Honor for Roberts
Steven Spielberg will be in town May 9 as the USC Shoah Foundation Institute gives Comcast chief
Brian Roberts its top prize, the Ambassador for Humanity Award.
Jon Bon Jovi will perform during the event at the Loews Philadelphia. Spielberg cofounded the group, whose mission is to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry.
Open mic
Sports-talk host
Mike Missanelli apologized on Fox29's late newscast Wednesday for letting loose with profanity on the TV station during a newscast around dinnertime.
Missanelli, whose radio show airs on 97.5 the Fanatic, wrapped a TV segment with Fox anchor Thomas Drayton. The camera had cut away when he became upset about a technical issue: the volume of his in-studio monitor.
His voice, including two of the seven words you can't say on television, could be heard quite clearly until Fox cut him off.
Missanelli later said he didn't know that he was on the air. His radio show was in a commercial break at the time.
Gamble and Huff get an agent
On the eve of their 50th anniversary as partners, Sound of Philadelphia pioneers
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff have done something they say they have never done before - signed with an agent. William Morris Endeavor will develop their media projects; a Broadway musical and a book are in the pipeline, Huff told me the other day. Comedian
Bill Cosby provided the connection.
Hamming it up
Maureen and Mike Mattson of Audubon are finalists in
Live! With Regis & Kelly's "Great Days Start Here" video contest, competing for $15,000 and glory. Kids
Franny, 3, and
Bridget, 1½, portray the talk-show duo as they start their mornings and "mostly did their scenes in one take," says Maureen Mattson. Franny wants to spend $45 of the $5,000 finalist's money on candy, his mom says. Voting starts at 10 a.m. Friday. See the entry at
www.philly.com/regisvideo.
Briefly noted
Royersford's
Bob Shoudt came within two bites of winning the Fat Tuesday King Cake Eating World Championship at the Showboat in Atlantic City. Last year's winner,
Pat Bertoletti of Chicago, repeated (as it were) by eating 9¼ of the 12-ounce cakes. No plastic babies were baked into the cakes, to spare contestants' teeth.
Patrons of Sesame Street Live's Elmo's Green Thumb will get a $3 discount if they donate seeds at the Liacouras Center shows Saturday to Monday. Packets will be donated to local schools.
Quotable
"I didn't do any acting when I was at Germantown Academy - probably more out of fear than anything else." -
Bradley Cooper, star of the new film
Limitless, to Inquirer film critic
Carrie Rickey. The interview will appear Sunday in Arts & Entertainment.
Contact columnist Michael Klein at mklein@phillynews.com. Follow his blog at http://go.philly.com/insider and on Twitter @phillyinsider.
