Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

Trisha Yearwood debuts “Trisha’s Southern Kitchen” Saturday morning on Food Network

April 13, 2012 Lori Acken

Trisha Yearwood had been a beloved country music superstar for nearly 20 years when she put her music career on hold to craft a pair of best-selling cookbooks (Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen and Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood) with her mom, Gwen, and sister, Beth. “Miss Gwen,” Trisha’s most ardent supporter, was battling breast cancer [the disease that would ultimately take her life in October 2011] and the project gave the woman the opportunity to spend time together, to preserve treasured family recipes — and to put a healthier spin on some of those tried-and-true favorites to reflect […]

Leland Chapman launches new fan forum

April 13, 2012 Lori Acken

Former Dog The Bounty Hunter star Leland Chapman has launched a new Fan Forum on his official web site. The forum features five areas of discussion including general topics, fan stories about Leland, news and updates, and a spot for visitors to share what they like best about the bounty hunter/heartthrob, who continues to operate his own bail bond business on the Big Island of Hawaii while developing bounty hunting classes and a “Bounty Hunter Tactical Supply” company. The site also addresses his departure — “A family that hunts together stays together…yeah whatever” — from the longtime A&E reality smash that made […]

Food Network doc “Hunger Hits Home” addresses childhood hunger in America

April 13, 2012 Lori Acken

Did you know that more than 16 million children right here in the United States regularly go hungry? This Saturday, Food Network and Share Our Strength‘s No Kid Hungry campaign team up for the new documentary, Hunger Hits Home, which premieres on the network at 8pm ET/7CT. Narrated by Oscar-winning actor and national Share Our Strength spokesman Jeff Bridges, the hourlong film takes a first-hand look at the crisis of childhood hunger in America via the stories of three hardworking American families struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table. The film also gives firsthand accounts of ongoing […]

TLC invites you to “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding”

April 12, 2012 Lori Acken

When TLC introduced American audiences to the eye-popping U.K. series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding last spring, more than 45 million viewers (me! me!) tuned in — making international celebrities of fearless dressmaker Thelma Madine, proud Irish Traveller daddy Paddy Doherty, and a bevy of young beauties trundling down the aisle in supersized, one-of-a-kind gowns. Now the network invites you into the homes and celebrations of some of the estimated 1 million Roma and Travellers who live right here in the U.S., with the eight-episode series My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding. Filmed in West Virginia, Georgia and Maryland, and […]

“Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids” returns to TLC April 13

April 12, 2012 Lori Acken

TLC is bringing back the bridesmaids … and the battles involved in dressing ’em. All-new weekly episodes of Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids begin tomorrow, April 13. Set at Bridal’s by Lori, home to Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta, Bridesmaids is the highest-rated installment of the wildly popular Say Yes franchise and allows viewers tag along with the salon’s patient-to-a-fault consultants as they hunt down the perfect for dress for a host of theatrical — and sometimes comical — wedding parties. • Apply to be part of Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids In the season premiere, beautiful bride-to-be Meghan […]

“Dance Moms Miami” recap: To The Victor Go The Spoils

April 11, 2012 Lori Acken

Week one without the Pitt Crew. I’ll be alright. I’ll be alright. I will be. All. Right. If only these moms would jazz up their wardrobes and go out for bevvies once in a while, it would certainly help. But anyway, in Miami, we learn right off the cuff that Victor and Angel don’t just want dancers — they’re in the business of making stars. And if anyone is not in the mood to be star, well, they have over 50 kids waiting to be #1. Speaking of #1, that would be Lucas, right there at the top of The […]

Willie Degel gives struggling eateries the [better] business in Food Network’s “Restaurant Stakeout”

April 10, 2012 Lori Acken

William “Willie” Degel, owner of New York’s Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse chain and Jack’s Shack all-natural eatery — and star of the new Food Network series Restaurant Stakeout — developed his entrepreneurial spirit at an early age, working multiple odd jobs to help fund the parochial school education his parents demanded for their sons. “I was the baby of four boys and my parents wanted us to get a good education,” Degel says. “My father worked two jobs and my mother had to work for us to go to Catholic school and get a good education. We had to pay at least half […]

“Dance Moms: Miami” recap: Are You Guys Ready to Get Fierce?

April 4, 2012 Lori Acken

Alright Miami, you saw how we do in Pittsburgh. So whaddya have? Well for starters, you have Victor Smalley and Angel Armas, who by their very dancer nature, are almost instantly more fun to watch than Abby Lee. Although they promptly get to work blowing my first impressions all to hell by demonstrating that — while both are certifiable boy divas — Victor is like one of the kids and says so and Angel is an angel with a mouth like a bullwhip. Also, Victor puts ‘er out on the table right away: “If it wasn’t for our amazing kids, […]

“Dance Moms” finale recap: Behind Barres

April 4, 2012 Lori Acken

And so it ends … with another come-from-behind triumph for Chloe, a day of reckoning for Abby, an applause-worthy lecture from Dr. Holly and a ballet instructor who looks like Robert Goulet. But, it doesn’t end for long, since all-new eps will be back in June — and so will Abby despite her tearstained little hissy-pissy tonight. Mark my words. We ended last season — and several episodes this season — thinking Maddie and Mac might not be back, and there they were without a mention of The Troubles come the season 2 premiere. We may see Abby being fanned […]

“American Masters” spotlights Harper Lee and Margaret Mitchell tonight on PBS

April 2, 2012 Lori Acken

In a win-win for book and film lovers alike, tonight PBS’ acclaimed biography series American Masters will present back-to-back profiles of Gone With the Wind scribe Margaret Mitchell and To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee that present facts, photos and interviews fresh to even their most ardent fans. Though Mitchell was born in 1900 and Lee in 1926, like their works, these women are every ounce as compelling as any character from today’s entertainment realm, real or fictionalized. Did you know Mitchell rappelled down buildings as a newspaper reporter and funded the education of African-American medical students after GWTW […]