
	MY PAST LOVES SEPTEMBER 2005

Release Dates: September 1-30, 2005

Press Release: Various Press & My Love Hewitt Websites

Here a Love, There a Love, Everywhere a Love....

From Contact Music - September 21, 2005

HEWITT: 'H+M BOSSES HAVE DONE MOSS A FAVOUR'

Singer-Actress JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT believes bosses at fashion retail chain H+M have done KATE MOSS "a favour" by dumping her as the company's spokesmodel.

Moss lost her $1.8 million (GBP1 million) contract with H+M yesterday (Sept 20, 2005), following allegations of drug-taking, and fashion giant Chanel followed suit today (Sept 21, 2005), announcing it has "no plan" to renew her contract when it ends next month (OCT 2005).

Hewitt believes the action will prompt Moss to get help. She says, "I have to say that I think maybe they did her a favour, and maybe she'll actually get help. Coffee's one thing, but coke is another. It's not something you want to really have as a problem in your life. "I think we have to kind of stop rewarding bad behaviour and actually start helping people.

"You know when you're out in public that there are gonna be people who watching you, so you should just try to act like somebody that you would wanna be proud of if they got a photo of you. Not that you should always feel like you're always working, but it goes with the job, I think."

The woes for Moss began when a photograph appeared in British newspaper the Daily Mirror last Thursday (Sept 15, 2005) showing the model snorting what appeared to be cocaine.

From TV Guide - September 16, 2005

IT'S SERENITY NOW FOR FIREFLY DOC

by Matt Webb Mitovich

Pink Lady and Jeff. Manimal. Hello, Larry. None of those short-lived TV series ever commanded feature-film follow-ups. But Fox's Firefly — woefully promoted, questionably handled and then unceremoniously yanked off the air after just 11 episodes in 2002 — is big-screen bound. Serenity, which hits theaters Sept. 30, catches up with the transport ship's crew, led by Captain "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), as they fend off big-government interest in some precious cargo they are carrying. Tending to the occasionally wounded is the Serenity's Dr. Simon Tam, played by Sean Maher, wh! o was more than happy to speak with TVGuide.com about the revival of little show that could.

Sean Maher in Serenity

TVGuide.com: Would you say that the Internet played a key role in resurrecting Firefly?

Sean Maher: I think the Internet still plays a huge part in the support — the Browncoats [official fan club members], specifically. Even when the show was still on the air, I can remember Nathan being the liaison between the fans and the cast. I knew they were out there, but I didn't really get a taste of what it felt like until we went to [the 2004 San Diego] Comic Con. The response was extraordinary. Nothing compares to walking into a room of almost 5000 screaming people. It really makes you feel like a rock star.

TVGuide.com: Were you disappointed with the handling of series (e.g., Fox skipping over the pilot, running episodes out of order)?

Maher: Yeah. I mean, I think there was always a little confusion from the beginning. I don't know if we ever were understood 100 percent, and then they preempted us for... I can't remember what, exactly. I just sort of felt like they didn't get it, you know?

TVGuide.com: What do you think allowed Firefly to be not just another canceled show?

Maher: I attribute a lot of that to the fans. There were a ton of people out there who understood what we were trying to say and fell in love with and were completely captivated by this world that Joss [Whedon] created. What I love about the show is that it's this entire other world that is so complete and thought-out and genuine. Although it's set in the future, so much of it is about humanity — these characters and their relationships, their dynamics, their pasts, their secrets.

TVGuide.com: The 500-years-in-the-future setting is almost, "By the way...."

Maher: Exactly. It's just a backdrop. And that's what I think is so unique about it. Here we are in a sci-fi genre film, and it's really more about the people and their lives intertwining.

TVGuide.com: Is it true that you used to accidentally call the character of River by her portrayer's name, Summer [Glau]?

Maher: [Laughs] It's so funny, I keep reading that everywhere! I think I did that once. It might even be on a DVD blooper reel.

TVGuide.com: Would you do another Firefly series or Serenity film if warranted?

Maher: Honestly, wherever Joss goes, I follow. And the cast, I would do anything with this group of people, whether it's television or film... even if we take a circus act on the road. I feel b! lessed to have been a part of this. The more and more it continues, it's overwhelming. We had this little show that could, you know?

TVGuide.com: When doing the movie version, could you "feel" the bigger budget?

Maher: In terms of the script and the tone and the dynamics within the characters, that all felt so familiar — it was like coming back to school after summer vacation. So I, myself, didn't really feel a big difference, especially having Joss there and surrounded by a lot of the same people. Even the spaceship [set] was built in such a way that was the same, almost to a T. I'd be like, "I gotta run to the rest room," and I'd run out the north side of the cargo bay and hit a wall! "Oh, right, I'm not on the Fox lot. Where the hell is the bathroom again?!" Everybody did that.

