Since the debut of his very first recording, One of the Ones, it has become a bit of tradition that whenever Tony Award-winning actor and singer/songwriter, Levi Kreis, releases a new musical project, we sit down and have a chat to discuss it.  And, true to form, a few weeks back we hopped on a call to do just that as we settled into a good long catch up and a talk about Broadway at the Keys, Levi’s latest musical outing in which he takes on an array of Broadway classics from some of the Great White Way’s most memorable shows.

In the spirit of full disclosure, however, technology was not our friend during the last interview, in that when I went to review the recording of the interview, I realized that the magic that was our conversation had been garbled by what I can only describe as robotic goblins. This turn of events would not be quite so humorous but for the fact that it is not the first time that one of my interviews with Levi has been muddled by circumstance. As in the past, Levi was the best sport about it when I texted him to tell him what happened.

In any case, rather than put my friend through the standard interview routine again, I just decided that I was going to tell you all the reasons why his latest project is so notable, which was really the sole purpose of the interview to begin with. As I mentioned above, I’ve been listening to Levi’s music since his debut album — a raw, unfiltered emotional collection so personal that it had a profound effect upon me and still remains one of my favorite recordings by a male vocalist to this day. Since that time, I’ve seen Levi on Broadway, marveled at his every new collection and the plucky approach that he took to each, watched him grow as an artist and even had occasion to work with him.  It is against this background then that I hail Levi’s latest effort, Broadway at the Keys, as one of the brightest spots on his musical journey since his debut more than a decade ago.

Perhaps, what most makes Broadway at the Keys stand apart from Levi’s most recent recordings, is its pure simplicity. He describes the album as a kind of getting back to basics, but I would go even further and call it a return to a format in which his gift truly shines. On this recording, there are no distractions — no extraneous instrumentation and no background singers or duets. From start to finish, it’s just the dulcet tones of Levi’s soulful voice, a piano and 13 great vehicles to showcase the many facets of the singer’s talents.

Whether emoting on better known tunes from Broadway classics like Victor/Victoria (“Living in the Shadows”), Pippin’ (“Corner of the Sky”) and The Rothschilds (“In My Own Lifetime”); getting bluesy on tracks like “Kansas City Blues” from Smoky Joe’s Café and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” from Million Dollar Quartet; or turning signature songs from more recent Broadway hits like Beautiful (“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”) and Beaches (“The Wind Beneath my Wings”) into his own personal anthems, Broadway at the Keys is not your typical, by the numbers, collection of showtunes, regurgitated as originally heard on the stage. Instead it is Levi Kreis at his most intimate –riffing, soaring and sharing his take on this beloved collection of songs. And, for the record, Broadway has never sounded better.

In addition to checking out the new recording, catch Levi on tour. Though it has already officially kicked off, you can still catch Levi’s Broadway at the Keys tour in New York, San Diego, and Los Angeles as well as other cities around the country.

For more details about Levi’s tour and the new album, click here.

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When, during a recent phone interview, I asked Slattery about his choice to play Eisenhower with such understatement, he initially joked, “I didn’t look like Ike, so I played him straight,” mischievously intimating that he suspected he only landed the role because someone else must have dropped out.

The post Behind the Scenes of ‘Churchill’ with Miranda Richardson and John Slattery appeared first on .

Lights! Camera! Action!

Like Hepburn and Tracy or, more contemporarily, Lawrence (Jennifer) and Cooper (Bradley), Tinseltown has enjoyed a long and fruitful alliance with our neighbors to the south. And, by neighbors, I am of course referring to Mexico, and more specifically to Puerto Vallarta, that cinematic hamlet on the Bay of Banderas that has long been a go to destination for filmmakers.

In fact, for more than seven decades, Hollywood and Puerto Vallarta have acted as confederates, working in tandem to produce memorable moments on the silver screen that have earned a bevy of accolades and yielded millions at the box office. To say that the relationship has been symbiotic would be an understatement, but to understand how each has often been cast in a starring role in the narratives of the other, is by far the more fascinating tale.

Then

Just to put Hollywood’s role in changing the face of Puerto Vallarta into perspective, it could quite easily be argued (and it often is), that Hollywood, perhaps more than anything else, put the destination on the map.

Consider this. In his best-selling book, Blow: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel And Lost It, Bruce Porter recounts tht until after World War II Puerto Vallarta was a coastal town so sleepy in nature, that it was not even accessible by car thanks to the rushing waters of the Cuale River which split the town down the center.

But a funny thing happened when Tennessee Williams vacationed in Mexico in 1940.

