Advertisement

What, no Martha sitcom?

 
Published July 20, 2001|Updated Sept. 10, 2005

Martha Stewart is bringing new meaning to MTV.

(Don't be literal and panic.)

The ubiquitous lifestyle maven spreads to Home & Garden Television in October. She has a two-year deal to cobble together two daily half-hour shows, From Martha's Home and From Martha's Garden, using segments from the syndicated Martha Stewart Living (weekdays at 9 a.m. on WFTS-Ch. 28).

Stewart also will produce one-hour specials for Halloween, Christmas and spring projects.

Martha Stewart Living _ which for some of us is like a National Geographic series, full of exotic, sometimes dangerous adventures we'll never undertake _ also provides fodder for the Food Network's From Martha's Kitchen. And Stewart is a CBS staple, hitting the Morning Show and David Letterman and doing prime-time specials.

Master lesson

Kathleen Battle continues to solidify her place in divadom.

A concert Saturday in Brevard, N.C., started 30 minutes late. After the orchestra played its opening pieces, the acclaimed, high-maintenance opera singer delayed taking the stage while requesting a program change, MusicalAmerica.com reports.

After intermission was moved up, Battle delayed before materializing to sing four spirituals in 35 minutes. She quit without doing advertised Mozart pieces.

The audience booed and jeered, and even tried to drown out her encore attempts by honking car horns in the outdoor setting, the Web site says.

The Brevard Music Center issued a statement saying a disagreement earlier that day at an antiques mall apparently unnerved Battle.

We like him for him

Writer-director Tom DiCillo says that when it came to begging for money for his film Double Whammy, the presence of quirky Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, Fargo) impressed financiers much more than that of Elizabeth Hurley (Estee Lauder model, Bedazzled, ex- Hugh Grant squeeze).

"The casting people said that the biggest person that would sell this film was Steve Buscemi," DiCillo says. "The only people who are infatuated with Liz Hurley seem to be the British."

Americans aren't infatuated with Buscemi (whose name usually is followed by "cult star"), but he does have a niche in popular culture, including a few lines in a Blessid Union of Souls song:

She likes me for me

Not because I hang with Leonardo

Or that guy who played in "Fargo'

I think his name is Steve