Seen: Real Housewives + More in the 401
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Several queen bees of reality TV hit Providence to support a local (and pint-sized) pageant queen who's raising awareness for teen bullying (and not for nothing, her own reality TV career). Real Housewives Teresa Giudice (New Jersey) and Cindy Barshop (New York) along with Courtney Kerr (Bravo's Most Eligible Dallas) made appearances at the Providence Marriott as part of a TLC's Toddlers and Tiaras star Isabella Barrett's (who hails from Cranston) promotion of not only her Glitzy Girl bracelet that raises teen bullying awareness, but also the recent launch of an all-reality-TV magazine, Reality Week. Giudice, who stars on the Bravo powerhouse that finished filming its fourth season this fall, is slated to appear on the 2012 season of Celebrity Apprentice, and brought her daughter Gia with her.
Hip hop music royalty was in town when Wu-Tang Clan took the stage in Providence at Lupo's, playing to a sold-out crowd 'til 1am. The Staten Island, NY-based group revolutionized the genre in the 1990s by assembling a loose congregation of nine MCs that spread out and spun out as many side projects as possible. Megawatt names like Ol' Dirty Bastard (who died in 2004 of a heart attack), RZA, Raekwon, Ghostface and Method Man have dominated for nearly 20 years.
Get out your opera glasses… Renee Fleming is coming to Providence this month to support TheVets in a gala concert on January 21. Fleming is one of the highest-profile opera stars there is: she performed at the Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial singing the Rogers and Hammerstein classic, You'll Never Walk Alone. She's sung on ABC's The View, as well as on Sesame Street. Her performance of an aria by Gounod is featured in Steven Spielberg's new film, The Adventures of Tintin and her most recent album, Dark Hope, features indie rock covers of songs by groups as diverse as Muse, Jefferson Airplane, Tears for Fears, Peter Gabriel, and Death Cab for Cutie. Fleming also recently appeared with Alec Baldwin, patron saint of Central Falls' Adams Memorial Library, in a performance of Love Letters at Carnegie Hall.
Country up and comers Sarah and the Tall Boys were home for the holidays this week. The Chicago-based band has been shouted out in Time Out Chicago for being reminiscent of the Cowboy Junkies (who will, in fact, be hitting Rhode Island in February) and has roots in Rhode Island (front woman Sarah Potenza is a Smithfield native). While back in RI, Sarah and her boys hit a number of hometown spots: Cady's Tavern in Chepachet (one of the band's acknowledged "favorite places in the world,") on New Year's Eve, the Narragansett Cafe on New Year's Day, where the band supported the Penguin Plunge for Special Olympics RI, and Nick a Nees on Tuesday night. The group made a big splash this summer at the Rhythm and Roots Festival in Charlestown.
Rhode Island gets ready for its latest moment on the big screen when Loosies, the RI-based production written by and starred in by Twilight's Peter Facinelli, directed by RIer Michael Corrente and featuring extras and locations in Rhode Island, will premiere at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York City on January 10. Loosies producer Chad Verdi told Seen that he and his wife will be with Facinelli and co-star Jaimie Alexander in New York on the big night.
And speaking of films made in Rhode Island, the RI Film and TV Office has just announced that Focus Features will release Moonrise Kingdom, the latest Wes Anderson project that filmed entirely in RI this summer and features an all-star cast that includes Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Ed Norton, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel and Bob Balaban, on May 25, 2012. Stay tuned to Seen for updates on premieres and who will be hitting the red carpet.
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