Williams’ visit spawned the short story, The Night of the Iguana, which was published in 1948. The short story gave birth to the film of the same name for which Puerto Vallarta was chosen as the location. The production, directed by John Huston and starring Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr and Richard Burton, brought masses of paparazzi to the quiet (and largely unknown) seaside town during filming thanks in no small part to the immense star power of Burton and his famous soon-to-be new wife, Elizabeth Taylor. The film went on to become the 10^th highest grossing film of 1964 and earn four Academy Award nominations (winning one), while John Huston so fell in love with Puerto Vallarta that he bought a house in town, as did the über glamorous Liz and Dick, whose Hollywood pals followed them like pigs to a gin-filled trough of good times.

More Hollywood productions followed. They included everything from films like Predator, Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Limitless, in which Puerto Vallarta featured prominently, to the Johnny Depp-starrer Blow, based on Bruce Porter’s book set against the backdrop of the destination in the 1960’s and 70’s.

And the rest is, as they say, history. The fledgling beachside town of 12,500 grew up and was transformed into a metropolis by the sea boasting a permanent population of over 250,000 and more than four million visitors a year.

Hooray for Hollywood!

Now

After decades of providing a backdrop for Hollywood blockbusters, Puerto Vallarta is now enjoying its just desserts. An off the beaten path fishing village no more, the city is coursing with an ebullient life and starring role of its own that seamlessly meshes classic charm with fresh appeal.

The Malecon, the once sparsely populated stretch of beach that was Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s introduction to Puerto Vallarta, is now a thriving hub of nightlife in the city. Behind it, narrow cobblestone streets laced with historic buildings housing vendors and business of all sorts dominate the landscape. However, at the well-trafficked boardwalk’s heart, lies scores of distinctive bars and restaurants, like the popular Cuban chain, Bodeguita del Medio, where the mojitos are perfection and the music is authentic and sensual. Likewise, open air nightclubs in this popular zone overflow with tequila swilling tourists who embrace the free-wheeling, devil may care abandon that Liz and Dick inspired when the latter bought the former a breathtaking local spread with stunning views as a gift for her 32^nd birthday.

Speaking of that breathtaking local spread, Liz and Dick’s former home is today a spectacularly luxurious, nine-suite boutique hotel called Casa Kimberly (as so named by its previous owners}. Be warned however that, though Dame Elizabeth reportedly left all her belongings in the home when it was sold after Richard Burton’s death, not much history of the Burton-Taylor misalliance remains to be found in the remodeled environs of the property – beyond the sheer glamour that is its calling card. There is, of course, the bridge between the two “houses” that comprise the property, which Burton had built so that he and Elizabeth could cross the street and visit one another without having to face the prying eyes and lenses of the paparazzi.  And then there is the Elizabeth Taylor Suite which boasts, among other amenities, the original pink jacuzzi installed for the lady of the house herself. But beyond that, it’s just acres of Swarovski crystal chandeliers and marble peering out over the city that has since grown up around the property.

That said, In a fitting homage to La La Land’s reigning former first couple, with its dramatic views of Banderas Bay from every room, grand furnishings as ornate as anything one might expect to find in a superbly appointed Italian palazzo, private patios adjoining each suite, stellar open air rooftop restaurant and intimate but substantially extensive spa, Casa Kimberly sets a new standard for luxury  in a town that in recent years has come to be more often associated with discount package deals than grandeur and pampering. Which explains why something tells me, Liz and Dick would approve.

Elsewhere, the bay city’s once quiet outer boundaries continue to heat up with modern, sexy new nightlife and dining options. On Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascencio, for instance, you’ll find the ultra-contemporary De Santos, a restaurant cum happening bar/nightspot perfect for mingling with the locals where Mediterranean small plates dominate the menu. And just up the street, on the same boulevard in the “hotel zone”, you’ll find swank new nightclubs like La Strana paired with chic eateries like La Madalena, both of which attract a well-heeled, upscale crowd, not of the variety that would find wearing their underwear as a headdress either fashionable or acceptable.

As for the haunts of the current generation of celebrities who continue to rediscover and flirt with Puerto Vallarta, look no further than the exclusive enclave of Punta Mita, located at the northern end of Banderas Bay, which has attracted the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlie Sheen, Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian in recent years. Popular stops for the A-list include the St. Regis and the Four Seasons, where they can be seen in their natural habitat frolicking in the sand.

