Author ‘Graces’
White HousePARDON John Norris for blowing his daughter's horn, but then the localite is a professional trumpet player after all. His daughter, writer Kathleen Norris, was invited by Hillary Rodham Clinton to the White House last week where she spent some time with the First Lady and also met the President. Hillary Clinton had heard Norris reading from her newest New York Times best-selling book, "Amazing Grace," at the Washington Press Club and wanted to meet her. Kathleen now lives in the Dakotas ...
AN unfortunate typo occurred in the Star-Bulletin story about the Hawaiian Music Awards at the Hawaii Theatre. Angelo Jensen found his name spelled "Angela." Angelo won the award for vocalist of the year in the "Contemporary Hawaiian" category. He's the son of Lucia Tarallo Jensen of Hale Naua III and artist Rocky Jensen, creator of the memorial for the Hawaiian war dead to be installed at Fort DeRussy. From the looks of him, I wouldn't want to be the one caught calling him "Angela."
All's Square
THE New York Times quoted a Hollywood producer and director Sunday as saying, " 'Titanic' starred Leonard DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Digital Domain." Say what? When the Oscars were held I was part of a large group that watched it "live" at Murphy's, and when "Titanic" won for special effects, a huge cheer went up. I talked to the young men doing the cheering and found they'd worked for Digital Domain during the filming and were pleased when that firm was singled out for thanks in the acceptance speech. Those men now work for a company called Square USA. About 300 special effects people in Hollywood lost their jobs after work on "Titanic" was finished, and many were hired by Square USA. About 200 various digital and design artists are now quietly headquartered in Harbor Court downtown, and are working on a major, Japanese-based digitalized film along the lines of "Toy Story." Square USA moved its offices to Honolulu, finding it a comfortable fit between Tokyo and Hollywood, and current plans are to make it a permanent move ...BY coincidence, as an expedition sails off to discover the wrecks of five aircraft carriers lost in the battle of Midway, the History Channel this week aired a British Broadcasting Corporation "Decisive Weapons" documentary about the battle. The BBC's consultant on World War II carrier tactics, and the featured historian on the show, is the Star-Bulletin's Burl Burlingame ...
ON hearing the Miss Universe Pageant participants would be taking a cruise aboard the Alii Kai Sunday night, visiting actress Drew Barrymore wangled an invite to join them ... I guess with the crush of trying (unsuccessfully) to get the legislative session over on time, Gov. Ben Cayetano is to be forgiven for writing a letter to Rep. Terence Tom that began, "Dear Senator Tom." Or maybe he knows something? ...
It's the Neal thing
PROMOTER Tom Moffatt has been around long enough he thought he'd seen everything, but he found he had to write a proviso in the contract to bring singer Neal Sedaka here May 21. Moffatt insisted that Sedaka sing, "I Must Be Dreamin'," a huge hit for the singer in Hawaii if nowhere else, and not normally a part of his repertoire. It was the first such "rider" Moffatt ever wrote into a contract. And did you know that the group opening for Sedaka, the Tokens, had a very young singer who was part of the group in 1956 when they were with Melba Records. His name: Neal Sedaka ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
His columns run Monday through Friday.Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.