Great work
if you can get itTHIS is work? Cynthia Yip was at the Waikoloa on the Big Isle last week and a lot of male reporters are probably unhappy that she got the assignment. All she had to do was produce a report on the women of Hawaiian Tropic for "Inside Edition," scheduled to air tonight. She's also interviewing Playboy's "Playmate" for August and the alleged girlfriend of Daddy Megabucks Donald Trump. Assisting her on the shoot is former CBS cameraman Phil Giriodi and Jandy Viloria of KITV. Great combination -- beautiful women amidst the Big Island's beautiful scenery ...
ANOTHER recent cover girl was Sonya Mendez. The singer, who performed locally for several years, was on the cover an entertainment weekly magazine called Topside Loaf. She's the lead singer for a band called Worldwide Groove, and they have a Latin-jazz CD on the market called "Reaching for You." I'm not suggesting that Star-Bulletin columnist Charlie Memminger was floored by the record largely because of one song called "Mr. Charlie." Memminger has let it be known on several occasions that he dated Sonya in high school and was more than a bit dismayed to find out that the song was inspired not by him, but by Charlie Mingus ...
SPEAKING of our very own Mr. Charlie, when the Honolulu Lite columnist is not infuriating readers with his opinions on all manner of things, he dabbles in screenplays. He may be on the brink of something or other. His screenplay, "Iron Hearts," is one of 11 finalists (out of 3,200 submitted) in the Austin Film Festival writing competition. He'll be on hand at the awards ceremony in Austin on Friday, along with such names as Oliver Stone, Dennis Hopper, Buck Henry and Nick Kazan to see who gets to say, "I'd like to thank..." Some of last year's finalists have already signed six-figure contracts with producers. Good luck, Charlie ... Write on
WHILE Scott Wakefield appears to be a charming fellow portraying Will Rogers in "The Will Rogers Follies," the show isn't nearly as engaging and seems to go on forever -- nearly three hours, in fact. There's not much for them to do, but a host of "Ziegfeld Girls" parade around from time to time looking for all the world like the old June Taylor Dancers. Wakefield does a kind of David Letterman out-on-the-farm monologue, complete with Marv Albert jokes, so it seemed kind of appropriate when a trained dog doing "Stupid Pet Tricks" got the biggest hand of the night. My hero, however, was Chuck Anctil who played Wiley Post, the aviator who died with Rogers in a plane crash in 1935. He sat in a kind of "Royal Box" above the stage for the entire 90-minute first act, only occasionally standing to say forebodingly, "Let's go flyin', Will." Before long, I was willing to second the motion ...
THERE'LL be at least 120 items up for bid at a fund-raiser at Murphy's Bar & Grill tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. All money raised will go to assist Donna Collins, wife of UH Rainbow football player Sam Collins, get a bone marrow transplant operation. The treatment isn't covered by insurance, so Don Murphy and all who contributed auction items, are hoping proceeds can help pay the freight. You don't even have to bid on anything in the auction -- for the $35 admission fee you get a buffet dinner and music by Elua Kane. Items up for bid are as diverse as a 49er weekend in S.F., an autographed Tom Selleck "Magnum, P.I." script and lunch with Mayor Jeremy Harris ... Cancer fighters unite
Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.