Finally, one other not to be missed hidden treasure is the Grand Miramar, an exclusive all-suite luxury hotel located high above the Malecon in Conchas Chinas, an exclusive neighborhood that might best be described as the Beverly Hills of Puerto Vallarta. Perched on the highest point in PV, with sweeping views of the Bay. the Grand Miramar is an elegant escape within the confines of city made for escape. That it is a 20 – 30-minute drive from the more popular beaches and the heartbeat of the city is surprisingly a positive rather than a negative because, from its rooftop bar with unobstructed views of the shoreline, to its top-flight restaurant, in-house spa and excellently crafted cocktail menu, the Grand Miramar is more than self -sufficient in terms of meeting the needs of its demanding clientele. So much so that one might even imagine that this would be where Richard and Elizabeth might choose to live today if given their druthers. That is, of course, were Casa Kimberly not available.

All its Hollywood charms aside, perhaps the most endearing quality about Puerto Vallarta is not it’s celebrity-littered history or its swell new range of accommodations. It is instead the fact that it is still a destination where celebrities and mortals alike can let their hair down and just be. Viewed in this light, it’s not so much different from that tiny, scarcely visited fishing village whose natural sparkle first caught Hollywood’s attention all those many movies ago.

And that is a very good thing.

And scene!

Find out more about Puerto Vallarta at visitpuertovallarta.com.

Stay

Casa Kimberly
Calle Zaragoza 445
Puerto Vallarta
48300 Mexico
+52 322.222.1336
casakimberly.com

Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita México
Punta Mita, Bahía de Banderas
Nayarit
63734 Mexico
+52 329.291.6000
www.fourseasons.com/puntamita

Grand Miramar All Luxury Suites & Residences
Paseo de los Corales 139
Conchas Chinas
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco
48390 Mexico
+52 322.226.2520
www.grandmiramar.com

St. Regis Punta Mita Resort
Carretera Federal 200
Punta De Mita, Nayarit
63734 Mexico
+52 329.291.5800
www.starwoodhotels.com/stregis

Eat

Bodeguita del Medio
Paseo Díaz Ordáz 858
Centro
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco
48300 Mexico
+52 322.223.1585
www.labodeguitadelmedio.com.mx

De Santos
Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascencio 2485
Zona Hotelera Nte.
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco
48333 Mexico
+52 322.221.0240

La Madalena
Avendia Francisco Medina Ascencio 2025,
Las Glorias
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco
48333 Mexico
+52 322.245.1596
LaMadalenaPuertoVallarta

Play

Strana
Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascencio 2125
Zona Hotelera Las Glorias
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco
48333 Mexico
+52 322.108.4358
www.strana.mx

To read this story on the Huffington Post, click here.

The post Puerto Vallarta: Through the Lens of Hollywood appeared first on .

Speak to Catalina Guirado-Cheadle for any length of time and you’ll soon come to realize that there is not much ground she hasn’t covered in her 20-plus year career. The only daughter of celebrated Spanish artist Juan Antonio Guirado, Catalina has lived in the glamorous world of the gypset (gypsy + jetset) since childhood and embraced it to the full with age.

A quick recount of her recent life is almost staggering. She has been a successful runway and print model, gracing major magazine covers and designer catwalks alike. She’s hosted and appeared on a string of successful television programs in the UK. She’s written songs with and for huge 80’s Brit acts ranging from Echo and the Bunnymen, Henry Priestman and The Yachts to the Christians, Guy Batson, St. Etienne and Blondie (and scored a chart-topping hit or two in the process, thank you very much). She’s even been signed to recording deal of her own with none other than Universal Music. Along the way, she has dazzled on countless red carpets, bewitched paparazzi and dated some of the most notable film and music stars of the last two decades before settling down into wedded bliss with her rocker husband, Matthew Cheadle former guitarist of chart topping US rock group i-94.

Today, perhaps more than ever before, Guirado-Cheadle is a doggedly determined woman focused on a career that is clearly on the ascent. Following the death of her father in 2010, Catalina was made the sole director of the acclaimed artist’s estate, which she has rebranded as The Guirado Estate and on behalf of which she works feverishly in order to promote and preserve her father’s legacy. Simultaneously, to complement her work with the Estate, the ever industrious Guirado-Cheadle launched Guirado Design with collection of luxury silk scarves, fabrics and bespoke wallpapers inspired by select enlightening works of art by her father. Needless to say, Catalina Guirado-Cheadle is a very busy lady. So I was thrilled to find an excuse to sit down with my great gal pal so that I might catalogue her thoughts for you on everything from the essence of glamour to body image and the fashion industry. Here’s what she had to say:

TheDuaneWells:    When did you first recognize the importance of style?

Catalina Guirado-Cheadle:      When I was about 11. My mum was a seamstress and we used to [visit] some fabulous homes of my mum’s clients.

