Category: people

Apart from a break for military service in World War II and a brief stab at a Hollywood film career, Noel spent nearly his entire professional life at the theater set among the eucalyptus groves of San Diego’s Balboa Park. He was named resident director in 1947, and even though he turned over the position of artistic director to Jack O’Brien, his hand-picked successor, in 1982, he never relinquished his leadership role.

“He is the hood ornament, the face of classical radio. In this day and age of consolidation and radio stations making changes so quickly, to have that longevity is just unheard of.”

“Actor Kal Penn is headed back to Hollywood after spending nine months working for the White House as associate director of public engagement. The 32-year-old performer, whose real name is Kalpen Modi, made an abrupt exit last summer from the entertainment world to work in the administration of President Barack Obama. He had previously been active in the Obama presidential campaign.”

“He was born in an age when musicians simply strove to be the best they could be and if fame was the result then it was accepted gracefully. These days, the music industry places more value on image and fame and Sir Colin doesn’t like it.”

After a successful career at The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post (where he wrote the article that sparked the Sister Souljah/Bill Clinton tiff), Mills became a top writer for the acclaimed TV series NYPD Blue, ER, The Corner and The Wire. He collapsed on the New Orleans set of his latest project, HBO’s Tremé.

“In a career than spanned six decades, the Texas-born Ellis was regarded as one of the finest jazz guitar soloists. Innovative guitarist Les Paul paid him the compliment: ‘If you’re not swinging, he’s gonna make you swing’.”

Speaking on an Australian morning radio show, the Hairy One offered a truce to offended Prime Minister Kevin Rudd thus: “Please let me come back to Australia without a cavity search, and if not I’d love to go to a strip club with you in New York.”

“He was a major donor to Oxford University, Edinburgh University, Glasgow University, the Tate Gallery in London, the Royal College of Art, the Louvre, the Jewish Museum in Berlin and Salzburg University, among other institutions. In New York, the Sackler brothers were probably best known for the Sackler wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art….”

“They’re sharp: make a typo and they’re on it like a shot, and they tease without mercy. However, if you set them a verbal challenge, a frisson sweeps through them. They did very well with definitions for ‘dold socks’–one of my typos–and ‘Thnax,’ another one. And they really shone when, during the Olympics, I said that ‘Own the podium’ was too brash to be Canadian….”