journal
MEDIA
[MOVIES]
Chick
Flicks
Three new films explore the
female ties that bind us.
[MUSIC]
Johns tickles
the ivories
and sings his
heart out on
his debut CD
CHÉRI
Calling all cougars. Set in Paris
during the Belle Époque, the film
stars Michelle Pfeiffer as a
wealthy courtesan with a much
younger lover (Rupert Friend).
When his mother (Kathy Bates)
interferes, the two confront their
staggering age difference.
MY SISTER’S KEEPER
Cameron Diaz plays the mom of
two daughters—one terminally
ill and the other (Abigail Breslin)
who was conceived solely to be
an exact bone-marrow match for
her sister. Diaz turns in a
heart-wrenching performance as
she fights to save her child’s
life. Alec Baldwin also stars.
Idol’s Soul Man Returns
he upside of getting eliminated from
TAmerican Idol early on? “I got to go to
the White House correspondents’
dinner, Ellen DeGeneres invited me to
her 50th birthday party and I was able to work on my
first album,” says Australian singer Michael Johns,
who wowed television audiences with his rendition of
Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” last
summer during auditions for Season 7. Simon Cowell
dubbed him the “white soul singer.” Now fans can
sample more of Johns’s searing Memphis-style sound
on his debut CD Hold Back My Heart. Though most
of the album consists of new songs, there is a cover
of the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” which Johns
heard already got a thumbs-up from Barry Gibb. We
asked the crooner for his biggest influences.
1THE BEATLES
“I’m particularly a fan of
Abbey Road—songs like
‘Golden Slumbers’ and
‘Carry That Weight.’ ”
2JOE COCKER
“His voice conveys
such emotion, I will never
be able to sing that way . . .
but I can try.”
3OTIS REDDING
“He’s the ultimate
showman. I love him
to pieces.”
4WILSON PICKETT
“All of his songs were
fun, but you can still feel
something intensely.”
[TELEVISION]
THE PROPOSAL
If you think your boss is
demanding, try working for
Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock),
who takes overtime to the
extreme when she coerces her
assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to
become engaged to her so she
can avoid deportation.
NURSE JADA
If you’re resigned to Grey’s Anatomy reruns all summer long,
take heart. HawthoRNe, a new TNT hospital drama, will pump
some new life into your TV viewing. Jada Pinkett Smith, one
of the show’s executive producers, stars as the recently
widowed, tough-as-nails head nurse Christina Hawthorne,
who will stop at nothing to get her patients the help they
need. “It’s about ordinary people doing extraordinary things,”
Pinkett Smith says. This is a part she could relate to—her
mother was an RN. And with steamy costar Michael Vartan
as the director of medicine, we’re betting (and hoping) that
not all the action takes place on the operating table.
BRUNO CALVO/COURTES Y OF MIRAMAX FILMS (CHERI). MICHAEL BECKER (MICHAEL JOHNS). SIDNE Y BALD WIN (M Y SIS TER’S KEEPER).
TOUCHSTONE PICTURES (THE PROPOSAL). KAREN NEAL (HAWTHORNE).
LADIES’ HOME JOURNAL
JULY 09