TDW:  Who was your first style icon?

CGC: Without realizing it at the time, I guess it was my godmother, Marilyn. She was – and still is – super glamorous and subscribed to VOGUE, copies of which were given to me every 2 months. She would buy me Gucci and Prada accessories such as a belt or handbag every Christmas.

She also had the most fabulous homes for which my mum did the furnishings and she loved decorating them herself so we used to go and help. When I was 14, she actually introduced me to the beauty editor of British VOGUE, who was her friend, and that’s how I became a model.

TDW:  Speaking of your start, since you first burst onto the scene, you’ve been a model, television personality, celebutante and now serve as executive director of your foundation. Having lived so many lives, which do you feel best suits you?

CGC: I think the reason I transitioned into [my current role] so easily is because I have done so many different things over the years that are a natural progression within their field. Model turned TV host/actress, turned singer songwriter, turned music A&R, turned music TV executive, turned art and music PR and now President of The Guirado Estate and Creative director and designer for my Guirado Legacy design collection. I am still all of the above but I’m just choosing the hats I wear at the moment for the job title and switching them when necessary. I’m just much more mature and business-like nowadays –and, dare I say it, responsible!

TDW:  What has been your most memorable photo shoot?

CGC: The one that really sticks out was my Maxim magazine cover and spread back in 2002 shot by top photographer Willy Camden. It was when magazines like Maxim and FHM were creditable and really well produced. It was a full-on production shoot at Pinewood studios (where they shoot Star Wars and 007) and I spent the day under a rain machine crawling around a water tank in lingerie. They then photo shopped me into rainy shots of the streets of London’s SoHo. It looked amazing even though I felt like a drowned rat most of the day.

TDW: What conversations have you had to have with yourself about your body over the course of your career?

CGC: Well sadly when I was a fashion model in Europe I was usually telling myself not to eat as I had to be really thin. I would make agreements with myself that If I ate a bar of chocolate I wouldn’t eat the next day. It was so unhealthy and I really blame the model agencies for creating girls that have so many eating disorders and complexes. Being told at 15 with a 23 ½ inch waist that you need to lose more weight isn’t exactly healthy and that was back in the 90s when size 4-6 was the normal model size! I had exactly the same measurements as Cindy Crawford!

Now that I’ve hit 40, I tell myself it’s okay and necessary to be a size larger as your body changes. It’s natural and a 40-year-old shouldn’t compete with a 20-year-old. Plus, I think there is nothing more unattractive than a bony older woman. Eating healthily and working out to be fit, NOT skinny is the goal, which is why I do Pilates as it’s so great for the core and body strength without creating too much muscle. I want to emulate Sophia Loren and Raquel Welch as I grow older!

TDW:  What are the essential elements of great style?

CGC: Well style isn’t something that can be bought for a start! Great accessories help of course but style comes down to interesting influences as well as a fun sense of humor, attitude and life.

I think that staying true to your own taste and personal style is so important [because] people who follow fashion seasons rigidly have no sense of their own identity in life. Mixing vintage, high street with designer labels is the most stylish look in my mind.

TDW:  What is the best piece of style advice you’ve ever received?

CGC: Accessory-wise, take off the last thing you put on! And always check your body from the back. I have a low rib cage and square hips so I have to be careful not to look bigger than I am. Also [I was told] not to wear black on the red carpet as the picture desks don’t usually pick the photos for their spreads.

TDW:  Conversely, what is the best piece of style advice you’ve ever given?

CGC: Take the last thing on, off! And, people over 40 really should not wear daisy dukes or mini mini-skirts! I don’t care how good your legs are — it’s a no!

TDW:  What are your thoughts about color? Prints?

CGC: I love wearing red dresses! It brings Instant attention at a party and on the red carpet. I’m really into color in the summer but in the winter all I seem to wear is black with a colorful scarf accessory (usually one of my own designs).

TDW:  Describe the most common style mistake women make?

CGC: Wearing all designer labels at once and not following their body type but just wearing something they think is cool [though it] should [only be worn by] a 16-year-old stick insect in reality!

TDW:  Is there a universal style weapon (secret) that works for every woman?

CGC: I was brought up in Europe and we are taught that it’s all about having great classic accessories and what’s more classic than a great haircut and blow dry? [With] clean hair, clean nails, good skin, natural make up, quality shoes and [a good] handbag, you can go out in jeans and a tank and still look good.

TDW:  What is your favorite fashion accessory?

CGC: My collection of sunglasses…mainly vintage.

TDW:  What has been your worst style moment?

