Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

Dance Moms Season 5 episode 13 recap: You’re getting my goat …

March 31, 2015 Lori Acken

If you wanna be my Dance Mom, you gotta get with(out) your friends… make it last forever, cause this show never ends. So given that … zigazig ahhhh, Dance Moms nation. It’s time for the Spice Girls/Poison Apples version of the Dance Moms recap. Which starts out innocuously enough as everyone gathers in the Dancers Den to talk about how weird it is to be without Maddie again (it’s not that weird). This time, Maddie’s with Sia in New York doing SNL. And Melissa is lamenting about how she really should be in New York with her daughter, but she has to […]

Better Call Saul episode 109 recap — Pimento

March 30, 2015 Lori Acken

With just a week to go until the Better Call Saul Season 1 finale, we open with Chuck and Jimmy sitting side by side on a park bench near Chuck’s house on a lovely, sunny day. Chuck is zeroed in on the power lines overhead, but Jimmy tells him to kick off his shoes and feel the grass between his toes. Remember what it feels like to enjoy the great outdoors. Chuck does as he’s told, then changes the subject back to the Sandpiper Crossing case. Chuck tells Jimmy they must stay on their toes, because Schweikert is sure to file a restraining […]

National Geographic Channel’s “Killing Jesus” will encore on FOX News Channel

March 30, 2015 Lori Acken

Last night’s National Geographic Channel epic Killing Jesus will encore on FOX News Channel this Friday, April 3 at 8/7 CT and again on Easter Sunday, April 5, at 8/7CT. • FIND OUT MORE: We’re on the Moroccan sets of NGC’s Killing Jesus! • FIND OUT MORE: Haaz Sleiman: “Killing Jesus” is “a celebration for us as humans” • FIND OUT MORE: Stephen Moyer on playing Pontius Pilate in Nat Geo’s Killing Jesus With an all-star cast that includes Haaz Sleiman, Stephen Moyer, Kelsey Grammar, Eoin Macken, Rufus Sewell and Emmanuel Chriqui, the 3-hour movie event attracted 3.7 million total viewers in its National Geographic […]

Interview: Stephen Moyer on playing Pontius Pilate in Nat Geo’s Killing Jesus

March 28, 2015 Lori Acken

Stephen Moyer has arrived on the Ouarzazate, Morocco, set of National Geographic Channel’s Killing Jesus with just three hours of sleep after a numbing 20-hour journey to the remote city by land and air. Fortunately, his exhaustion serves the intensely pivotal scene he is about to shoot. Standing in a crowded courtyard on Ridley Scott’s sprawling Kingdom of Heaven set, Moyer — who plays Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Jerusalem — is locked in a final showdown with the high priest Caiaphas (a simmering Rufus Sewell) over Jesus’ fate. Pilate urges Caiaphas that scourging is punishment enough for the battered […]

We talk Bride by Design with Heidi Elnora!

March 27, 2015 Lori Acken

Bride By Design premieres tonight at 9/8CT on TLC. If you’re a fan of TLC’s famous BrideDay Friday block of bridal-gown goodness, you’re sure to love its newest addition, Bride by Design, starring Alabama-based fashion maven and Season 2 Project Runway contestant Heidi Elnora. But there’s lots of insight and inspiration here for avid fashionistas, too. “I am super excited, because it really takes the viewers into my world and seeing what it is to be a designer — all the processes and all the love and time that goes into a dress,” says Elnora, who graduated from the Savannah College […]

Haaz Sleiman: “Killing Jesus” is “a celebration for us as humans”

March 27, 2015 Lori Acken

Haaz Sleiman relaxes in the simple cafe of a 400-year-old casbah in tiny Tamnougalt, Morocco. Grime-streaked and dressed in a simple cloth robe, the actor is nearly beatific, having just wrapped a pivotal scene in Killing Jesus, National Geographic Channel’s latest and most ambitious epic culled from the popular book series by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. Sleiman introduces himself, then smiles and gestures at the Atlas Mountains visible through an ornately grated window and says, “Every day I am grateful, because it is overwhelmingly beautiful being here. Morocco is such a beautiful country; it feels like you are on a movie set just looking at the […]

Seeds of Yesterday on Lifetime: James Maslow explains the art of Bart

March 26, 2015 Lori Acken

Seeds of Yesterday, the fourth movie in Lifetime’s V.C. Andrews Dollanganger series, premieres Sunday, April 12 at 10/9CT on Lifetime. What It’s Based On: The follow-up to Thorns hit bookstores in 1984 and marked a 15-year leap forward in the Sheffield family story. Lifetime of a Lesson: Sometimes your brother is a really lousy keeper. Seeds‘ most notable swerve from the novel is its omission of Corrine’s devious sibling Joel; instead, the now grown Bart (Big Time Rush’s James Maslow) remains deeply influenced by his zealot great-grandfather Malcolm Foxworth and turns his home into a re-creation of Foxworth Hall. Bart invites Cathy, Chris and […]

Jon Bass on Big Time In Hollywood FL’s Del: “It frees you up to have such short shorts on!”

March 25, 2015 Lori Acken

I love everything about Big Time in Hollywood, FL., Comedy Central’s brand-new scripted comedy that stars Alex Anfanger and Lenny Jacobson as Jack and Ben Dolfe, scheming slacker brothers whose big-time Hollywood dreams land them in big-time trouble in — and out of — their snoozy Florida town. But let me confess this right now: I love their sweet buddy Del the best. Possibly a bit too much. And I didn’t mind admitting it to Jon Bass, who plays him. With his great big heart, goofy little shorts, sensible sandals and an utter unwillingness to believe that Jack and Ben are anything but a force for […]

Dance Moms recap Season 5 episode 12: A bad case of Melanie-oma

March 24, 2015 Lori Acken

Welcome back, Dance Moms Nation. Whose NCAA bracket is still worth the paper it’s printed on? Who picked the Badgers to take it all? You are my special favorites. Speaking of competitions … this week we start at the front desk where Abby is all a’twinkle over Maddie’s new Sia video, Elastic Heart, which — if you’re the one person on earth who hasn’t seen it yet — features Maddie in Chandelier gear having one serious nightmare of a (bird)cage match with a brief-wearing Shia LaBeouf. Since we’re going to get all worked about it multiple times throughout the episode, here. […]

Better Call Saul recap episode 8: “Rico”

March 24, 2015 Lori Acken

So many revelations in Better Call Saul episode 8’s opening flashback moments. First we get confirmation that Jimmy did indeed work for Hamlin, Hamlin and McGill back in the day — in the mailroom. And he and Kim were indeed an item. When he wheels his cart into her office and hands her a letter, it’s actually addressed to him. She opens it, blinks, grins and plants a smooch on her man. Jimmy passed the bar. Heading for Chuck’s corner office, Jimmy reveals to his brother that — with Kim as his inspiration — he completed the few credits he had left to […]