pop cultured

Miracle on 34^th Street is one of my favorite holiday movies. It’s the perfect segue from Thanksgiving to Christmas, because the beginning of the movie is set at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and then it turns in to a Christmas movie.

The original version of the film, made in 1947, starred a young Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn. It’s one of those movies that didn’t ever need to be remade—it’s virtually flawless. But in 1994 a remake was filmed starring Richard Attenborough and the adorable Mara Wilson.

The message of the movie is a heartwarming one: believe and your dreams may really come true. That’s a message to take with you throughout the year, not just during the holiday season.

Tomorrow I will begin my 25 Days of Christmas segment on this blog, but  I posted about “Miracle on 34^th Street”—my segue movie–  today, to get us in the mood for all those holiday gems that are coming up in the next few weeks.

Enjoy the season!

How did I let this news item slip by me? Apparently MTV’s “The Hills” co-stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, the couple that  everyone seems to love to hate, were married last weekend while vacationing in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I heard rumors about this, but sources thought it may have been a hoax. But now the happy couple is splashed across the cover of Us Weekly, sharing the news of their vows. So I guess it’s true.

Montag didn’t want the drama of a big, family wedding so the two decided to elope. But will it last? And was their Mexican ceremony even legal?

Well, based on the track record of other MTV weddings– Jessica and Nick, Carmen and Dave, Shanna and Travis–  the odds aren’t good  (all of these unions fizzled at around the 3 year mark).

But maybe Heidi and Spencer can prove the naysayers wrong. In the meantime, anyone know where they’re registered?

Photo Credit: US Magazine

Every year at this time, millions of Oprah fans tune in to see her annual “favorite things” show. On the show, Oprah dishes about the best holiday gifts of the year—games, gadgets, food, clothing, and always a hot new electronic item—then gives the  gifts to her entire audience. It’s a fun show, sure to get even the biggest Scrooge into the holiday spirit. And it always gives views some great gift ideas.

So imagine my dismay when I tuned into the much anticipated favorite things show this week, only to find that Oprah isn’t giving us any favorite things this year. Instead, due to the bad economy, Oprah suggests we get back to basics. It’s not all about presents, she says. We need to get back to the true meaning of Christmas. Sure, I agree and all that, but what I still have 2 pollyannas to buy for!

This year, Oprah’s show featured some inexpensive gifts to make (fabric covered boxes to put notes in) and several recipes from her buddy Christina Ferrara.

Meanwhile, I felt bad for the studio audience. They went in to the show, saw the glittery, decked out set, and surely thought they were gonna go home with a ton of loot. Instead, all they got was a copy of Oprah’s latest book club selection, “The Story of Edward Sawtelle”.  And a bunch of ways to use a hot glue gun.

Photo Credit: Harpo

I always loved the peanuts television specials when I was growing up, and I clearly remember watching “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” every year.  I mean, who can forget Linus camping out in the pumpkin patch at Halloween time, looking for the fictitious Great Pumpkin? And the phrase “a Charlie Brown tree” is still popular today. Yep, I remember both of those specials very well and waited all year for them to air on CBS.

A lesser known Charlie Brown special (for me, anyway) is “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”. I don’t know why it’s lesser known. It came out in 1973, so I was plenty young enough to be into it. But I just don’t remember ever watching it. It certainly wasn’t an annual “event” in our house, like the other Peanuts specials were. I’ve seen the DVD version of “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” at Target, usually boxed with the other two, more famous, Charlie Brown specials.

In any event, “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” airs tonight on ABC.  So after all these years, I plan to snuggle up with my kids and watch it tonight—and who knows, maybe it’ll be our new favorite holiday special!

We have Christmas songs (“Silent Night”, “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town”), Easter songs (“Here Comes Peter Cottontail”) and even a few Halloween songs (“Monster Mash”, etc.) but I was scratching my head this morning trying to think if there are any popular Thanksgiving songs.

I knew there was a song that mentioned pumpkin pie, and then it dawned on me: Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 folk song, “Alice’s Restaurant”.

“Alice’s Restaurant” could possibly be one of the longest songs in history (I think it’s over 20 minutes long), which is why you don’t hear the full-length version on the radio much.