CGC: The 80s. I hate everything about the horrible make up and horrendous hair. I copied looks straight out of magazines and looked like a glow worm most of the time. Luckily that’s when I discovered Camden Lock in London and my love of vintage 60s clothes started. I was slightly goth too for a while. I shot a Vidal Sassoon commercial and they dyed my hair black and cut short bangs. It was very fashion forward but not great when you are 16 and still at school. I pretended I was in the band Shakespeare Sister and dressed in Katherine Hamnet and dated a rock star all before I left school! No wonder the girls at school were so mean to me. I was so ahead of my [years]!

TDW:  What part or your body or physical attribute have you had to learn to love?

CGC: My face isn’t even and I have slightly different shaped eyes, but so does Christy Turlington so I’m okay with it. [Laughs]

I try not to look at any part of my body for too long as it doesn’t end well. Fixation is most of the problem with today’s obsession with plastic surgery.  I know I’m guilty of thinking I look fat or am sagging when in fact I look the same as before but didn’t obsess. I truly blame Los Angeles, social networking and the selfie. It’s getting scary and its not real. I leave LA and I feel fantastic about myself!

TDW:   If you could bring one fashion item or look roaring back to favor what would it be?

CGC: I’m really happy with exactly now and the revival of 60s/70s boho and disco chic. I’m in retro heaven.

To find out more about the Guirado Estate, click here. Follow the latest with Guirado design at:  www.guiradodesign.com.

The post The Fabulous Gypset Glamour of Catalina Guirado-Cheadle appeared first on .

“I’m not cool. I’m just honest.”

— Oleta Adams

There are a handful of singers who stride into the limelight and captivate audiences not with a catchy hook, a dizzying flurry of choreography or a parade of outlandish interviews and costumes. They instead stand on unadorned stages, without artifice or ego, enrapturing music lovers with the sheer breadth of their talent alone. Oleta Adams is one such singer.

Since her solo career took flight in 1990 with the platinum-selling global hit “Get Here”, Adams has enjoyed a burning under, somewhat underappreciated, degree of fame, buttressed by diehard music fans around the world. Enjoyed is the operative term here with respect to Adams’ career because the singer’s star has largely continued to shine for more than three decades on her own terms, without ever resorting to any of the music industry’s stereotypical, sparkle-inducing shenanigans.

In concert, Adams and Adams alone commands the stage where her rich contralto acts like a beacon summoning up every imaginable emotion from the greatest joy to the most heartbreaking sadness, irrespective of the genre of music to which it is applied. She is, like Nina Simone before her, a master interpreter of music and one can’t help but wonder if like Simone, the true depth of her talent will have to wait decades to earn its due.

Tonight, the indomitable Ms. Adams will take the stage for the first of two shows at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas before continuing on with a string of tour dates in venues across the globe from New York and Chicago to Amsterdam and Belgrade. I sat down for a conversation with the powerhouse singer a few months back after a performance in Los Angeles. In her mellifluous speaking voice, which is, for the record, almost as entrancing as her singing voice, the petite diva talked frankly about remaining true to her gift, the travails of the music business, the challenge her own songs can sometimes present and singing her next chapter.

How do you account for such longevity in such a fickle business?

OA:     I think not doing trendy music is one of the things. I’m not willing to just keep working for someone else’s ideal. I actually have a purpose. I really have to have something to say or else I don’t want to do [the music].

[I think] the sound of my voice is also unique. It’s well oiled. It soothes people and makes them feel as if it is a healing balm. And I try to sing songs that have lasting meaning and songs that people can become invested in and discover for themselves. It’s more endearing that way.

It would be an understatement to say that you have a knack for what might be called the “anthemic”. While some artists create passing moments, you create lasting moments. Do you have a musical secret sauce so to speak?

OA:     Wow. It’s probably the way that I was mentored and trained. Because that was the most important thing – emotion. To give people something to think about and to latch onto. Something to build a little fire in their hearts, one way or another.

I wish you could have been standing beside me when I stepped off the stage to hear all the different stories. There are always stories. As an artist [and] as a composer my job is to identify with the audience and to say for them what they’re feeling – to articulate it – and that’s basically what I’m doing.

I’ve always said that when people are feeling bad, they don’t want to feel better right away. They want to hear someone say ‘I understand what you’re feeling’, and then they can get on with the healing. That’s what these songs do.

Speaking of healing, you’ve released eight albums but your first album, Circle of One, co-produced by Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears, was a musical landmark that spawned quite a bit of healing during and after the Gulf War in large part due to your global hit “Get Here”. However, I understand that behind-the-scenes your second album was more challenging for you than your first on all fronts. Why?

