Who's News Blog

Jill Biden pens a Veterans Day essay

Just as Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, was writing a story for us about how they were coping with their son Beau’s deployment in Iraq, a glorious thing happened: He came home. Jill did what any responsible journalist who gets caught in the news would do — she retooled her story. The quite moving result is in this weekend's issue, just in time for Veteran’s Day. Beau, 40, who is now weighing a run for the U.S. Senate to fill his dad’s open seat, served in Iraq for a year.

Photo courtesy of the White House

Ed O'Neill of 'Modern Family' graces our cover this week

We found at least one person in Hollywood not obsessed with his weight: Ed O’Neill, the star of the new ABC sitcom Modern Family (formerly known as Ted Bundy from Married … With Children). The beefy actor thinks we’re all too uptight about it. “I think you’re worse off being too thin,” O’Neill, 63, told us during our photo shoot with some of his younger Modern Family castmates for this weekend's cover story focusing on kids' health. “To be overweight is not that unhealthy. You see those Midwestern waitresses, strong as bulls, they live until they’re in their 90s. Hollywood is so obsessed with thin that it is a sickness.” His idea of health food? “I like wine,” he says proudly. Cheers to that, Ed!

Adam Rodriguez is in Who's News this week

Adam Rodriguez may be leaving CSI: Miami but in Who's News this week he talks about his new gig on Ugly Betty alongside America Ferrara. The comedy is quite a change for the former serious scientist. You'll also find Joanna Cassidy, now a regular on TNT's HawthoRNe talking about the cool part of being a guest star, which she has done many times, plus Alicia Silverstone, talking about her new vegan diet book. And don't forget you can always leave me your celebrity question.

Photo by Eric Liebowitz/ABC

Jim Caviezel stars in AMC's 'The Prisoner'

Although Mad Men ends its season this Sunday on AMC, its departure makes way for the miniseries event The Prisoner, a reimagining of the classic 1960s British series that airs six hours over three nights beginning Sunday, Nov. 15. The miniseries stars movie actor Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) as Six, a man who finds himself mysteriously trapped in a place called The Village where the residents (led by the enigmatic Two, played by Ian McKellen) are known as numbers and are under constant surveillance. Our Brian Truitt talked with Caviezel way back in July for a piece in this weekend's magazine, but read below for Caviezel's thoughts on a motorcycle accident that happened just a week before the interview and how it ties into the premise of The Prisoner. Also, for more on the miniseries, download this digital comic and check out a clip from the miniseries.

Photo courtesy of AMC

Caviezel was involved in a motorcycle wreck in July, when a man threw his 10-speed bike right in front of Caviezel’s path on a Washington state highway as he was riding his Harley-Davidson cycle at 60 miles an hour. After just missing hitting a refrigerator truck and walking away with just a scratch, he feels, “You know, it’s not my time yet.”

Caviezel finds a similarity between the modern technology in The Prisoner with the aftermath of his accident, following a brief stay at a small-town hospital. “I thought, ‘Well, shoot, no one knows. That’s good.’ And the next day, over 50 e-mails and phone calls from all over saying, ‘Jim, you’re in the news!’ ” Caviezel says. “Like The Prisoner, the surveillance is even more real than George Orwell’s 1984. Like the original [series], with the surveillance and the Cold War and whatnot, we’re all in our own prison right now. Like a good poem, people of every age will be able to take a little bit of something.”

Celebrity Birthdays: Ethan Hawke, Rebecca Romijn

Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman's ex-husband who stars next in the futuristic vampire flick Daybreakers (out in January), celebrates his 39th birthday. Another famous former spouse (of John Stamos), supermodel/actress Rebecca Romijn, turns 37. She’s now married to Jerry O’Connell, and a mother of twins. Sally Field, who stars in ABC’s Brothers & Sisters, is 43; Thandie Newton, of Crash and The Pursuit of Happyness, turns 37; and the first lady of California (and Mrs. Schwarzenegger), Maria Shriver, is 54.

Angela Lansbury gets Sondheim award

Ms. Murder She Wrote, actress Angela Lansbury, will be the first recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Award from a Washington, D.C.-area theater that has produced more of the composer's works than any other U.S. theater. Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va. will honor Lansbury, 84, in April at a gala celebration and fundraising event. Two of her five Tony awards are for Sondheim musicals, Gypsy and Sweeney Todd. Lansbury told us last spring, when we talked to her for a special Tony awards report, that she still hears from Murder She Wrote fans, She'll be back on Broadway this month in Sondheim's A Little Night Music costarring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

A sick day reading list

Please pardon my absence from the blog this week; I'm fighting off a cold. Or is it swine flu? One friend sent a handy-dandy flu-swine flu-cold comparison chart, useful if one wants to self-diagnose or get hysterical.

While resting I finished off Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly, which is No. 8 on the Publisher's Weekly best seller list. It's fast-paced, there's a shocking death and his Detective Harry Bosch is set up to start a very different life.

