Chastity into intense anti-gay therapy come from? Was that in either of Chastity’s books? I don’t remember it but ABC news claims it was there. Why wouldn’t I have remembered that? I do remember Chastity being booted from the New York Penthouse – almost as if it had happened to me!

The ABC story also discusses the idea that Cher had several female trysts in the 70s. This seems vaguely familiar from the Cher/Chastity interview in the Advocate. I wish all my Cher mags weren’t molding in my parents basement as we speak. No way am I gonna ask mom to dig one out and mail it to me. Did I tell you my family greatly disapproves of my celebrity obsession? I hope no mysterious fire destroys my collection. I guess if it’s true about shoes, it’s true about storage: payless, get less.

Anyway, the story came from such pitiful sources: Newsbusters, Malaysian News (how did the Malaysians get the scoop?) and the quotes just seemed absurd. Cher saying they’d be “as big as The Osbournes.” I can’t picture Cher saying that or saying she saw herself and Chastity “like Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, [not] afraid to have a rant at each other on camera,” or Cher plotting any bidding wars with TV stations (okay maybe she would do that last one).

I can’t picture either Cher or Chastity gung ho to share their private lives with TV Land. As public as America thinks Cher is – she’s not really that public. I just couldn’t see it. Unfortunately one gal blogger fell for the story and posted an angry rant about it on her blog: http://rjr10036.typepad.com/proceed_at_your_own_risk/2007/12/holy-crap.html

Then this week Robin Leach resurfaces, yammering on with more Vegas news: http://www.cherworld.com/news/?p=450

The news is good but why must we hear it from Robin Leach? I’m sorry; but I was forced to avoid too many Lives of the Rich and Famous shows in my wonder bread years.

According to Leach, Cher headlining in Vegas is not a dead deal and confirmation from Cher is just a breath away. According to him, here are the pertinent dates we should keep in mind so we can watch them pass on by.

  • 28 January – a very important announcement – or an announcement sometime in the last week of the month (he’s talking about 2008 right?)
  • 28 January to February – A 24-hour media blitz (would she cross the writer strike picket line?)
  • 1 February tickets should go on sale
  • Last week of April – first week of May – the actual show run will start

Of course, there’s not a spec of information to be found on Cher.com, per usual. Not only is that site news-pointless but it’s a usability nightmare (and that’s my late reading of Prioritizing Web Usability talking). Her latest news is from the auction over a year ago. And that news itself takes forever to load. That site is what I like to call “style over style.”

In honor of the latest Vegas rumors: here is a clip of the Alive again remix.

Btw, I’m going to Paris myself. Not to pick out a grave but to finally get out of the USA at the ripe old age of 37. This is the first extended vacation I’ve ever been on for myself. I’m very excited and going to try to do a carnet de voyage with my bf.
   

She’s Been a Busy Bee

Chas There’s been tons of Cher news lately. Cher had a fender bender in LA and actually behaved well for a celebrity. She left a note with her llongtime assistant/friend’s name on it. I don’t know where the press figured she was trying to leave a pseudonym (a very hard word to spell, btw); it seemed to me she was just trying to expedite the contact-me process. Was she on her way to the Osbourne’s auction preview??

Cher also successfully threw her first Cher Foundation charity shindig last week and all seemed to go well. Although no word yet on how much cashola was raised. Where is the Cher Foundation website already?

Cher reduced the price of her Palm Springs house which is for sale. Sign o the times. 

And there were reports that Cher’s personal trainer Angie Best had her second hip operation.

Over thanksgiving, Cher’s former Egyptian house caught on fire.

And Cher also contributed a designed kite for charity for Participant Productions. "The proceeds will benefit the Afghanistan Relief Organization specifically for the training of teachers and the construction of rural libraries in Afghanistan." Read the Press Release. Cher’s kite is yellow. The auction ends December 15.

And Cher was also seen out shopping with Chastity. Getting cash out for the Osbourne’s auction I suspect: some replacement hanging wall crosses maybe.

   

Cher Charitable Foundation Says Hello

Chercastle Great news: Cher issued a press release Monday!  Her new Charitable Foundation is doing a fundraiser…finally. 🙂

(photo right: Cher at a Charity at LA’s Magic Castle in 1973; taken by Kim M. Lynch)

The shindig will go down November 28 in Century City and will include a VIP reception, dinner and a short film screening.  The movie will be Love Sees No Color (here’s the 4 minute YouTube version) – which is described as something like a music-based peace film running at 12 minutes. I hope discussions will follow because that short program might send you to bed before Letterman comes on.

The press release alludes to “the screening and celebrity performance” but what exactly that celebrity performance is or which celebrity will be performing seems vague at this point. Remember Cher sometimes doesn’t show up to her own parties. I guess I know a hyper (and set-up) Cher fan or two who will post bank to find out. The event costs $500 for a plebeian ticket and 1k for the V.I.P. treatment.