OA:     My second album was received more warmly by the true fans. It had the really deep stuff on it. So for the true diehard fans that was their album.

But when we were looking for producers [for that album] there were some who did not want to produce me because they didn’t like the music. Which is fine. But I had still had a hit in Europe with “Window of Hope”.  [Record labels] try to push songs on you and then you have to go “No…no”.  So some of the songs on that record were pushed on me…mostly the ones I didn’t write.

The first single from that album, “I Just Had to Hear Your Voice”, is a personal favorite of mine but a little birdie told me that you won’t sing that song live anymore. Is that true?

OA:     I can’t hit those notes anymore. [Bursts into laughter] I had to lower it. [Laughs].

I do [still] sing that song but I have to pick certain times when I do it. I don’t want to do it and then disappoint everybody. It’s a hard song to sing. I love it and it’s such a big showstopper but honestly it’s a big song. There are several [of my songs] that are just so wonderful that I can’t really do right anymore and it hurts my heart that I can’t sing them.

That is so honest! I don’t think I’ve ever heard a singer cop to anything of the like before. Usually the response to that question is full-on bravado and everyone says ‘I sound better today than ever’ – which is almost never true, by the way.

OA:     I know. That’s the sad part and mostly women have more problems than guys. Guys can sing longer. Peabo [Bryson] I sing with on his Christmas things and he sounds very much the same as he’s always sounded and it’s just wonderful. He even smoked for many years and still sounds the same!

And I never smoked! [Laughs] But at 62 I have earned not hitting those notes anymore. [Laughs]. I have sung a long time and I hit a lot of big notes for a long time. [Laughs]

Does that thought ever make you think of putting down your microphone and exiting stage left for good?

OA:     Part of you wants to get out [of the business] before it all goes downhill and another part says there’s still a richness there – there’s still a story to tell and it just becomes a new chapter. You think of people like Tony Bennett … he’s like 90 or something and he’s still singing…not the same way…but it’s one of those situations where when you see him, he doesn’t have to sing a note and we stand up and give him an ovation because we know what he can do. He doesn’t have to prove a thing.

I still love singing. I think it’s a good career and I’m still doing different stuff today. So even though I can’t sing the way I used to, I am discovering so many more things.

You have a huge following in the Netherlands. Why do you think the Dutch connect to your music in a bigger way than other audiences?

OA:     I think the Dutch love music.

They’re so full of music – all kinds of music – their own folk music as well as their own pop and rock. They believe in celebrating life and they believe that music is it. They love soul music. And when I say soul music, I don’t mean the rhythm and blues of today, I mean old soul music like 70’s and before! [Laughs] The more soulful you get the more they like it.

And they also love jazz. And thank God they’re trying to keep it going and keep it alive because …hmmm [thinking]…isn’t it something that a music that was developed here in America – jazz music – this is where it was born but…

[Interrupting] It’s having trouble breathing here in America…

OA:     It’s having trouble breathing here. [Laughs] It’s on life support. It’s on a respirator! [Laughs]

Well thank God you’re on the road and performing in venues of all sizes across America and Europe over the next several months. How would you describe what people can expect to see on stage when they come to your upcoming shows?

OA:     We want to get more and more intimate [so] I love the [current 4-piece] combination. The more people you put on stage, the less room you have to be creative on the spot and then everybody has to play a part. Here, we’re playing parts but we’re also breathing together and becoming one. It’s one body with many members and I love that.

We want to expand it and we want to record it, but I just have to stop being lazy. [Laughs]

Lazy is hardly a word anyone other than the singer herself might use to describe Oleta Adams these days. In addition to her current slate of gigs, Adams has a new album of inspirational songs tentatively titled, Place of Peace, in the works. And for the record, despite her modesty on the subject, her voice is not only in fine form, it is as hauntingly stirring as ever.

Follow Oleta Adams on the road on Facebook @TheOfficialOletaAdams.

The post The Singer’s Singer: On the Road with Oleta Adams appeared first on .

What better way to celebrate a storied 90-year history in the fashion world than by staging an extraordinary and unique fashion event at Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain with none other than Kendall Jenner opening the show?

Such was the case yesterday in the Eternal City as celebrities including Kate Hudson, Bella Thorne and Lottie Moss joined the fashion glitterati which included Vogue International Editor Suzy Menkes and fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni for Fendi’s second ever Haute Fourrure Show, entitled “Legends and Fairytales”. Karl Lagerfeld, the long time Creative Director of Fendi, was also of course on hand as his elegant, whimsical designs inspired by the illustrations of the early 20th-century Danish illustrator Kay Nielsen took center stage before a star-studded crowd at the otherworldly once in a lifetime event.

