The Jane Report
David Letterman, Led Zeppelin, Dustin Hoffman, bluesman Buddy Guy and ballerina Natalia Makarova were among the artists celebrated at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors last night. Each of the honorees received tributes from fellow artists. Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Jimmy Kimmel praised Letterman, Robert De Niro spoke about Hoffman, and the Foo Fighters, Kid Rock, Lenny Kravitz and Ann and Nancy Wilson all performed Zeppelin classics. The honorees were presented with their award medallions at a U.S. State Department formal dinner hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday. The honors will air on CBS on December 26th.
Kim Kardashian made a quick stop in Bahrain and Kuwait this past week to celebrate the openings of two “Millions of Milkshakes” stores. While approximately 100 Sunni Salafists demonstrated in objection to her visit, police cleared out the demonstrators with tear gas and the visit went off with no other apparent problems. Hardliners in the parliament presented a motion stating that Kardashian is “an actress with an extremely bad reputation.”
The stars and director of “Lincoln” sat down with Oprah on last night’s episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter.” Steven Spielberg spoke on how good Daniel Day-Lewis was as Abraham Lincoln. He said Day-Lewis made him cry a few times during filming. He would always have to leave the set to get himself together, because he thinks it’s bad if the cast and crew see the director getting emotional.
Sally Field plays Mary Todd Lincoln in the movie. But she almost didn’t get the chance. Spielberg told her he thought she wasn’t right for it . . . and she had to fight him until he changed his mind.
After an 8 year hiatus from performing, Shania Twain debuted her Las Vegas show, “Shania: Still The One” at Caesar’s Palace. The 90 minute show is booked for a two year residency. The current run will last only until Dec. 15 and then resume March 19, 2013. According to Billboard magazine, Twain’s setlist includes mega-hits like “Still the One,” “From This Moment” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and favorites like “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?”
NBC is remaking “The Sound of Music” for TV . . . and Carrie Underwood is starring as Maria. At least we know she can handle the singing part. She did the title song back in 2007 for the “Movies Rock” special on CBS.
Lindsay Lohan is not gonna sit and take it anymore. The actress has hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Tiffany Mitchell, the woman who accused Lohan of assault in a New York nightclub last week. Lohan swears she’s innocent of any wrong-doing and wants to know if Mitchell herself has any criminal past. Mitchell has yet to file any civil charges but she did retain celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the first text message ever sent. It happened on December 3rd, 1992, when a 22-year-old British engineer named Neil Papworth used his computer to wish a “Merry Christmas” to a guy named Richard Jarvis on his cell phone. The cell phone was an Orbitel 901, and Jarvis worked for a British telecommunications company called Vodafone. Papworth didn’t get a reply because there was no way to send a reply until the Nokia came out in 1993.
“X Factor” host, Mario Lopez wed his girlfriend of four years, Courtney Mazza on Saturday. The couple celebrated their nuptials in Mexico. Their two year old daughter, Gia, was their flower girl. The couple met while working on the Broadway revival of “A Chorus Line”. Their wedding was also taped for television and will air on a TLC special, “Mario and Courtney’s Wedding Fiesta,” airing December 8th.
What’s happened to Hugh Hefner? Crystal Harris, who left the guy at the altar one week before their wedding, has returned and is now back engaged to the Playboy founder. This time they plan on getting married on New Year’s Eve. While official statements say the two have worked out their differences, one wonders if Crystal discovered there was a big bad world out there outside the Playboy mansion. This would be the third marriage for 86-year-old Hefner and first for the 26-year-old Harris, who was Playboy Playmate of the Month in December 2009.
Chiefs quarterback Brady Quinn talked to the media about how the shootings made him think afterwards. He wondered if he could have done anything differently to help Belcher. He thought about the way social media can sometimes get in the way of face-to-face connections between people, when it’s so easy to pay more attention to your phone than the people standing right next to you.
After Halle Berry dropped the restraining order against Gabriel Aubry, he was able to see his 4 year old daughter, Nahla, on Friday. The two have reportedly called a legal ceasefire, at least temporarily. Halle had gotten the restraining order after Aubry and Berry’s fiancee, Olivier Marinez got into a hard hitting punch fight on Thanksgiving. Aubry was arrested and both men were sent to the ER.
Nick Lachey is coming back to television to host a new music show called, “And The Winner Is…” The singing game show will have singers of all ages whether as a single, duet or group, battling it for a studio audience. After each singing duel both performances will be judged by a panel. The contestants then will have the option to cut a deal. If they have doubts about how their performance compared to that of their opponent, they can opt to leave the show in exchange for cash. If they choose to remain in the game, they await the jury results to see if they’ve made it to the next round and a step closer to the ultimate $1 million cash prize. Auditions for the series will be held in Raleigh, N.C., Houston, Seattle and Philadelphia. Details: www.singinggameshow.com. Previously, Lachey hosted “The Sing-Off” for three seasons from 2009-11.