Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

Farm Queens preview: Great American Country takes pageant girls from stage to stable

September 11, 2014 Lori Acken

Everything you need to know about the premise of Great American Country’s new Farm Queens is handily summed up by beauty queen turned pageant coach Juliann Sheldon in Sunday’s premiere episode: “If you can survive almost getting peed on by a cow, you can survive pageant week.” She should know. Sheldon, Miss Pennsylvania of 2011, is a veteran of longtime pageant coach (and 30-year Miss Pennsylvania pageant director) Chet Welch’s tiaras-meets-tractors beauty-queen boot camp, held on the 102-acre rural cattle farm he shares with his life partner Bob. That’s right, those of you long weary of Toddlers & Tiaras frivolity […]

The Affair: Showtime’s irresistible drama puts infidelity in complex perspective

September 10, 2014 Lori Acken

The Affair Showtime Premieres: Oct. 19 Airs: Sundays at 10pm Who’s In It? Maura Tierney, Dominic West, Ruth Wilson, Joshua Jackson (below) If you’ve ever shared a long-ago memory with a friend and discovered you each recall the same event in vastly different ways, you’ll recognize the fragile skeleton on which this exquisite drama — from House of Cards executive producer Sarah Treem — is built. At its most basic, The Affair tracks the cause and effect of an extramarital affair between author/schoolteacher Noah (The Wire’s West) and throaty-voiced, sleepy-eyed waitress Alison (a stunning Wilson) — a relationship that somehow […]

Say Yes to the Dress Season 12: TLC reveals details, celeb guests

September 10, 2014 Lori Acken

Famous faces abound when TLC’s longest running primetime series, Say Yes to the Dress, launches its 12th season on Friday, Oct. 10 at 9/8CT with the show’s first ever hour-long episode. In the season opener, former Biggest Loser contestant Tumi Oguntala — who dropped 175 pounds— is also a winner at love, arriving at New York’s Kleinfled Bridal salon to find the perfect gown to flatter her new figure at her upcoming wedding. Oguntala gets an additional, very special consultant in the form of her former Biggest Loser coach Jillian Michaels, who arrives with plenty of surprises in store for […]

The Mysteries of Laura star Debra Messing: “Laura would never be wearing heels!”

September 9, 2014 Lori Acken

She gained fame as goofy-glam decorator Grace Adler on NBC’s long-running Will & Grace, then turned earnest as lyricist Julia Houston in the network’s ill-fated Smash. Now, flame-haired funny woman Debra Messing is smashing in a role that hits closer to home. The divorced mother of preteen son Roman stars as frazzled soon-to-be-a-single-mom Detective Laura Diamond in the Peacock’s new dramedy The Mysteries of Laura, which premieres Wednesday, Sept. 17 after the America’s Got Talent finale. The series, created by Jeff Rake (Private Practice, Boston Legal), boasts a Castle-meets-Moonlighting feel, blending soapy murder mysteries with comical — and sometimes poignant […]

Andre Holland on The Knick: “I feel a really deep and personal connection with Algernon”

September 8, 2014 Lori Acken

Andre Holland knew he was meant to play Dr. Algernon Edwards in the absorbing Cinemax drama The Knick from the moment the script landed in his hands. The problem? Holland was vacationing in Italy and had minutes to submit an audition tape if he wanted the part. So, much like his put-upon, resourceful character, Holland made magic with what he had. “My agents were like, ‘The producers are moving very fast with this and we need you to get something on tape right away!’”Holland laughs. “So I found a British couple who were also vacationing at the time and talked […]

Forever on ABC: Death becomes Ioan Gruffudd

September 8, 2014 Lori Acken

Forever Premieres: Sneak peek Monday, Sept. 22 at 10pm ET/PT Airs: Tuesdays at 10pm ET/PT beginning Sept. 23 Who’s In It? Ioan Gruffudd, Alana De La Garza, Judd Hirsch, Lorraine Toussaint • Watch the Forever premiere episode online now! Elementary and Castle fans should love ABC’s engaging drama Forever, which concerns the strange existence of Dr. Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd, well cast), a dashing, deeply intuitive medical examiner working for the city of New York. Morgan’s keen understanding of life and death — and what makes people tick in the interim — comes from much more than time on the […]

How to Get Away with Murder is another killer drama from Shonda Rhimes

September 8, 2014 Lori Acken

How to Get Away With Murder ABC Premieres: Sept. 25 Airs: Thursdays at 10pm Who’s In It? Viola Davis, Billy Brown, Alfred Enoch Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis is an emotional chameleon in How to Get Away with Murder, the latest ABC drama from can’t-miss executive producers Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, the ladies who brought us Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal. In a role seemingly tailor-made for her, Davis plays Annalise Keating, a brilliant, ferocious defense attorney who also teaches Criminal Law — or, as she prefers to call it, “How to Get Away With Murder” — at fictional […]

Zachary Quinto and Chris Moore talk The Chair on Starz

September 5, 2014 Lori Acken

Billed as “an original filmmaking experiment,” Starz’s engrossing new docuseries The Chair, from Project Greenlight’s Chris Moore, examines what happens when two aspiring young filmmakers are each given the same shoestring budget, the same script and the same Pittsburgh location and asked to make wholly original theatrical releases. Mentored by the amiable Moore, his co-executive producer actor/producer Zachary Quinto and others, excitable YouTube superstar Shane Dawson and sensitive indie filmmaker/actor Anna Martemucci display fascinatingly disparate constitutions and sensibilities on their way to creating works that will, through multiplatform viewer voting after each film debuts, earn one a $250,000 prize. “What […]

Gypsy Sisters preview: Evil Spirits

September 4, 2014 Lori Acken

On tonight’s Gypsy Sisters, the ladies are on Day 2 of their week-long escape to New Orleans and you best keep your remote in hand, because things are about to get loud. In the way that only these gypsy sisters can get loud. • RELATED: Channel Guide‘s exclusive interview with Nettie Stanley and Kayla Williams • RELATED: Channel Guide’s xclusive interview with Mellie Stanley After whooping it up with Nettie in last week’s episode, a hungover-but-happy Kay;a says she now realizes that Rumney women don’t enjoy life the way they should and that you can be a good wife and […]

Little People Big World returns to TLC tonight!

September 2, 2014 Lori Acken

Big changes are in store for the Roloff family as Little People Big World returns for a five-episode run tonight at 10/9CT on TLC. Though they continue to live on the family’s Oregon spread, impulsive dreamer Matt and ambitious, practical Amy are still separated and trying to determine if they are better together or apart. But love is in full bloom for their 24-year-old twin sons Jeremy and Jacob who plan to propose to their longtime loves, Audrey and Tori. Meanwhile, Zach and Jacob join Amy in her new pop-up kitchen business venture, while Jeremy’s college graduation and wedding planning […]