Still, Thanksgiving is the central theme to this song. The song also inspired the 1969 movie of the same name. Turn on your radio this Thanksgiving while you’re making your stuffing— it’s the one day of the year you may actually hear this song.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be the same without the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I love stuffing my turkey and putting it in the oven, then turning on the parade while I peruse the Black Friday shopping ads from the newspaper. That, to me, is Thanksgiving.

The Macy’s parade tradition began in 1924 in Manhattan, when live zoo animals were used on the floats. 4 years later the helium-filled balloons were added to the parade, including the famous Felix the Cat balloon. Throughout the years there have been hundreds of celebrities, marching bands and famous floats and balloons that appear in the parade every year, including the Underdog and Dora the Explorer balloons. This year, Buzz Lightyear and Horton the Elephant will be the latest balloon additions to the parade.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is an American tradition.  And I wouldn’t have Thanksgiving any other way!

The TV series “Friends” wasn’t the only series known for its multiple Thanksgiving episodes.  NBC’s “The King of Queens” managed to get a turkey day episode in multiple times during its 9 year run as well.

In Season 1, the episode “Supermarket story” finds Doug and Carrie (played by Kevin James and Leah Remini) perusing the grocery store shopping fro Thanksgiving food.

In Season 2, the episode “Roamin’ Holiday” features Doug convincing his buddy Spence to stay with him and Carrie over the Thanksgiving weekend, so Carrie’s annoying friends won’t be able to stay with them.

Season 3 features the episode “Dark Meet”, where Doug and Carrie reminisce about their first Thanksgiving Day together.

In Season 5, Doug “loans” Carrie out to his single-dad friend Deacon so she can make a Thanksgiving dinner for him and his kids.

And in Season 6, in the episode “Thanks Man”, a stranger comes to the Heffernan’s door on Thanksgiving day when his car breaks down and Doug and Carrie make him wait outside in the cold for his ride, who is 4 hours away.

With pop hits like “Runaround Sue” and “I Was Made For Dancing”, Leif Garrett was one of the hottest teen idols of the 1970’s. I never dug his music, but thought his looks were totally dreamy.  Unfortunately, as happens to many child stars, Garrett got into trouble experimenting with drugs and alcohol. A car accident in 1979 left a passenger in his car (his best friend at the time, Roland Winkler), paralyzed.

Garrett spent the next two decades battling his demons, going through messy lawsuits and finally reuniting with Winkler in 1999 for a VH1 “behind the Music” episode. Through the 80’s he had bit parts in films, appearing in movies like ‘the Outsiders” and “The Spirit of ‘76” and he also continued with his singing career, although he went from singing sugary pop tunes to alternative music.

Never married, Garrett had 2 high-profile relationships: he dated Nicolette Sheridan in the early 1980’s and he dated Justine Bateman in the late 80’s.

He continued to struggle with drugs into the early 2000’s. In 2007 he released an album, “The Three Sides Of…”. Today he lives in California and continues his work as a singer.

Celebrities love to name their kids unusual names, and singer Ashlee Simpson and her husband Pete Wentz are no exception. Ashlee gave birth this week to their first child, a baby boy whom they named Bronx Mowgli Wentz.   While I scratched my head as I pondered over that name, in reality it really isn’t all that bad.

You can just add it to the list of unusual names that celebs have chosen over the years:

 Moon Unit (Frank Zappa)

Pilot Inspektor (Jason Lee)

Sage Moonblood (Sylvester Stallone)

Kal-el  Coppola (Nicholas Cage)

Prince Michael (Michael Jackson)

Prince Michael II/Blanket (Michael Jackson)

Little Pixie (Bob Geldof and Paula Yates)

Moxie Crimefighter  (Penn Jillette)

Zuma Nesta Rock (Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale)

Jermajesty (Jermaine Jackson)

Compared to some of these names, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Apple and Courtney Cox-Arquette’s Coco are downright mainstream.

So Brad Pitt has been making the interview rounds, promoting his latest film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”.

I caught him on Oprah yesterday and I just gotta ask—what’s up with the mustache? Brad Pitt has a great face. I find the mustache to be….distracting. I will say, as Mr. Pitt recounted tales of fatherhood with his brood of 6 kids with Angelina Jolie, he seemed truly happy. I was on Team Jen when Pitt ‘s marriage to Jennifer Aniston ended a few years ago, but he has clearly found what he was looking for—and it was fatherhood times six.

Now if he would just find a razor!