Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

“Dance Moms” star Christi Lukasiak talks Chloe, Joffrey and the show’s new season!

June 1, 2012 Lori Acken

The last time I spoke with Dance Moms’ Christi Lukasiak, the show’s second season was soon to premiere — and Lukasiak was still trying to wrap her head around her near-overnight transition from devoted mom perpetually trapped in a tyrant’s dance studio to devoted mom perpetually trapped in a tyrant’s dance studio on TV’s most talked-about train wreck. My research entailed being an earnestly devoted viewer of the show. • Read Channel Guide‘s first interview with Christi Lukasiak Six months later, on the cusp of the season’s summer premiere, Lukasiak, her comrades in the parents loft at Pittsburgh’s Abby Lee Dance Company, and […]

TNT’s “Dallas” update is hotter than a Texas summer!

May 31, 2012 Lori Acken

It is late in the afternoon on the final day of the two-week schmooze-a-palooza that is the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour. Half of the assembled critics are nursing a nagging cold that has spread through the frigid, windowless conference rooms; no one has had enough sleep. And everyone — even those of us who would watch way too much TV even if we weren’t paid to do so — has had just about enough of talking about television. Then onto the stage walks Larry Hagman in a dashing white cowboy hat, followed by Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray and […]

Adam Richman seeks out America’s best sandwich

May 30, 2012 Lori Acken

Adam Richman’s face is mere inches away from a toaster oven in the bustling kitchen of Kroll’s West, the 70-year-old, go-to food spot for Green Bay Packer fans and “butter burger” lovers that sits in the shadow of the legendary Lambeau Field. But it’s not the burger he’s after on this late April afternoon — it’s the beloved Wisconsin eatery’s prime rib sandwich, a beefy monstrosity accented with a mélange of peppers and onions and a cup of rich au jus. As Cheryl Dorner, the folksy restaurant’s charming manager — and Richman’s costar for this segment of his new Travel […]

“Dance Moms: Miami” finale recap: Mamas & Mia!

May 30, 2012 Lori Acken

Anybody else think this season flew by? I think this season flew by. Yes, that means that we can get back to business with Abby Lee and her disobedient minions, but still. Finales are always sad. Well, usually. Speaking of always sad — it’s time for The List. Victor’s still tickled about how well we all did in San Antonio, but still … this week we have to own it. Er, own what? Doesn’t matter — since Angel wasn’t there to see the ownership of San Antonio with his own eyes, he doesn’t believe it anyway, so whatever it is, it […]

“My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding” preview: Murphy’s Laws

May 25, 2012 Lori Acken

The first time American television audiences were introduced to Murphy Village in North Augusta, S.C., it was via the news and a young woman who was part of the culture, but not the community. Madelyne Gorman Toogood, an Irish Traveller like the residents of the village (of which she was never a resident), was caught by security cameras savagely beating her 4-year-old daughter in the parking lot of an Indiana department store in late 2002. And suddenly every major news outlet wanted to know what went on inside this highly secretive society that — contrary to Toogood’s actions — prides […]

Cory Booker to appear on Sunday’s “Oprah’s Next Chapter”

May 24, 2012 Lori Acken

Newark, New Jersey, mayor Cory Booker — a much-loved figure in the Democratic party who came under fire when his strong remarks about the negative tone about the presidential campaign on last Sunday’s Meet The Press were interpreted as disparaging to President Obama — visits with Oprah Winfrey on this Sunday’s Oprah’s Next Chapter. Winfrey traveled to Newark just days after Booker — long regarded as a hero in his community for making his home in the inner city and patrolling its most dangerous streets to encourage young men and women to rise above their circumstances — made headlines when he risked […]

“Dance Moms: Miami” episode 7 recap: If You’re Happy and You Know It, Please Shut Up

May 23, 2012 Lori Acken

It’s my life. It’s my time. It’s my Tuesday night — after spending a merry Tuesday afternoon at my desk watching the Miami Mommies duke it out on Twitter (giving the actual show some stiff competition, I’m telling you). If you Tweet and don’t follow the mamas, you should. It’s like social-media, non-contact, professional wrestling without quite so much Spandex. But anyway, the episode. As we prepare to do The List, Abby and Sammy are MIA. Victor says this is ridiculous and that the other mothers should call their wayward counterpart and demand her attendance straightaway. Victor has clearly not been […]

“Dog the Bounty Hunter” cancelled by A&E

May 22, 2012 Lori Acken

Well, it looks like all of the “Will they or won’t they return” drama surrounding various members of the Chapman family has come to a “Nobody will” conclusion. Though the network has yet to make an official statement, Variety is reporting that A&E will not order additional new episodes of its long-running Dog the Bounty Hunter, which launched the mullet-embracing, shirt-eschewing Duane “Dog” Chapman and his fugitive-hunting family to stardom over 8 seasons and nearly 250 episodes beginning in 2004. In a family statement issued by the Chapmans’ attorney Marty Singer and Tweeted out by Chapman’s daughter Baby Lyssa Chapman, Dog and […]

Meet Food Network’s “Invention Hunter” Steve Greenberg

May 18, 2012 Lori Acken

Gadget Nation author and “Innovation Insider” Steve Greenberg grew up in a family that celebrates invention — and a great meal. So it’s only natural that Greenberg — who parlayed a gig as a TV reporter into a career heralding gadgets — would find a way to combine his passions and give inventors a boost to boot. This week, he and his pal, Patrick Raymond — founder of the Inventors Association of Manhattan and former Executive Director of the United Inventors Association — debuted their new Food Network series Invention Hunters, which follows the duo as they scout out potential million-dollar kitchen gizmos […]

“My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding” preview: Girl Gone Wild

May 17, 2012 Lori Acken

In Sunday’s upcoming episode of My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding, the actual wedding takes a back seat to the myriad ways women adapt to — and sometime rebel against — their role in Romanichal culture. • UPDATE: Read Channel Guide’s exclusive interview with Mellie Stanley! If you watched last week’s episode, you’ll recognize Martinsburg, W.Va., Romany Laura as the one-woman cavalry called in to teach teen gorger bride Amber proper gypsy-missus ways before she married Laura’s cousin Tommy. This week, you get to meet the rest of Laura’s family. Or at least a couple hundred of them. Laura’s cousin Kayla […]