Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

Where has all the Kara gone? Bravo’s upcoming “Going Platinum”

October 26, 2010 Lori Acken

Worry not, fans of departed American Idol Judge Kara DioGuardi — or folks fearing the longtime FOX ratings juggernaut may be jumping the shark with an upcoming season full of kooky shakeups. Bravo has greenlit Going Platinum (currently the show’s working title), a new music competition series showcasing emerging singer-songwriters on their quest to become the next big hitmaker. Country-pop poet Jewel is set to host the series and lend her experience via feedback to DioGuardi, who serves as head judge each week (Take THAT Simon!). According to the network: Going Platinum will follow 12 musicians as they battle through a series […]

A&E’s Dog The Bounty Hunter bows Season Seven with a mother of a premiere

October 5, 2010 Lori Acken

By Lori Acken The seventh season opener of Dog The Bounty Hunter, premiering tomorrow at 9pm ET/PT on A&E, is — believe it or not — all about the mamas. In fact, it’s so about the mamas that, in one portion, Chapman brothers Leland and Duane Lee don’t even show up until a fugitive-free goose chase through a field of Colorado scrub pine (thanks to a camera-loving goofball named Leo) is almost over. The premise of “The Ice Man” is reassuringly familiar: Clan Chapman is back in Denver helping their ol’ gold-jewelry-loving pal Bobby Brown chase down Mark Burk, a […]

8 Questions With … Brooke Elliott

June 20, 2010 Lori Acken

1. What has been your strangest fan encounter? Brooke Elliott: I was walking through Nordstrom at The Grove in L.A. and all of a sudden I heard this bloodcurdling scream. I stopped and some girl who had just walked by me was screaming [slips into a perfect Valley Girl accent], “Ohmigod, that’s Drop Dead Diva!” and telling everyone around her, “Drop Dead Diva! Drop Dead Diva!” I was like, “Shhhhhhh!” Then I kept walking because I didn’t know where she was going and I was a little frightened. 2. What’s the better story — the first time you were starstruck […]

Jane Treacy Tells Us About 24 Years On QVC

May 30, 2010 Lori Acken

She’s been a vital part of QVC almost from day one, after her mother convinced the then 24-year-old TV production grad that she could sell a plain old pencil to everyone from a school kid to an architect — and, as it turned out, the gentlemen who was hiring show hosts for the new little shopping network focused on three customer-focused principles: Quality, Value, and Convenience. Nearly a quarter-century later, Jane Treacy is one of the most beloved and trusted personalities on the now $7 billion dollar home-shopping giant that has turned her into an international girl-next-door star. Even warmer […]

Ty Burrell Talks “Modern Family”‘s Comic Genius, Becoming A Real-Life Dad

May 22, 2010 Lori Acken

You may remember him as egotistical plastic surgeon Dr. Oliver Barnes in the 2005 Henry Winkler/Stockard Channing medical sitcom Out of Practice. Or as a smarmy weatherman with an unpronounceable last name in the 2007 Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton sitcom Back to You. Or maybe even as doomed yacht captain Steve Marcus in the 2004 remake of the zombie horror classic Dawn of the Dead. But odds are even if you’ve only seen one episode of (or arguably even one commercial for) ABC’s breakout comedy Modern Family, you aren’t likely to forget Ty Burrell as occasionally dimwitted, always kindhearted Dunphy dad […]

Martha Stewart, Nick Jonas, Tim Gunn and others play working stiffs in CBS’s latest “I Get That A Lot” special

May 14, 2010 Lori Acken

They’ve turned Paris Hilton into a gas station lackey, Heidi Klum into a pizza parlor gal and Rachel Ray into a dry cleaning drudge — now CBS is back with another celeb-studded edition of I Get That A Lot, putting more really recognizable faces into unexpected places to give regular citizens a serious case of “Is that or isn’t it …?” The network’s third hilarious one-hour special features the following celebs getting their every-man on to the confusion — and amusement — of customers and passersby: • TV host and lifestyle guru Martha Stewart as a arty employee at a […]

QVC’s Doug Rose Tells Us Why More Folks Than Ever Are Shopping From Home

May 13, 2010 Lori Acken

Even if you’ve never purchased a single item from a shop-at-home television network, odds are good you’ve killed a little time watching one — maybe lured in by a famous face you never expected to see, you know, there. Or maybe by a killer deal on a product or brand you thought was only sold at multi-story department stores or sniffy boutiques. Or just maybe because it was more entertaining than anything else on the tube. After all, says Doug Rose, senior vice president of multichannel programming and marketing for QVC, when it comes to on-air retailing, that’s a large […]

Patricia Cornwell Is Thrilled To Death To See Her Characters Come To Life On Your TV

March 25, 2010 Lori Acken

It’s unnerving stuff interviewing a consummate interviewer — a woman who turned an English degree and an earnest fascination with the totality of human existence into a writing career that spans 17 bestsellers, enormous wealth and international acclaim. And this is no pulp fiction maven, mind you. I’m awaiting a self-described “broad” who for the past 25-plus years has immersed herself in a world where bad people do bad things to acquaintances and strangers, and where a few unique individuals devote their lives to a strange universe in which highly trained minds and the most advanced forensic science merge to […]

CBS invites “As The World Turns” fans to audition to sing with Eileen Fulton

March 15, 2010 Lori Acken

From CBS: CBS’s As The World Turns and CBS.com are launching a casting call contest to celebrate actress Eileen Fulton’s 50th anniversary on the show. “50 Fabulous Years With Lisa” — named after Fulton’s character, Lisa Grimaldi — invites fans to upload videos of themselves performing cabaret songs to cbs.com. As The World Turns producers and fans will vote online for the winner. One lucky fan will perform with Fulton, a cabaret performer in her own right, on the show, Tuesday, May 18, on the CBS Television Network. Beginning Monday, March 15, at 12:00 Noon, PT, viewers can go to cbs.com/daytime/as_the_world_turns/upload to […]

Have Leland and Duane Lee Chapman left “Dog The Bounty Hunter?”

February 10, 2010 Lori Acken

• UPDATE: A&E cancels Dog the Bounty Hunter Sigh. If this is true, my insomnia-nights On Demand go-to of choice is in horrible peril. Multiple sources are reporting that Duane “Dog” Chapman’s two bounty-hunting man-pups have fled the pound to devote all their time to a new web-app and t-shirt venture called ChapBros. Also involved in the endeavor is straight-laced computer whiz Chapman brother Wesley who recently made a memorable appearance on an episode of Dog The Bounty Hunter in which big brother Duane Lee convinced him to taste mace. Depending on whom you choose to believe, the boys’ ball-busting blonde-bombshell stepmama […]