TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Local news media
break a collective legThe sold-out Gridiron show at Diamond Head Theatre Friday and Saturday netted an estimated $28,000 to fund internships for budding journalists.
The show is getting rave reviews, mostly from those who were not lampooned therein.
The local-news-meets-Saturday-Night-Live-meets-Broadway show featuring musical sketches and comedy bits was staged by members of local media outlets as a fund-raiser for the Society of Professional Journalists' Hawaii Chapter.
The performers' day jobs require them to present information in an objective, fair and accurate manner. In the Gridiron, all bets are off. Among the many pols-roles played by various news media cast members, former news anchor Dan Cooke reprised his turn in drag as a disturbingly convincing-looking Linda Lingle and KITV weather anchor Ben Gutierrez appeared again as Gov. Ben Cayetano.
Neither Lingle nor opponent Mazie Hirono were in the audience either night, but Cayetano and wife Vicky were in the house Saturday and went back stage after the show. He was greeted by castmembers' "Ho, we goin' get lickins" facial expressions, but the governor shook hands and agreed to be photographed with the offenders.
The Gridiron is so-named for the 115-year-old Gridiron Club in Washington, D.C., which stages an annual roast of the president and other beltway politicos. The first local Gridiron was produced by the Honolulu Press Club in 1952. SPJ now handles the production, according to Hawaii chapter President Stirling Morita, also a Star-Bulletin editor.
Emmis welcomes babies
Indiana-based Emmis Communications Corp. recently announced that children born to or adopted by employees as of Jan. 1, 2002, will receive one share of company stock.Among Emmis' newest shareholders are Luke Ichiro Hagi, son of KGMB-TV anchors Kim Gennaula and Guy Hagi; the son of producer Sharene Saito-Tam and daughter of sales assistant Nina Young.
A new shareholder is expected at sister station KHON-TV in January, according to Assistant Controller Patsy Yahiku.
Gennaula is writing a thank-you note to the powers-that-be. "Emmis offered us all a wonderful three-month paid maternity leave," she said. Luke "actually knew who I was before I came back to work."
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com