Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

“My Fair Wedding” preview: Tutera meets Fashionista

November 18, 2011 Lori Acken

On this Sunday’s episode of My Fair Wedding With David Tutera, David heads to Los Angeles to meet 25-year-old self-proclaimed fashionista Folshi and her genial groom Corey. • David Tutera talks with Channel Guide about Season 5 of My Fair Wedding Though Folshi works as a pharmacy tech, her goal is to own a clothing boutique and she wants the theme of her big day to be all about the fashion. And Marie Antoinette. And little birch logs. And candy. Plus, a royally scattered idea about what her fashionista theme should entail is just the cusp of Folshi’s troubles — she’s […]

“Next Iron Chef Super Chefs” preview: “Food Is Funny”

November 18, 2011 Lori Acken

Alright, I’m getting just a teensy dab testy now. First Robert Irvine. Now Chuck Hughes?!! Awww, men! <sigh> Given my helpless addiction to all things food television and the folks who star in it, I realize that trying to choose whom I’d like to emerge the victor on Food Network’s Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs is like trying to choose which of my kids I like the best, but geeeeez. With Robert’s Macgyver-with-a-steak-knife skills set and Chuck’s utter delight at everything foisted his way — except perhaps toe-foooooo! — losing them in the first weeks of the series is akin […]

“Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys” stars Kristin Sabata and Peter Depp talk Season 2 of the Sundance hit

November 17, 2011 Lori Acken

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA She’s a pretty, soft-spoken school psychologist and Army wife. He’s a ruggedly handsome divorced dad of three — and one of Tennessee’s top comics. And like plenty of men and women, their years-long friendship began when Peter Depp and Kristin Sabata went on a date and realized they were better off as friends. In fact, fabulous as friends. The best. And their bond only deepened when Peter finally felt free to come out of the closet as a gay man — and when Kristin fell in love with and married a soldier who has spent […]

Thanksgiving TV: here’s where to find the tastiest shows

November 16, 2011 Lori Acken

Monday, Nov. 21-Thursday, Nov. 24 The Martha Stewart Show Hallmark Channel, 10am ET The supreme domestic diva hosts four days of Turkey Day tips with the help of her fellow culinary experts. On Monday, Martha rethinks classic Thanksgiving dishes with chef Brad Farmerie. Tuesday features a sweet and savory Thanksgiving feast from chef Tom Douglas, and an unforgettable pumpkin-pecan pie from chef Thomas Joseph. On Wednesday, Martha takes to the web to help solve viewers’ last minute turkey dilemmas via email, Skype, Facebook and twitter on her “Thanksgiving Hotline” show. Talk turkey with Martha via e-mail at emailmartha@marthastewart.com or via Twitter hashtag: #AskMartha. […]

“Chopped” lets viewers do the casting

November 15, 2011 Lori Acken

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA They’re almost as entertaining as the winners themselves — that is, the unlucky chefs who submit to the rigors of Chopped, Food Network’s basketful-of-trouble cooking competition, and go down (sometimes literally) in flames. Now the network is giving four of the most memorable eliminated contestants a second chance at Chopped supremacy — and it wants you, the show’s fans, to choose the quartet who’ll come back to cook. Among the potential participants: • Season’s One’s Luis Gonzalez who suffered a sugar-salt mixup that cost her the victory in the dessert round. • Season One’s Gwenael LePape who […]

David Tutera Talks Season Five of WE tv’s “My Fair Wedding”

November 14, 2011 Lori Acken

I had two wedding planners both times I tied the knot — my mom and my sister. And aside from the flower-bedazzled pointy-forehead thingie I wore on my head for the first one, they did a terrific job. But I still owe a debt of gratitude to WE tv’s maestro of matrimony, David Tutera, whose My Fair Wedding has been a four-season favorite for the network. Having undergone a pair of seriously crummy health crises in the underside of two years, I’ve spent plenty of time at home, plumbing my TV for a little good news, a little happily-ever-after. Which […]

Carrie McCully is Food Network’s fascinating “Chef Hunter”

November 10, 2011 Lori Acken

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA The next time you sit down for a meal at your favorite restaurant, don’t assume that the chef who created your food just wandered into the place one day and bowled over the owners with his or her culinary wizardry. Sometimes, the cooks, the kitchen and the people who own the joint need a little help finding their way to one another. And that’s been New York native and professional chef recruiter Carrie McCully’s passion since she was an intensely observant post-grad with a natural love of the restaurant world. “I’m just passionate about all […]

“The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs”: Ho, Hummus

November 9, 2011 Lori Acken

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA Or maybe, “oh nuts!” In any case, yes, this blog should have been up days ago … but you would not believe what a slew of holiday programming can do to a monthly publication with a teeny little staff of writers. I’ve been knee-deep in December magic when I’ve been itching to talk runny eggs and gummy hummus. But better late than never, NIC lovers. So off to the ballpark we go. San Diego’s Petco Park to be exact — a far cry from wherever the heck the wilderness plateau was from last week’s episode, but no […]

“America’s Most Wanted” finds a new home on Lifetime

November 3, 2011 Lori Acken

And you thought Lifetime was just a girly-girl movie network. Giving A&E, TLC, Discovery I.D. and other networks featuring true-crime series a run for their money — and their diverse viewership — the network has announced that it is the new home of the granddaddy of the fugitive-hunting-TV genre, John Walsh’s America’s Most Wanted, which was cancelled as a weekly series by Fox in June. Walsh will return to host the series’ remarkable 25th season, which will feature 20 all-new, late-breaking cases and continue its signature effort to empower the viewing audience to help authorities hunt down America’s most dangerous criminals. […]

“The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs” recap — a fateful match up

October 31, 2011 Lori Acken

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA And so it has begun. Outside in a field. By a pile of wood, a couple’a campfires, a lake so pure one of the chefs will make a sauce of it, and random crates and piles of fruits and veggies stacked up on hay bales. Oh, and also a slew of slain pigs on ice. OK, actually it really began in hallowed Kitchen Stadium, where the chairman appears all buggy-eyed and choppy-hands on a gigantic screen before the contestants. Alton explains the new rules— Chairman’s Challenge first, losers’ shoot-out second — ramped up to test […]