See video below:

Founded in Rome nine decades ago, FENDI opened its first boutique in 1926 in Via del Plebiscito, featuring a small fur atelier and leather goods workshop. Still today, the luxury Maison not only continues to host in-house ateliers and creative temples where highly-skilled artisans convey all their expertise to unique creations, all made-in-Italy, it simultaneously continues a tradition of great revolutionary worldwide achievements, avant-garde experimentation, unlimited research and innovation, proposing new luxurious and modern fur designs and accessories.

To mark the occasion, The Maison is also releasing the “FENDI Roma” book at the San Luca Academy inside Palazzo Carpegna, alongside “FENDI ROMA – The Artisans of Dreams” exhibition at Palazzo della Civiltå Italiana. The exhibition, open to the public from 9th July, is conceived to celebrate the Maison’s unique fur craftmanship and creativity, founding and distinctive elements of the luxury Roman House’s core values.

Find out more about all things Fendi by clicking here.

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Mindy Kaling, the Emmy-nominated creator and star of The Mindy Project, has been nothing short of a revolution since hitting Hollywood. Not only has her insightful and unique brand of funny attracted legions of sympathetic fans, her starring role as Dr. Mindy Lahiri has re imagined the possibilities for female comedians of all stripes on the small screen.

And yet, for all these achievements, the quality that has most frequently made Kaling a hot topic of water cooler conversation is her size. Standing 5’4” and described by Vogue as a fluctuating size 10, Kaling has frequently been caught in the crosshairs of the current debate about size and shape in America because she neither fits the mold of traditional Hollywood starlet nor does she dress the part.

Rather than shy away from the subject of her frame, Kaling has embraced it with rip-roaring humor first in her New York Times bestselling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and now with head on aplomb in her most recent tome, Why Not Me?. An angsty, thought-provoking, intensely personal, impossible to put down read, Why Not Me? is Kaling at her unabashed best.

In her latest collection of essays, Kaling pokes fun at the glamorous world of Hollywood and her role in it, her ongoing battle with self-image which she approaches with self-deprecatory zeal rivaling that of the legendary Joan Rivers, and the difficulty of building real relationships in a town held together by glitter, Botox and array of sly beauty tricks.

In one of the book’s most memorable chapters, “How to Look Spectacular: A Starlet’s Confessions,” Kaling with rare honesty lays bare all the beauty secrets that help her achieve a magazine cover ready look. From hair color, undergarments and body make-up to hair extensions and spray tans, Kaling offers a hilarious exposé on the beauty regimens that necessarily happen behind the scenes to ensure that actresses like herself appear to be the goddesses we worship in magazines and on television. She strips away the artificial while reveling in it, all the while winking at the reader as if to say “it’s all make believe people and I’m in on the joke.”

That said, the great charm of Why Not Me? is Kaling’s casual conversational writing style. Reading the book is akin to reading a great gossipy email from a close girlfriend who just happens to have the inside track on all of Hollywood’s biggest secrets. Sure she’s a big star, but it is Kaling’s ability to write about her experience with stardom with the awe of an outsider that makes reading her books so appealing. She’s the best friend who made it, your friend from college who works on a hit show, that funny friend who you feel proud of every time you see her pop up on the red carpet and so much more. And you just can’t help but root for her.

A perfect pick me up or beach read, Why Not Me? is the perfect accessory for your Spring/Summer 2016 getaway.

To purchase Why Not Me? click here.

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As the world marks the centenary of the First World War, the new film Testament of Youth, directed by James Kent and starring Game of Thrones hero Kit Harington and Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, revisits the landscape of the England that inspired Vera Brittain’s seminal memoir upon which the film is based, while simultaneously celebrating the majestically diverse beauty of Yorkshire, one of Great Britain’s crown jewels.

In the film, Vikander takes on the role of Brittain, the pugnacious, free-spirited, feminist-leaning aspiring young writer whose whole world is forever changed by the war. Meanwhile an almost unrecognizable Kit Harington portrays Roland Leighton, the great love of Brittain’s life who heads off to war full of the kind of cocksure arrogance that misguidedly led England’s leaders at the time to believe the First World War would be a scant six month affair rather than the grief-stricken four year stretch that became its brutal legacy.