TVGuide.com: OK, but the costumes had to be a bit nicer, yes? Better-quality cotton?

Maher: The costumes were a little different. They did a different take on me — I didn't have to wear any vests this time around, which I was happy about!

TVGuide.com: You're also in the upcoming indie Living 'Til the End, which sounds interesting. A guy is told by a psychic that he will die on his next birthday?

Maher: He just lives out the year trying his darnedest to make sure that he doesn't get sick, doesn't get hurt, doesn't get hit by a bus. He's so afraid of dying that he becomes agoraphobic and basically locks himself in his apartment. But he's an estate planner, and he meets a girl [played by Jaime Ray Newman] who has a list of things she wants to do before she dies, and she wants him to do them with her. In turn, she teaches him to be fearless and to live life again.

TVGuide.com: Where else might we be seeing you?

Maher: I did an episode of Ghost Whisperer a couple of weeks ago that airs [during the first couple of episodes]. I play a ghost who died in a triathlon and a year later he's still lingering around his fiancée, who can't move on and has been terribly depressed for a year.

TVGuide.com: So basically, Jennifer Love Hewitt is Whoopi Goldberg and you're Patrick Swayze.

Maher: Exactly.

From The Winchester Star - September 14, 2005

THE RUG

This photo, provided by Jim Kniceley, shows Norm Armstrong in 1962 kicking back in Hamilton, Ont., with Patsy Cline, who was wearing a wig after recovering from a car accident.

According to information provided by Kniceley, Patsy went on stage that evening and asked the crowd: “How do you like my new rug?”

From The Virginian Pilot -
September 10, 2005

VETERAN DIRT RACER REMEMBERS WHEN DRIVERS COULD DO IT ALL

by Phillis Speidell

With the Nextel Cup circuit in Virginia for tonight’s Rock & Roll 400, Al Grinnan’s thoughts shift back to an earlier era of racing in the state, to the red-clay and rough-asphalt days when he was muscling stock cars around tracks up and down the East Coast.

Grinnan, 75, is one of a dwindling number of dirt-track veterans from the 1950s, ’60s and early ’70s.

When the drivers, not the cars, shaped the race.

When racers worked on their own cars and knew every belt and cam.

When they competed for trophies, grandfather clocks or cash prizes so small that everyone kept his day job.

When fans packed local tracks quizzically named Chinese Corner, the Dog Track or Devil’s Bowl Speedway.

Al Grinnan, 75, known as “The Virginia Gentleman” in his dirt-track days, sits on the wheel of his No. 33, a 1935 Chevrolet, at his Mechanicsville, Va., salvage yard. In the background is Al’s son, John. “This bird could run,” Grinnan said of the Chevy.

Photo by John Sheally II

But those were also the days when the parties lasted longer than the races and the guy who ran you into the wall one week was your best friend again the next .

“It was the racing family,” said Carolyn, Grinnan’s wife of 29 years .

Sonny Hutchins, one of Grinnan’s closest friends, ran him into a telephone pole at Richmond’s Southside Speedway. And it wasn’t the only time.

“Sonny was rough as rough could be; he’d run into his own mother,” said Benny Renfrow. A Grinnan fan and owner of B & B Auto Parts & Crushing, Inc. in Suffolk, Renfrow grew up in racing.

The friendship between Hutchins and Grinnan has endured the bumps and slams on the track and in life.

“I can’t hear and Sonny can’t talk, but we can still keep a place jumpin’,” Grinnan said.

One of those places is Grinnan’s business, Al’s Auto Parts, a rambling salvage yard in Mechanicsville , Va., where customers can browse the wall of old news clips, faded race photos and appreciation plaques from the legendary Sawyer racing family.

The regulars pay less attention; they know the history.

Grinnan, as lean and lanky as when raced all over Virginia, North Carolina and beyond, still has the smile and warmth that earned his most cherished trophy: the “Most Popular Driver” title in 1967.

The grin flashes when his son, John Grinnan, fires up a low-slung 1935 Chevy coupe, No. 33, for visitors in a back warehouse. The senior Grinnan tracked down the car, one of his all-time favorites, and bought it back to restore into a blazing red reminiscence of a different time .

His last race with the 33 car was more than a decade ago, an Old-Timers event in Elizabeth City .

Greg Deeth, a Mechanicsville model maker who specializes in nostalgia on small wheels, recently presented him with the first of a limited edition of models of the flame-red modified.

“This bird could run,” said Grinnan, whose worsening arthritis keeps him from sliding through the driver’s-side window but who slips quite easily into a story.