I also roamed the pages of Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Recipe's from an Accidental Country Girl, which is No. 6 on PW's hardcover non-fiction list. Check out Drummond's web site, too. It's more delightful than the book and you get more of a feel for her unexpected life as a rancher's wife. She's a talented writer and photographer, which you will see online, and she's on a book tour now so you can find out when she'll be near you.

The recipe's in Drummond's book are intriguing, but just reading them makes me feel as if I've gained five pounds. Not so The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat by Tal Ronnen. Ronnen and book got the Oprah treatment last month — he's the man who fixed her food during her 21-day cleanse — and it's no wonder she's taken with him. I talked to him as he was getting ready for the big book launch and found he sounds a little like a guru you want to follow into the land of better health. He's convinced a plant-based diet is the way — and he's a former meat eater. He's working with restaurant chain Chipotle now to put vegetarian and vegan options on their menus. But back to the book. Every single recipe is shown in a gorgeous photograph. You will be inspired to cook. You can check out Tal's web site here.

Also on my pile of new books is Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's book, Highest Duty, written with former USA WEEKEND columnist Jeffrey Zaslow. Much of it is about the day Sullenberger landed an Airbus 320 in the Hudson River and all 155 on board lived to tell the tale. I find that even though I'm a fretful flier I like to know the details of accidents — why they happened and how they can be prevented. And I find it comforting to know that experts like Sullenberger are still at work.

Celebrity Birthdays: Kevin Jonas, Tatum O'Neal

The curly haired oldest Jonas Brother, Kevin Jonas, celebrates his 22nd birthday today. To the dismay of thousands of teenage girls everywhere, Kevin is recently engaged to girlfriend Danielle Deleasa. Tatum O’Neal, who can still claim to be the youngest person ever to win an acting Oscar (for Paper Moon at age 10), turns 46. Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, who recently added to his superstar status when his face was printed on the Canadian post stamp, is 50. Art Garfunkel, one-half of the musical duo Simon & Garfunkel, turns 68.

Celebrity Birthdays: Sean Combs, Matthew McConaughey

Rapper Sean Combs — aka “Puff Daddy,” “P. Diddy” and most recently just “Diddy” — celebrates his 40th birthday today. The music mogul, famous for his flashy parties, is sure to be throwing a memorable bash for the big 4-0. The man with one of the hardest last names in show business, Matthew McConaughey, also turns 40 – though you would never guess it from his suspiciously frequent shirtless pictures. And former first lady Laura Bush is 63.

George Strait and Reba McEntire hit the road

Country music lovers, here's the ticket for 2010: Chart-topping superstars George Strait and Reba McEntire will play to arena crowds around the country from late January through April. (Click here for tour dates and venues.) Strait’s recent release TWANG debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's 200 and the Top Country Albums charts. Reba’s new album, Keep On Loving You, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart – her first solo studio album to do so.

Photo by Donald Lesko

Celebrity Birthdays: Roseanne Barr, Dennis Miller

Roseanne Barr, who headlined one of TV’s most successful sitcoms, turns 57 today. More recently, the comedienne went blonde and hosted an HBO stand-up special, Blonde and Bitchin’. Another TV personality, Dennis Miller, who now hosts a national radio program, celebrates his 56th birthday. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom's Kate Capshaw, who is married to director Steven Spielberg, is also 56.

Celebrity Birthdays: David Schwimmer, k.d. lang

David Schwimmer, Rachel’s Ross on Friends, turns 43. He’s directing now (his next film, Trust, stars Clive Owen and Catherine Keener), and Schwimmer played himself on an episode of HBO’s Entourage this past summer. Musician and equal rights advocate k.d. lang celebrates her 48th birthday today. Rapper Nelly, he of Hot in Herre fame, is 35, and former Hart to Hart star Stefanie Powers is 67.

'Kiss' drummer Criss had breast cancer

Peter Criss, the Catman of the rock band Kiss, is a breast cancer survivor. He came out, if you will, earlier this month because it seemed right to do so during national Breast Cancer Awareness month, but he didn't do so until, as he puts it: "I prayed on it." I talked with him last week and found him to be a man of faith who really wants to help men who might not otherwise pay attention to their health. "I'm not a holy roller, but I have a whole way of being spiritual and, yes, I do stop by church once a week... Through all the craziness in my life, I would always go and pray," says Criss, bottom left in photo. So he asked God whether he should announce that he's had breast cancer and he got a yes. His aim, Criss says, is to let men know that they can get breast cancer, too, (about 1% of cases) and that early detection is the key to living. "Don't think it will go away." Criss was diagnosed in 2008 after he discovered a lump in his left breast, which was removed surgically. He didn't need chemo or other treatment because it was found early and he's grateful for that. Criss is working on a solo album and a memoir and he says "every day to me is a holiday because I got to go back to my work."