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Santa Fe's world-famous reputation as a fascinating city appeals to all kinds of celebrities, from movie stars to rock stars, country music performers, politicians, authors and more. Now that New Mexico's thriving film industry brings dozens of projects to the state each year, celebrated actors and directors are seen daily in Santa Fe, along with the famous stars who make Santa Fe their home.
Gossip URL gives you the most recent reports of celebrity news and sightings in Santa Fe from the pages of The Santa Fe New Mexican. Check here often to see who's doing what in the City Different.
El Mitote, November 20, 2011
The New Mexican
Western novelist Johnny D. Boggs, a Santa Fean since 1998, was one of the distinguished alumni recently honored by the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications on Nov. 10. Boggs,
who has nearly 40 books in print, spent close to 15 years as a Texas sports journalist before taking up the novelist's pen with notable success. www.johnnyboggs.com
According to Reuters, Santa Fe native and international designer Tom Ford will continue to dress the character of James Bond in future 007 movies. We're not really surprised; Ford's sleek clothing looks best on lean, muscular men like current Bond lad Daniel Craig. Of course, both men's and women's high-style clothes fit only about one person in a zillion really well. Certainly not us! But we admit they look like a zillion bucks on the right body. www.tomford.com
Santa Fe School of Cooking is highlighted in the current issue of Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine. It's one of only six U.S. food businesses to appear in the Experience Gifts for Gourmands section. By the way, a gourmand is someone who rejoices in good food ... a gourmet is someone who has a highly refined and discriminating palate. I'm for gourmand, every time. Gourmets miss too many down-home dishes. www.santafeschoolofcooking.com
Movie star and ex-governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, now shooting the movie The Last Stand in New Mexico, was in Taos a week or so ago. He was spotted in Overland Sheepskin Co. with a small entourage. Our correspondent went there with his camera, but was quickly discouraged by Mr. S's ability to look right through him, and a brisk, not unkind dismissal by one of the gang. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I got to see the man," our friend wrote. "But this wasn't the guy from Predator in the black tank top with bulging biceps toting a giant machine gun in the jungle. This was a 64-year-old man in a blue dress shirt, asking the salesman of an expensive store how to tighten the strap on a pair of supple leather gloves." Ah, well, all things pass. www.screenrant.com/tag/the-last-stand
Serenata of Santa Fe's 4 p.m. concert Nov. 25 at the Scottish Rite Center features mezzo-soprano Krista River, a former Santa Fe Desert Chorale singer now enjoying a big and blossoming Boston career. The other ensemble members are all City Different folks. Their repertoire includes song cycles by Santa Fean Ron Strauss and the late Peter Lieberson, also a longtime resident who died last April. www.serenataofsantafe.org
El Mitote, October 30, 2011
The New Mexican
Boo! Halloween is upon us -- and how! In a local grocery store, we met three young guys toting several small-to-medium pumpkins each. The future fate of the orange spheroids? Said one lad, very seriously, "we're going to juggle them." Whole, or carved -- or carved and be-candled? Either way, leave us out. We can barely get a cup of coffee to our lips these cool mornings.
We asked a while back what the purple banners tied around Santa Fe bus stop poles meant. Peggy Luplow, a fundraiser for Esperanza Shelter for Battered Families Inc., told us that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and that purple ribbons are the symbol for the cause.
"Purple ribbons convey a powerful message -- that there's no place for domestic violence in our homes, neighborhoods, workplaces or schools," Luplow wrote. Hear, hear. For more information or to donate or volunteer please visit www.esperanzashelter.org.
Oops! In the original purple banner posting referenced above, we wondered if they had been placed by wrap-the-world artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Except that Jeanne-Claude died in 2009. We are mortified at our lack of fact-checking.
He's back -- the Muscle-ator, Cinema-ator, and Govern-ator, that is. Arnold Schwarzenegger is currently in Belen filming The Last Stand, in which he plays an L.A. police officer turned small-town border sheriff facing off convicts who break out of a Las Vegas (Nevada, of course) prison and head to Mexico via New Mexico. Kim Jee-Woon helms the movie.
Want to get a conversation going? Make a remark about Santa Fe drivers. Everybody's got an opinion!
Our not-so-favorite drivers: people who still drive with a cellphone implanted in one ear ... have ear buds in, but still have their music so loud you can see their hair quiver ... drive cars plastered with peace and love bumper stickers, but cut you off with a smirk or scowl while they're turning into a yoga studio or Pilates class parking lot ... still visualize turn signal use ... swing way too far to the left when making a right turn. Driving defensively in Santa Fe is a need-to, not just a saying.
