Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

The Coworkers’ Guide to Girlfriends Guide to Divorce episode 4

December 23, 2014 Lori Acken

In which Ryan Berenz (11 years into Marriage No. 1, two preschool boys) and Lori Acken (nine years into Marriage No. 2, four grown kids) debate a few quagmires revealed in Girlfriends Guide to Divorce Episode 4 “Rule 426: Fantasyland: A Great Place to Visit.” • Is Fantasyland a great place to visit? Lori: Given that my fantasies currently involve stuff like a 92% raise, black pants with no cat hair and just one flat surface in my house staying crap-free for more than an hour … I’m willing to go there. Fantasies one hopes will completely change one’s life? The distance between entry and exit is always […]

Channel your inner von Trapp with tonight’s The Sound of Music Sing Along on ABC

December 21, 2014 Lori Acken

If you think you know every last word to every single song in the 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein family classic The Sound of Music, here’s your chance to test that theory. Or maybe your renditions go something like “Edelweiss, edelweiss, la la lala la laaaaaaaa laaaaaaa!” and you’d like to remedy that. Tonight ABC presents The Sound of Music: Sing-A-Long, a special edition of the beloved film featuring subtitles to its Grammy-nominated soundtrack that allow you to channel your inner Fräulein Maria or Captain von Trapp with confidence. First broadcast on television on ABC in 1976, the five-time Oscar winner […]

We talk Galavant — and Alan Menken — with Joshua Sasse!

December 18, 2014 Lori Acken

And now for something completely different: A TV comedy that’s a little bit Disney romance and a whole lot Mel-Brooks-meets-Monty-Python reverie — all set to rollicking music by Disney’s celebrated song guy, Alan Menken. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Galavant, a four-week, star-studded musical hoot featuring Psych’s Timothy Omundson as King Richard and Joshua Sasse (Rogue) as the titular knight Galavant — a duo locked in tuneful, comical battle for the love of Madalena (Mallory Jansen), the savvy beauty who owns both their hearts. Or their hormones, at any rate. “A friend of mine said it’s a bit like The Princess […]

HBO’s “Saving My Tomorrow” special is an insightful, impactful family treat

December 15, 2014 Lori Acken

If you ever need to have yourself a stern lecture about a very important subject, let me suggest that you get it from 8-year-old Hippocrates Polemis, one of the young stars of HBO’s spectacular, song-filled family special Saving My Tomorrow which premieres tonight. Like his ancient namesake, the dark-eyed little fellow has a fine grasp on what is — and isn’t — good for us. Sporting a “ICARE For The World” t-shirt and a smudge of lunch on his face, Hippocrates reminds us — with all the gravitas of your high-school principal — that we can’t just travel through galaxies […]

New Kate Plus 8 specials begin in January

December 11, 2014 Lori Acken

TLC has announced that it will air five new Kate Plus Eight specials on Tuesdays beginning Jan. 13 at 9/8CT. Featuring Kate Gosselin (a sudden dead ringer for Kendra Wilkinson who will also be seen on next month’s new season of The Celebrity Apprentice) and her kids, the hour-long specials will spotlight such hallmark family moments as a family vacation, much-needed home renovations, twins Mady and Cara’s 14th birthday and — with eight kids all in double digits —single mom Kate finding brand new ways to be completely overwhelmed. In the first two hours, Kate takes the twins and their […]

Gypsy Sisters Christmas special: Get an exclusive sneak peek from “A Naughty or Nice Christmas”

December 10, 2014 Lori Acken

Early Christmas present, Gypsy Sisters fans! Just in time to heat up your holidays, TLC presents its newest Christmas special featuring the brawling beauties of the Stanley clan. And as their longtime fans know, there will likely be anything but peace on earth if this crew is involved. To spark the holiday spirit, Nettie decides to gather the ladies for a holiday costume party and gets the shock of her life when — instead of arriving as a naughty Mrs. Santa, elf or holiday treat like everybody else — a fully clothed Mellie hobbles in dressed as Scrooge, toting her […]

The Coworkers’ Guide to Girlfriends Guide to Divorce episode 2

December 10, 2014 Lori Acken

In which Ryan Berenz (11 years into Marriage No. 1, two preschool boys) and Lori Acken (nine years into Marriage No. 2, four grown kids) debate a few quagmires revealed in Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce Episode 2 “Rule 174: Never Trust Anyone Who Charges By the Hour.” Never read the comments? Ryan: If you’re a celebrity or public figure, NEVER read the comments. They will make you weep for humanity. But if you’re a chump in an office blogging about a TV show, the comments give you reason to keep on keeping on. Lori: I can’t even handle the comments […]

Girlfriends Guide to Divorce recap episode 2: “Rule #174: Never Trust Anyone Who Charges By the Hour”

December 10, 2014 Lori Acken

Last Night’s Girlfriends Guide to Divorce was called “Never Trust Anyone Who Charges By the Hour.” You know, like lawyers. Or your dominatrix. Or a lawyer who knows your dominatrix. But we’ll get to that in a bit. • RELATED: Lisa Edelstein and Marti Noxon talk Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce on Bravo! What the episode is really about is a trifecta of issues only too familiar to those of us who’ve gone through divorce — lawyering up, dividing the dollars, and when standing up for yourself blurs into revenge. And to the show’s credit, it addresses all three with a […]

“Sons of Anarchy” roars to its series finale

December 9, 2014 Lori Acken

From the start, fans of Kurt Sutter’s ultraviolent, uber-addictive FX motorcycle drama Sons of Anarchy have been as devoted as a real-life band of bikers, hashing out unexpected deaths, curious casting (Lea Michele?), unfathomable Emmy snubs … and, well, those unfortunate few moments when it actually seemed like Jax himself, Charlie Hunnam, might do the Fifty Shades of Grey flick (whew!). Now the day that SAMCRO fans have been dreading is here, as the show reaches the end of its bloody ride to tonight’s three-hour series finale, “Papa’s Goods,” written and directed by Sutter. And with the Sons of Anarchy […]

Wally Lamb’s “Wishin’ and Hopin'” comes to Lifetime

December 6, 2014 Lori Acken

Fans of Wally Lamb’s hefty New York Times bestsellers She’s Come Undone, The Hour I First Believed and I Know This Much Is True may have been a bit suspect when he penned a slim little Christmas novella in 2010. Then they opened the book and fell in love with the ’60s-era tale of Felix Funicello (proud cousin of Annette) and his fellow fifth-graders at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Catholic school, whose insular worlds are rocked by the arrival of French-speaking substitute teacher Madame Frechette and worldly Russian classmate Zhenya. Executive produced by Lamb and starring Molly Ringwald, her Sixteen Candles […]