His racing debut was a disaster.

In the early 1950s, Grinnan, an A rmy motor sergeant who had served combat duty in Korea, was stationed at Fort McClellan, Ala. Saturday nights he’d be at the Heflin Speedway, watching the dirt-track races. One night a driver failed to show. Grinnan, who’d never raced before, launched his track career by yelling, “I can drive.”

A three-way collision halfway into the race flipped him over and out of contention. But the fever caught. For the next two months, he competed every Saturday night.

“He was one of the most natural-ability drivers there has ever been,” Renfrow said. “I’d put him at the top of the list of Southern dirt-track drivers .”

With his discharge in hand and racing in his heart, Grinnan went home to Fredericksburg, Va. He talked the gang at the local Texaco into buying a 1935 flathead Ford and became a regular at the Fredericksburg Speedway, competing against dirt-track legends Curtis Turner and Wendell Scott.

Soon he was racing anywhere he could find a track . He claims victories in more than 400 features and had a brief stint in the Grand National Division of NASCAR.

“I had more fun racin’ than any of them did, and I ran anywhere — next to cow pastures and at the hilltop speedways like the one in Charleston, W.Va.,” he said.

“Al raced to be racing,” Billy Sawyer said. Sawyer’s father, Paul Sawyer, was a track owner and promoter who turned Richmond International Raceway into a major NASCAR venue. Grinnan was a pallbearer at Sawyer’s funeral in March.

“Al was aggressive ... but he wasn’t dirty,” Sawyer said. “Even today, if a local racer comes in Al’s place looking for a part, he’ll tell him to just go out to the yard and get what he needs.”

Woody Howard, a 24-year old from Chesapeake who is a developmental driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, met Grinnan just once, but he was impressed.

“I always heard he was one of the best ones, a good, clean driver, and I’d like to be like that,” he said.

Racing shaped Grinnan’s life, Renfrow said, but “The Virginia Gentleman,” as Grinnan was tagged early on, is more remembered for his benevolence and love of people.

He kept a stash of watermelons in his trunk to slice up for the kids at the track after a race.

He got to know the flag man at Langley and had a foot race with him around the track every time he drove there.

“I’d always win, ” Grinnan said.

He met Patsy Cline while racing in Winchester, Va. His car was being set up in a garage near her house, so he and the young country singer chatted on her front-porch swing.

Then there were, in his single days, a few dates with the Apple Blossom Queen.

“The ladies loved Al,” Renfrow said.

And Grinnan loved racing.

“I love dirt! I could go into those turns and stay an inch off the wall,” he said. “ No one could beat me.”

He was good enough, the story goes, that a track in Wilson, N.C., offered a $350 bounty — more than a first-place finish paid — to anyone who could beat him.

Ask him about a driver and Grinnan’s likely to say, “He was a fine fellow.”

That includes Joe Weatherly, the Norfolk driver who along with fellow Virginian Curtis Turner drew fans to the track to watch their antics as much as their driving.

“Last race I ran against him was more than 30 years ago, an Old-Timers race in Elizabeth City,” Grinnan said. “He was a card — always carrying on with some foolishness — he’d come over and snatch the key out of your car and hide it or let the air out of the tires.”

Weatherly’s widow, Jan, 77, remembers those were the days of $3 admissions, when a good crowd might number 1,000 people. When the races were dirty and noisy, with no air-conditioned boxes and often only an outhouse behind the grandstand.

“The drivers didn’t have to have a special uniform — Joe raced in saddle oxfords,” she said.

Grinnan’s red socks, all 50 pairs of them, were his trademark.

“Back then it was a really tight community with lots of partying going on, but it was more dangerous, too, ” Weatherly said.

“Back then you ran most anything — and a lot of it was dangerous,” Grinnan added. “Now, drivers have the cars to go with and they’re running for the money. ... We raced for the fun of it.”

Grinnan stopped by Southside Speedway recently, climbed stiffly into the stands and gazed out over the track, a smooth, black oval empty except for his memories. Behind him, painted on the bleachers, were the names, including his own, of some early racing greats. Grinnan remembered them all.

Runt Harris: “He’d take you out in a minute. When he first came to Southside, the word was he’s gonna come, he’s gonna win and you’re gonna get torn up.”

Junie Donlavey: “One of the greatest; he helped anybody and brought new drivers along.”

Ray Hendrick : “He ran wide open all the time. When he got out of the car on a hot day, he was ready to pass out. Hardest guy to beat .”

Grinnan’s thoughts rolled on past other drivers, some who had been maimed or killed, throats slashed by broken windshields or bodies broken in fiery crashes.

