Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

American Masters honors 75 years of the ABT with Ric Burns’ American Ballet Theatre: A History

May 15, 2015 Lori Acken

At the very start of Ric Burns’ duly masterful American Masters documentary American Ballet Theatre: A History, which premieres tonight on PBS, dance historian Jennifer Homans offers up this assessment of the dancer’s experience: “If you are a dancer and you stand at the barre in these positions which have been prescribed for over 400 years and you go through this ritual — it’s a ritual of repetition, a ritual of physical discipline — you have to focus purely on the body. On what’s going on inside you. As you do that, you sort of end up letting go of all […]

New Hoarders season Hoarders: Family Secrets premieres with a live intervention on Lifetime

May 14, 2015 Lori Acken

Good news for fans of A&E’s gross-out guilty pleasure Hoarders, which ran on the network from 2009 to 2013 — and even featured a quick glimpse of our magazine (see image at right). The series is back with a brand-new name, Hoarders: Family Secrets, a bold new format and a new home on Lifetime, which currently airs repeats from past seasons. Hoarders: Family Secrets will kick off May 28 with an hourlong special focusing on two complex cases — a Massachusetts family and a relapsed hoarder on the brink of being jailed — and feature live segments culminating in the show’s first-ever live intervention. Throughout the season, some […]

The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe: Lifetime mini reveals the broken heart behind the bombshell

May 13, 2015 Lori Acken

The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe premieres in two parts Saturday, May 30, and Sunday, May 31 at 8/7CT on Lifetime. Everybody knows “Marilyn Monroe” — she of the frothy halo of platinum hair, baby-doll voice and va-va-voom figure, splendidly showcased in her most memorable films. But few people know the real Marilyn Monroe, a.k.a. Norma Jeane Mortenson, a lonely foster child who used her kittenish charm, lush good looks — and, yes, her considerable intellect — to escape a nightmarish youth at the hands of her neglectful mother, Gladys. Now Lifetime’s ready to reveal the woman behind the […]

Dance Moms Seeing Stars recap: Corn, beef, (re)hash

May 12, 2015 Lori Acken

Time for another reunion show, Dance Moms nation, this one called “Seeing Stars” since we used up “Playing Favorites” on last time’s and “Enough About the Videos, Already!” was apparently not an option. JC, Executive Producer Superstar, is still apparently copping to the title and he starts us out by reminding us that we’re all packing up and moving to L.A. so tonight’s festivities will serve as a fond farewell to Pittsburgh. Except when he introduces Abby, she promptly says that we are not either leaving Pittsburgh. We’re expanding. Making a place to which the Pittsburgh kids can migrate, if you will. […]

When does The Little Couple return? Here are the details!

May 8, 2015 Lori Acken

TLC’s The Little Couple returns with brand-new episodes on May 26 — and things are looking up for the Arnold-Klein clan. In the season premiere, Bill’s back surgery is now six weeks behind him and even though he is still in significant pain, the devoted dad admits he may be bending doctor’s orders a bit to keep his kids (and himself) amused. He and Jen make a trek back to New York for a checkup with Dr. Farmer and enjoy some much welcomed couple time when the visit proves a success. Meanwhile, Jen is two years cancer-free and juggling work, caring for the kids and […]

Dance Moms Season 5 episode 18 recap: The Patriot and Games

May 7, 2015 Lori Acken

Sorry for the delay, Dance Moms nation. Rough week. But since this is the mid-season finale, I could hardly let it go unnoticed, now could I? Sure I could. But I didn’t. Because I like you. We’re back at Starbound, where we seem to be pretending that we didn’t end at Nia’s video premiere last week. I thought we’d dropped by Starbound already, but there is Cathy with her megaphone pondering Abby’s absence and only Melissa, Jess, Nia, Holly and Jo Jo seem to be representing ALDC. Holly says something must be up. Melissa says, the others are just still at […]

Queen Latifah impresses as the Empress of the Blues in HBO’s gorgeous “Bessie”

April 30, 2015 Lori Acken

You don’t have to be a fan of blues legend Bessie Smith — or the musical genre in general — to fall in love with HBO’s Bessie. But oh, the experience that awaits you if you are. Twenty-two years in the making, the project was first brought to a young Queen Latifah — then a successful singer and burgeoning actress — by the prolific producing team Richard and Lili Fini Zanuck, who had tapped To Kill a Mockingbird screenwriter Horton Foote to pen the script. Progress on the film ebbed and flowed until it landed in the hands of writer/director […]

Dance Moms Season 5 episode 17 recap: Holly, Jump ’n Jealousy!

April 28, 2015 Lori Acken

We’re back in snowy Pittsburgh, Dance Moms nation and despite the fact that everyone is bundled to the teeth, the Pitt Crew professes that there is no place like home. We rifle off all the reasons why — family members left behind, the comfort of routines, what have you. OK, L.A.’s probably better. But apparently we’re only home for a smidge anyway, because Melissa says she can’t believe this will be our last Pittsburgh pyramid. Jill will believe it when she sees it. Lori, too. Sure enough. We’re only home for a week, before we turn back around to Cali. […]

Robin Roberts interviews Ariel Castro kidnapping victims Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus on Tuesday

April 26, 2015 Lori Acken

He may have stolen a decade of their lives but he couldn’t break their spirit. In their first-ever broadcast interview, Cleveland kidnapping victims Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus will sit down with ABC News anchor Robin Roberts on a special Tuesday night edition of ABC’s 20/20 to talk about their 10-year ordeal locked inside the Cleveland home of depraved former school bus driver Ariel Castro. Castro had already held his third victim, single mother Michelle Knight (with whom Berry and DeJesus now have little contact) for more than a year when he captured the two then-teens, eventually fathering a daughter with Berry. Castro doted […]

Preview: Lifetime’s ‘Cleveland Abduction’ premieres May 2

April 23, 2015 Lori Acken

Cleveland Abduction premieres May 2 at 8/7CT on Lifetime. What It’s Based On: The shocking discovery that former school bus driver Ariel Castro held three women hostage in his suburban Cleveland home for more than a decade, fathering a child with one. Lifetime of a Lesson: Truth is stranger (and scarier) than fiction. This stunning survivor story is told from the perspective of 21-year-old single mom Michelle Knight (Taryn Manning), who was abducted by Ariel Castro (Breaking Bad‘s Raymond Cruz) in 2002. Castro later added naive teens Amanda Berry (Samantha Droke) and Gina DeJesus (Katie Sarife) to his house of horrors. […]