American composer-conductor John Adams and his wife were spotted strolling and shopping downtown and around the Plaza recently. You may remember Adams' opera, Dr. Atomic, which premiered in San Francisco in 2005. It is a creative and masterful work about the amazing career of Robert Oppenheimer, Los Alamos and the making of the first atomic bomb.
El Mitote, October 23, 2011
The New Mexican
The musicians from ZZ Top were spotted earlier this month in the La Fonda lobby. Billy Gibbons himself, the lead guitarist, also wa seen dining with his Santa Fe amigos, Canuto Delgado and Freddie Lopez at the Atrisco cafe.
On a recent Jeopardy episode, the final question was, "What state capital is home to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum?" Hmmm, El Mitotero could have answered that. But what about all the answers to all the other questions?
Condé Nast Traveler's 2011 Readers' Choice Awards voted Santa Fe the third highest-rated U.S. city after Charleston, S.C., and San Francisco. Ten Thousand Waves was voted 30th
in the Small Resorts category. In the U.S. Hotels category, the Inn and Spa at Loretto came in at 27th, Encantado was 102nd, Inn of the Anasazi was 135th and Inn on the Alameda placed 168th.
Many performing professionals live in Santa Fe -- in between their global gallivantings. We just heard from one, in fact. Operatic soprano Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet, contacted us from Angers, France, where she was performing Bartók's spooky, two-person opera Bluebeard's Castle.
She wrote, "It is gorgeous here, as I hear it is at home. I will do some performances and then wander the Rue de Val de Loire with a good friend, spend a couple days in Lyon and then go on to Nantes for more performances. A dreamy French fall experience." And we're not envious, oh my no.
Not long ago, someone we know was scurrying through Frank S. Ortiz Dog Park -- sans cellphone -- trying to find a lost set of car keys. He met a kind couple (with dog) who lent him their phone so he could ring a friend for a key replacement. The rescuers turned out to be Dr. Karolina Varnay and Dr. Michael Varnay (podiatrist and chiropractor respectively), who had just moved here from Denver.
Our friend is an opera nut, so he asked if Michael was related to the great American soprano, Astrid Varnay (1918-2006). It turns out he'd heard about the diva from his father, but there is, as yet, no known link. Ships not quite passing in the night ...
London's The Daily Telegraph reported Oct. 13 that Disney's Lone Ranger flick will begin shooting (finally) right here in New Mexico next year in anticipation of a 2013 release. Armie Hammer plays the blue-suited, white-hatted, black-masked Ranger and Johnny Depp takes on the role of his sidekick, Tonto.
El Mitote, October 16, 2011
The New Mexican
Locals are used to the shoes that occasionally turn up in the median where Old Pecos Trail meets Arroyo Chamiso Road. Oxfords to slip-ons, high heels to flip-flops, pairs to singles, kiddie to adult sizes -- they've been materializing for decades. The best guess: a conceptual art project too abstruse for El Mitotero to figure out.
There's something going on at bus stops around the city: Pieces of long, purple cloth have been seen tied around the schedule poles. If they were pink, we'd think they were meant to heighten breast cancer research awareness. But purple? Have wrap-the-world artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude been in town getting ready a new project? Can't help laughing ...
Burglaries are never funny, especially if your home is the target. Still, Santa Fe seems to have more than its share of break-ins with a "Huh?" factor.
Not long ago, The New Mexican police blotter reported that someone stole a large, flat-screen TV and several bags of frozen green chile from a residence. Further back, there was the thief who broke into a home and ate an undetermined number of bologna sandwiches. And how about the person who nabbed a bottle of brandy and an Agatha Christie novel from a north side home? The mind reels.
Santa Feans are used to spotting celebrities -- in residence, on vacation or working on a film. Over the years, El Mitotero's actor list has included Ali MacGraw, Carol Burnett, Val Kilmer, Jane Fonda, Gene Hackman, Daniel Baldwin, Robert Redford, Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Brian Dennehey, Richard Thomas, Danny DeVito, Spike Lee, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Wes Studi. And let's not forget Tab Hunter, Lainie Kazan and Divine in the satirical 1985 Lust in the Dust.
Famous folks born elsewhere in New Mexico include cartoonist Bill Mauldin (Mountain Park), actors Neil Patrick Harris and Vivian Vance, aka Ethel Mertz (Albuquerque), actor Demi Moore and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (Roswell) and gymnast Joseph Hagerty (Rio Rancho).
But perhaps our most notable celebrity has never been on the silver screen or sought notoriety: native Santa Fean Leroy Petry, who lost his right hand defending fellow U.S. Rangers in Afghanistan in 2008, and was awarded the Medal of Honor this past July.
Send your sightings to elmitote@sfnewmexican.com.