Now, only Grinnan’s memories do the racing, and he’s happy with that.

Still, he says, “I wouldn’t mind running a Busch racer on a short track.”

From The Salt Lake Tribune - September 6, 2005

CULTURE VULTURE: MOTHERLODE CANYON STRIKE GOLD

by Brandon Griggs
The Salt Lake Tribune

The Motherlode Canyon Band, a Park City-based quintet that plays an eclectic mix of classic blues, folk and hippie rock, lost its drummer over the summer. With all due respect, it may be the best thing that ever happened to them.

The new replacement is Mark Towner Williams, a veteran stickman who has played on albums and tours of such artists as Crosby Stills & Nash, Don Henley, Tina Turner, Cher, Gregg Allman and many others.

In other words, it's like Barry Bonds moonlighting with a Little League team.

"When this first came up I thought, 'You've got to be kidding. Why would you want to play with us?' " chuckles guitarist Dana Williams, who also happens to be the mayor of Park City. "We are very fortunate. He adds a very big sound to the bottom line."
The two Williamses - no relation - met in July when Dana Williams officiated at Mark William! s' wedding at The Canyons resort near Park City. The mayor mentioned that his band was looking for a drummer, and a surprising new partnership was born.

Mark Towner Williams, who has released six solo albums under the name, "Lionel's Dad," comes from a musical family. His father is John Williams, Oscar-winning composer of themes to "Star Wars," "Jaws" and many other films, while his younger brother Joseph sang lead vocals in rock band Toto.

The professional drummer moved from Los Angeles to Midway seven years ago, doesn't tour as much as he once did and believes that joining Motherlode will help keep his live chops fresh.

"They're great fun. I'm having a blast with them," says Mark Williams, who's already been rehearsing with his new bandmates. "I'm going to bring their shows to a whole new level."

See and hear for yourself next weekend when the band plays its first public gigs with William! s on drums. They play Friday night at the Spur on Main Street in Park City, followed by an 11 a.m. Saturday fundraiser at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City.

At least we have the Jazz in common: You have to feel for the hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who arrived in Utah over the weekend. It's bad enough that they lost their homes, their possessions and possibly their loved ones. But then these bewildered people must step off a plane, 1,700 miles from home, in a city that culturally couldn't be more different than their own.

New Orleans is a flat, coastal city built on a swampy delta; Salt Lake is landlocked mountainous desert. New Orleans is humid; Salt Lake is dry. New Orleans's population is about two-thirds black; Salt Lake City remains overwhelmingly white. New Orleans cuisine is a spicy blend of Southern, Cajun, Creole and Caribbean influences; traditional Utah food is, well, bland.

New Orleans is a party town; Salt Lake may have the squarest rep of any major city in the country. In New Orleans, you can legally stroll down Bourbon Street with a cocktail in your hand; as a newcomer in Salt! Lake, you can't order a drink in a bar without filling out some paperwork.

I wish these transplanted folks the best as they struggle to reclaim the pieces of their lives. And I hope they feel welcome here in Utah. But I don't expect them to feel at home.

Filming last week in Deer Valley: "I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer," a sequel to the late-1990s slasher flicks, with Utah subbing for Colorado (why isn't it ever the other way around?). No word on whether Jennifer Love Hewitt returns, although it seems doubtful. Considering the screenplay was penned by sequel-happy Michael D. Weiss, whose credits include "Octopus 2: River of Fear" and "The Butterfly Effect 2," this project has "straight-to-video" written all over it.

From The New York Daily News - September 3, 2005

10 MODERN
FEMMES FATALES

1. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in "Femme Fatale." Who else could we put in the No. 1 slot?

2. Lucy Liu in "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever." When Antonio Banderas marvels at her weaponry, she smirks, "Well, some women buy shoes."

3. Rosario Dawson in "Sin City." Some women are born to wear black leather.

4. Leticia Bredice in "Nine Queens." She appears too innocent to be duplicitous. Which is, of course, her ace in the hole.

5. Julia Stiles in "The Business of Strangers." A wronged woman seeking revenge? A wack job spreading chaos? Or both?

6. Halle Berry in "Die Another Day." What happened to the spinoff movie starring her lovely-but-lethal superspy?

7. Michelle Rodriguez in "The Fast and the Furious." All swagger and up-yours attitude.

8. Catherine Keener in "Full Frontal." Almost too real as an acerbic, emasculating bitch.

9. Sigourney Weaver in "Heartbreakers." Sexy and smart, she easily avoids being upstaged by co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt's outstanding assets.

10. Rebecca Pidgeon in "Heist." She looks far too demure to be a true femme fatale, which is why she's so good at it.