Madonna’s Bro Sets Date with GMA
Madonna sure likes attention, but even she can’t be too thrilled with how this week has started.
First was the A-Rod debaclenow there’s more from her estranged brother, Christopher Ciccone…
Just this morning, the publisher of Ciccone’s upcoming memoir, Life With My Sister Madonna, jumped on the Madge bandwagon by releasing the cover of the top-secret tome.
A rep for Simon Spotlight Entertainment says Ciccone’s first on-camera interview will be with Deborah Roberts for Good Morning America. Their taped interview will air July 14, followed by a live, in-studio one-on-one the next day, when the book officially goes on sale.
I can also report that Ciccone has been booked for an in-studio interview with E!’s own Chelsea Handler. A rep for Chelsea Lately confirms the sit-down is scheduled for July 23.
Until then, Ciccone is keeping quiet. Except for a July 1 update he posted on his Facebook profile, which reads, “Christopher is dancing on thin ice and loving it…”
What’s next for Rachael Ray? Her memoirs
According to that journalist without peer, Ted Casablanca — yeah, I’m sure that’s his real name — Food Network diva and Emmy-winning talk show hostess Rachael Ray is working on a new project.
No, it’s not a new cookbook or anything about food or travel, her two specialties on FN. Rachael Ray is writing her memoirs, the story of a kid from upstate New York who’s made in big on TV.
Rachael, who turns 40 on August 25, has had a meteoric rise on TV, and as I wrote last week, she’s one of five TV stars I think have exceeded expectations. In a very short time, she’s become a force with which to be reckoned.
Her first TV show, 30-Minute Meals, debuted in 2001, just seven years ago. She’s equally popular and unpopular with the masses, which has done nothing to diminish her success. She’s done TV shows, DVDs, cookbooks, cookware, commercials, a monthly magazine, a comic/cookbook for kids — even a Christmas CD (not singing; it’s just her favorite songs)!
One thing that I can tell you will be in Rachael Ray’s memoirs will be self-deprecating humor and graciousness. When I interviewed her in 2007, I asked her about her success on the talk show and she told me, “It’s all been terrific. I’m very, very proud of all the people who work on our show, and our viewers. I never saw me being on TV for any reason whatsoever. That’s what’s been so cool about this. It’s been an organic, fun thing.”
Her being asked to write a memoir, even this soon in her career, is not too surprising. Everything she’s touched has turned to gold. Somebody will make a lot of money publishing her story, including every EVOO, stoup, garbage bowl and sammie.
Also, if she doesn’t write her memoirs first, somebody out there will write a biography that’s likely not to be authorized. In fact, I can hear the keys clicking now from some PC far, far away.
Headstone Swiped from Joy Division Singer’s Grave
Ian Curtis wasn’t around long but he left quite an impression.
Someone has stolen the memorial gravestone that marks the late Joy Division singer’s final resting place in a West England cemetery, British authorities said Thursday.
Curtis, who was recently played by Sam Riley in the well-received biopic Control, hanged himself May, 18, 1980, at the age of 23, right before his band was about to embark on its first U.S. tour. The post-punk visionary’s body was cremated in Macclesfield, where he grew up.
The more than 20-year-old stone marking the spot where his ashes are buried is inscribed with “Ian Curtis, 18-5-80″ and bears the signaturely gloomy sentiment, “Love Will Tear Us Apart, ” the title of Joy Division’s biggest song.
A spokesman for the Cheshire Police said in a statement that the theft occurred sometime between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.
“There is no CCTV in the area and there are no apparent leads as to who is responsible for the theft,” Inspector Gareth Woods said. “This is a very unusual theft and we are confident that someone locally will have knowledge about who is responsible or where the memorial stone is at present.”
“We had to break the news to Debbie [Woodruff, Curtis’ widow] and she was shocked and found it difficult to take in. She is in a state of disbelief and shock,” said a spokesman for the Macclesfield Borough Council.
Woodruff penned the memoir Touching From a Distance on which Control was based.
New Order drummer Stephen Morris, who formed his current band with his Joy Division mates after Curtis’ death, told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that the thief probably swiped the stone as a “sick souvenir.
“We’ve all been wild and reckless in our time, but surely this represents a new low. It’s probably a fan who has taken it, and I would appeal to them to return it or leave it at the nearest police station.”
Madonna’s Bro Gets Job With Janice Dickinson
Janice Dickinson has chosen Camp Christopher over Camp Madonna.
Just weeks after Madge’s estranged brother, Christopher Ciccone, plans to release his July 15 memoir, Life With My Sister, he’ll appear on the season premiere of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.
No, he’s not a model, but…
The loudmouthed former supermodel hired Ciccone to design her new sleeping quarters for her Oxygen network series, according to a source. “Janice lives in the house with the models, and she had Chris design her bedroom.”
A rep for the show confirmed Ciccone’s appearance but said she did not know any other details. An August date for the season premiere has not been decided.
Let’s just hope things go better than they did on Monday, when Ciccone was shooting his wannabe design reality show. One of Ciccone’s two design assistants sliced her leg open on the corner of a mirror while working on a Los Angeles-area home renovation, a source reports
She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors closed her up with nearly 20 staples. She did, however, “return hours later on crutches to finish the room,” the source says.
Nothing could be better for a reality show than some blood-soaked drama and a trip to the emergency room.