Although I live here I must pass. If I had $500 spare dollars I’d own a third of a Bob Mackie sketch right about now. I propose five of us pick a presentable Cher fan to sponsor for $100 each. Their only obligation will be to obsessively report on the event to other poverty-stricken (in a relative European-US sense, that is) fans.

But seriously, this is really great news. Cher is amping up her charity profile and not making it Cher-centric – which fulfills a requirement that her charity work not be self-celebrity-obsessed. It’s perfect!

The movie actually highlights musician and peace activist Nassiri. You can read his vision statement and you can listen to his music online. It sounds uplifting. Allmusic.com describes it as lush, literate, hypnotic world fusion.

There’s also a pretty substantial review in the press release of Cher’s philanthropic efforts to date which include:

  • The Children’s Craniofacial Association, National Chairperson and Honorary Spokesperson, creator of Cher’s Family Retreat
  • Get A-Head Charitable Trust – serves people with head and neck diseases
  • Operation Helmet – support to American active soldiers
  • Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund – support to American military veterans
  • Habitat for Humanity, – Honorary Chair of the poverty initiative “Raise the Roof”
  • Keep a Child Alive, Spokesperson – they serve to reduce the global AIDS epidemic
  • Peace Village School in Ukunda, Kenya – provides food, medical care and education to children

Not mentioned but she has also supported Comic Relief, High Priority – a breast cancer information network, Pediatric AIDS Foundation, PFLAG, The Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation, United Cerebral Palsy Association and probably others we don’t know about.

For contact information on these charities, visit http://www.cherscholar.com/cherstock.htm and scroll down to Cherities.

Read the press release.

I just hope The Cher Charitable Foundation starts up a website soon so people can mail in some benjamins.

Peace – love – unity – and TV specials!
    

The Internet, Video and Links

Barilan_internetthumb I don’t feel much like blogging today but here goes. Yesterday as part of a work excursion I attended part of ICANN’s (Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers) 30th public meeting. You probably don’t know ICANN (and their name isn’t very sexy for sure) but they do things like run the Internet – make sure it works and isn’t hacked into and all that sort of thing. It was fascinating – the three session I attended.

The Internet is one of those things you take for granted but is so crucial to life in the modern world. My favorite quote from the meeting was from ICANN-ite George Sadowsky who said “All forms of human behavior have moved to the net and magnified.” And he went on to say how that included both good and bad forms of human behavior, saints and thieves. Do you consider how important the Internet is to your modern life and how crucial it is that it doesn’t break down?

I definitely feel mentally exhausted today. The energy there was calm but intense and now my brain is completely fried. Just listening to the translations was exhausting but very cool.

I’ll just leave you with these links for thoughts…

Cher single "Believe" was huge. Least we forget how big it was, this Today in Music article coves the basics, how it was the dance record of the 90s and probably the biggest selling dance record of all time.

Here’s more news on Cher swearing on TV and whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing according to US courts. Ugh! I wish this story would just go away! I’m so friggin over it already. Grant on Ghost Hunters says "What the Frig!" all the time and I think it’s so funny. My bf said yesterday that he was suffering from a bad case of the friggits.

Here’s a clip of Sonny & Cher singing "We’re Gonna Make It." Wow! First of all, didn’t we associate that song with the Allman and Woman album. Sonny & Cher did it too? Just like "You Really Got a Hold on Me." Was Cher trying to recreate Sonny & Cher with Allman duets? It seems so beyond comprehension – how could we have considered it? Or did Sonny & Cher cover so many friggin songs it would be impossible not to re-cover her covers? Of course, Cher and Allman didn’t make it, Sonny and Cher didn’t make it either but it would be hard to top their version. Bobby Sherman, that ridiculous dance, the screaming kids, the sudden appearance and disappearance of backup singers (if it wasn’t the 60s I’d think they were CGI’d in there), Sonny going absolutely crazy at the end. Wow!

This last clip is about a Joni Mitchell impersonator. It’s tone irked me…a lot. The article begins by indicating how high class it is to be a Joni Mitchell impersonator and how that possibly elevates the act to cabaret. First of all, you could argue that a Joni Mitchell impersonator is even more ridiculous of an act than a Cher impersonator…that is if you think impersonations are ridiculous in the first place which you probably do if you’re a close-minded Joni Mitchell fan. Then there’s the implication that other impersonators are of a lower-caste, being reduced to hand out pamphlets on the streets of Provincetown to their shows because “Ms. Mitchell appeals to far more rarefied tastes.” I can personally attest that you can be both a fan of Cher and Joni Mitchell. (I have her collected lyrics in my library for frig’s sake!). This was a subtle Cher-shaft in action and I had to say something.

The picture above is Bar Ilan University‘s map of the Internet. The Internet. What an awesome thing. Just this one post has brought us a blog conversation, a youtube video, factual information on a pop song and potential opinions blossoming out of billions of brains worldwide.

      

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