Red Carpet, Red Carpet…

First off- I must say it is nice to have my site back working efficiently! Thanks to all who sent emails while it was down!

On the other hand- Brad and I are busy entertainment reporters this week! We have two red carpet events in Nashville in the same week and that is rare!

Thursday night Toby Keith will be making his big screen debut at the Ryman Auditorium. The movie Broken Bridges also stars Burt Reynolds (who I hear will not be in attendance), Willie Nelson, Kelly Preston, and Lindsey Haun. I have been looking forward to seeing what stars will be there, but it looks as though I will be covering the ribbon cutting of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center instead. This could be a good thing though, because now I can just hang at the movie after party!

Saturday night Brad and I will be double-teaming the Schermerhorn opening gala. This event is white tie, which means I get to pull out the evening gown! I expect the red carpet to be a bit more who is who in Nashville instead of celeb names. Tickets for dinner are very expensive, but to a great cause! I hear Randy Rayburn who owns Cabana, Midtown Cafe, and Sunset Grill will be in charge of your dining experience! The event will definitely be top notch and what an incredible facility!

Maybe I’ll see you out!

Eddie Montgomery’s toughest song

Country duo Montgomery Gentry is known for hard-partying booze-swilling kinda fun, but Eddie Montgomery gets serious on the new album, Some People Change, due out Oct. 24.

Eddie co-wrote the song Clouds, which was inspired by the accidental death of his young son and his father’s death just a few years later.

Eddie hasn’t talked about it until now, but in 1991, he saw his 2-year-old son die in a car accident. He lost his father in 1994.

Eddie said he wanted to write a song about it since, but he’d only do it when the words came to him.
That happened earlier this year when he was at songwriter Jeffrey Steele’s house.

Eddie said he was having a cocktail when he went outside to have a smoke and he looked up and quickly came up with many of the lyrics in Clouds.

Singing the song for the album proved to be tearful.

“Let me tell you, it was very very intense and very hard,” Eddie told me.

On a lighter note, turns out that Troy Gentry is crazy about Batman, an obsession that started in high school.

“I collected Batman comics and everything. I got into the comic book deal,” Troy said.

“And the movies came out with Michael Keaton in it. I’ve been a big Batman collector.

The piece de resistance?

“I found out from a costume store one day they had the full Batman garb and I had to have it. Dad likes to dress up too when we go trick or treating.”

Eddie interjects: “I think he wears it more than that.”

So Eddie, does this make you Robin?

“No I’m not Robin, I ain’t putting no (dang) tights on!” Eddie says.

Mm-hmm. Like he hasn’t before….

Nashville’s own jazz-master, Kirk Whalum, thrilled fans Sunday at the riverfront jazz festival when he wandered into the crowd with his sax.

Whalum strolled the hillside at the Music City Jazz, Blues & Heritage Festival, high-fiving and posing for pics, all the while playing his saxophone.

Female fans found him particularly sax-y.

This morning we ran a series of photos on News 2 from the talented photography of Barry McCloud at Barry McCloud Photography.

The photos were images of the Jazz fest at Riverfront Park. Special thanks to Barry for providing the images.

No, Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson didn’t make it to Hank Williams Jr.’s Starwood show this weekend. Seems Kid Rock has a son starting school today, so the Kid flew to Malibu to see his boy off.

Panic! At the VMA’s!

If you didn’t catch MTV’s Video Music Awards show last night you missed a whole slew of production mess-ups! I know it’s a huge production with hundreds of celebs, but maybe MTV dabbled in a behind the scenes effort they just weren’t quite ready for.

There were over a dozen hidden cameras backstage, which was exciting, but almost every time they tossed to another reporter there was a mistake. At one point the reporter NEVER realized they were on air. It’s not his fault, but the production crews’. It was unbelievable how many mistakes there were. Several times there was random clips of music played throughout someone’s acceptance speech or at another off time. I wonder how many people lost their jobs after that?

Other highlights-
Underdogs- Panic! At the Disco snagged this year’s big award! I think these guys are great and their high rankings last night show more underground music is getting appreciated. Also- their live performance, which included old-fashioned dancers and clothing, was awesome! I especially loved the two women on stilts with long satin black and white diamond gowns, standing near the back of the stage.

The best performance of the night by far was from OK GO! These guys put on an incredible synchronized treadmill performance…jumping and bending their bodies from one treadmill to another! (I wonder if the YMCA will let m practice that one?)

There were a couple of moments that left my jaw dropped.
Sarah Silverman slamming Paris Hilton and how “fat” she is was surprising! Sarah went on to compare Paris to France and crack on her for the scheduled upcoming appearance on David Letterman (during sweeps) when she and Nicole plan on “rekindling their friendship.” There were some harsh remarks without one smirk from Sarah’s face.

Jessica Simpson wore perhaps the worst little black dress ever. I’ll admit Jessica has a great body, but that dress was so short and tight that it was unflattering. Surely, Jessica doesn’t really have cellulite? I saw her legs in Dukes of Hazard and that sure didn’t seem to be the case. Also- I guarantee half the ladies have that exact plain black tank-dress from the mid-eighties in their closet as we speak! Pink came out and imitated Jessica not long later.

Missy Elliot busted out “I Can’t Stand the Rain” on her little personalized motorized kiddy SUV. I don’t think a long black raincoat, that looked similar to a trash bag, was the best choice for her wardrobe. She had several cute dancers with large umbrellas drawing attention to her big entrance. The problem- almost immediately one of those lovely dancers hit Missy in the head with her rain umbrella! After that Missy struggled to get her headpiece back on and finally gave up.

And last but by no means least, when Panic! At the Disco went to get their moon man, some dumb guy tried to snag the spotlight. This guy leaped on stage, grabbed the mic and announced his name and website, stating MTV would never give him a job.
WHAT? Uhhhh…OK you may get a few hits on your sight tonight, but you will definitely NEVER get a job at MTV after a move like that. He was tackled by security and escorted off! HA!

Live Audience

I am not a big fan of speaking in front of an audience.
It’s funny I can stare in the camera and talk to thousands upon thousands of households, but I don’t like seeing real heads out there!

While in Mississippi I had to make quite a few live speeches. I was scared to death my first time, but to my surprise, my first speech ended in a standing ovation.

This last week, I hosted the stage at the new Bellevue YMCA. I enjoyed it! My favorite part was observing the wide age range of viewers that came up to me. I had some sweet ladies in their 80’s and some young high school boys.

I’ll be taking the stage again this Saturday and hopefully it will be smooth sailing as well.
I’ll be downtown at the Jazz and Blues Heritage Festival. Maybe I’ll see you there!
There are concerts on the riverfront, both Saturday and Sunday from 1-9.
Have a safe Labor Day weekend!

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