Everyone's favorite total mess Courtney Love is back! Well, to be fair, she never really left. But since no one remembers what she's been doing since her famously embarrassing 2004 Rolling Stone profile, which depicted her holed up in an apartment, broke, and crazy—and since we're sure Courtney would like us to forget about that as well—we'll just pretend that she's been gone for a decade or so, not doing much. Her latest album,
Nobody's Daughter, is composed largely from music she wrote during a stint in rehab, and the raw, confessional style still suits her even 15 years after
Live Through This, Hole's original breakthrough. It's a powerful, personal album (though maybe not quite as revealing as the Rolling Stone article) marking a new level of craft for Love; it might be messy, but has Courtney ever been anything but?
Nobody's Daughter
hits stores Tuesday, April 27.
Some may have already seen the silver-screen depiction of famously fashionable Carrie Bradshaw before her big move from the suburbs of Connecticut to New York in the trailer for the upcoming
Sex and the City 2, crimped hair and all. But Candace Bushnell, the author of the book series upon which the HBO show and film are based, offers readers an in-depth look at pre-Manhattan Carrie in
The Carrie Diaries, starting with the protagonist’s last year of high school. The senior meets older bad boy Sebastian (a precursor for Mr. “John” Big perhaps), struggles with her tight-knit group of four friends (we can see those cafeteria-style brunches now), and decides to go after her dreams in the city that changes her forever. Bushnell’s teen-centric prequel sheds new light on a modern icon, allowing a younger generation of fans to understand how she became to be the Carrie many know, love, and sometimes loathe. “I think it’s always fascinating to go back and
see the things that formed a character,” Bushnell told USA Today. “And I’ve always wanted to write a book about a young girl who comes to the big city. That’s partly my story.”
The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell hits bookshelves on Tuesday, April 27
Cirque du Soleil is often associated with leotard-wearing contortionists and massive stages at Las Vegas hotels. But the elite entertainment circus act is bringing a new type of show to New York this week with
Banana Shpeel, a vaudeville-esque experience that combines tap, hip-hop, and slapstick comedy. The antics, which include dancers, singers, novelty acts, and, of course, clowns, are led by Marty Schmelky, a brash fictional producer who leads the show in his effort to put together his own variety performance. Despite disapproving critics after its initial Chicago run and three start date postponements, the $20 million
Banana Shpeel, described as
The Producers plus
American Idol multiplied by the Barnum & Bailey Circus, will finally take the stage with a talented cast comprised of Michael Longoria of
Jersey Boys, Annaleigh Ashford of
Wicked, and Danny Rutigliano of
The Lion King. Hopefully, this banana will be ripe—not rotten.
Banana Shpeel opens in previews at the Beacon Theater in New York on Thursday, April 29
Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, already has her own high-end line of jewelry, so why shouldn’t his wife, Melania, do the same for the less-wealthy set? The barely-40 billionaire's wife’s QVC collection, which she says she’s been working on for a year, will retail for $30 to $200—a far lower cost than most of her jewelry, one would imagine. “I was
inspired by my own jewelry box and also by the cities that I’ve lived in,” Trump told Stylist.com. She even used her wedding band as inspiration for one of the designs, which costs a mere $27, a far cry from the lowest-priced item her stepdaughter sells ($750) at her boutique on Madison Avenue. “I want to offer women around the country affordable jewelry that they could buy and feel glamorous and elegant and not spend thousands and thousands of dollars. You could just buy something for $70,” she went on. “Now I only wear my line.” The Donald must be pleased that he’s saving a fortune. Now who said she was a gold digger?
Melania Trump’s timepiece and jewelry collection will debut on Friday, April 30 on
QVC at 1-800-345-1515 or QVC.com at 9 p.m. EST
New York’s illustrious Metropolitan Museum of Art is not lacking in celebrated works, but they’ve decided to bring out the father of Cubism for his own time in the spotlight.
Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens this week with approximately 300 of the famed artist’s works—paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, and ceramics included. The landmark exhibition is the museum’s first to focus exclusively on Spanish master Pablo Picasso’s enormous contribution to the art world and will fully reflect on his multifaceted genius. The Met’s Picasso drawings are relatively unknown compared to the harlequins featured in the paintings of his Blue and Rose periods as well as the tabletop still-lifes of his Cubism career, which are also on display in the collection spanning nearly 70 years of his life. And with
The Actor
finally back on the wall after its brief run-in with an adult-education student, the curators are ready to show off their collection 60 years in the making. “It’s really remarkable that we can, out of our own collections, draw from holdings some 500 works of Picasso to show the
full range of his career,” Met director Thomas Campbell told The Washington Post.
Picasso in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art opens on Tuesday, April 27 in New York
Chilean author Isabel Allende is not afraid of confronting despair and hardship in her writing. Which is a good thing, because her new novel,
Island Beneath the Sea is set in New Orleans and Haiti. OK—it's also set 250 years ago, well before Hurricane Katrina and the recent earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince. But the recent natural disasters that have befallen both locations (both once French outposts that still retain much Francophone culture) inform and deepen her novel, which tells the story of a Mulatto slave and her relationship to her white master, with whom she has a long-term affair.
Island Beneath the Sea won't be an easy beach read, but it's no less gripping for the seriousness of its subject matter.
Island Beneath the Sea comes out Tuesday, April 27.
When Rip Torn was arrested inside a bank in January, gun in his hand, many people were wondering, "Why did Rip Torn try to rob a bank?" But it wasn't that Torn wanted to rob a bank. No, he was just so drunk that he couldn't tell the difference between the bank and his house. And, uh, he also had a gun. Torn's recent troubles are a shame—infamous knife fight with Dennis Hopper aside, he's been one of the most consistently interesting actors in Hollywood over the last three decades, from his alcoholic country singer in Payday to his insanely entertaining performance as Garry Shandling's producer Artie in The Larry Sanders Show—so let's hope that when he has his next court date, April 27, he's given the opportunity to turn himself around.
AP Photo
Are there any four words sweeter to hear than "Free Comic Book Day"? Well, probably there are ("Free Million Dollars Day," for example). But as free things go, comic books are pretty good. On Saturday, independent comic book stores across the country are giving comics away for free to entice new customers. We'd make a joke about how store employees using deodorant would probably also entice new customers, but we've found that it's not a great idea to make fun of people who are giving you free stuff.
Free Comic Book Day comes to your local independent comic book store on Sunday, May 1.