Told from a woman’s point of view, Testament of Youth is, like the book, a beautifully crafted meditation on love, loss and unpacking the baggage that those left behind struggle with in war’s aftermath. Not a traditional Hollywood epic wherein warfare is viewed through the soldiers’ lens, Testament of Youth is instead a contemplative film that leans on often painful moments of resilience, sacrifice, survival and transition rather than guts and glory to explore life during wartime. It is also a film that is a far cry from the more testosterone driven fare that has placed Harington, the film’s male lead, atop Hollywood’s list of most in demand stars. And it is a departure that the actor welcomed.

“It was slightly the reason that I wanted to do this film,” Harington explained of his attraction to the role during a recent sit down in Beverly Hills.  “Unlikely as it seems to me, I’ve been doing a lot of action hero roles. Spooks, I filmed just after this so it was a nice balancing act between the two films – one period and one modern-day contemporary. But it was more the emotional journey that I could go through with this film – the transition that the character goes through – that was important [to me] rather than trying to break away from some kind of stereotype.”

“There were various reasons that I wanted to do [Testament of Youth],” he continued. “Loving the source material, really having a very good feeling about the director James [Kent] from the get go and also wanting to work with Alicia who was a friend prior to doing this movie. And it was also a chance to quite frankly look very different from how I usually have to look,” he adds with a hint of a laugh referring to the fact that in the role of Leighton his normally tousled mane has been tamed as part of his transformation from action hero to uniformed, poetry-writing English gentleman/matinee idol.

Despite the seeming departure from the onscreen persona that has become part and parcel of his budding body of work, Harington says that off screen he is actually more akin to Roland Leighton than he is to the swashbuckling Jon Snow character he plays on Game of Thrones.

‘I think this character is a much closer fit to who I see myself as,” the actor ruminates. “He had similar interests to me and…I guess if I was born in that period, we would have been from similar backgrounds. So it did feel like a more natural fit to me as a person than these sort of fantastical action heroes I’ve been used to playing. He was a real life person as opposed to a modern day spy in a Bourne-esque spy thriller or a fantasy sword-wielding hero.”

As for the film’s third star, the county of Yorkshire, which provides the sweeping and romantic backdrop against which much of the film’s drama unfolds, Harington feels a similar kinship. “Strangely enough in Game of Thrones I play a Yorkshireman and in this film I’m not playing a Yorkshireman and yet we were filming in Yorkshire,” Harington muses. “Yorkshire… and Yorkshire Dales, where we shot a lot of [the film], is a part of the world that I love …and…It’s a stunningly beautiful area of England.”

Harington’s sentiments are echoed by the film’s Northern born director who like Brittain not only attended Oxford University, but was also brought up in the neighboring county of Derbyshire. “Yorkshire people call Yorkshire ‘god’s own county,’” Kent says brightly as he fondly recalls his childhood home. “I think it’s just the most stunning place in the world. It also has terrific nature and nature mattered to Vera. She loved flowers, she loved birds, she loved wildlife and the landscape of Yorkshire refracts her feelings. I wanted nature to be a metaphor for the virgin soil before it got scarred by war. It’s this beautiful Eden before the war comes and the trenches are built and the mud desecrates the landscape. [So] everything was shot there – the beaches, the moorlands, the beautiful lake…it’s stunning.”

In the final analysis, the onscreen combo of Vikander, Harington and Yorkshire as handled by Kent in Testament of Youth, delivers a story not simply about loss and grief but also one of inspiration that imparts some lasting life lessons, one of the most overarching of which is expressed by Kent himself.

“Each and every one of us is born in search of a voice,” the director explains. “[Each of us is born] in search of a way of having an entitlement in this world to say what we want to say and Vera went through hell in order to find that artistic voice. And that’s the lesson for all of us…it will be tough but at the end of it, you will be wiser, richer and you’ll have more compassion for your fellow human beings.”

Testament of Youth opens in theatres on June 5^th.

To read this feature on the Huffington Post, click here.

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Steps away from the trill of the Champs-Élysées, in a mansion on Paris’ eternally fashionable Avenue Marceau, remnants of Yves Saint Laurent’s legendary career are elegantly curated across a parade of salons in the very space from which the celebrated designer revolutionized fashion for over three decades. The storied haute couture atelier, the intricate sketches and even the sumptuous lounges where a generation of well-heeled ladies-who-lunch would notoriously ante up staggering sums to acquire their very own pieces of the magic and fantasy of YSL are all on full display at the The Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent – a must stop destination in the City of Lights for any self-respecting fashionista.

But for all the intricate detail a visit to this orderly and pristine temple of sartorial splendor weaves into understanding the work of the artist acclaimed as one of the world’s last great couturiers, it scarcely raises a hem on discerning the complexity of the man behind the myth. Enter director Bertrand Bonello and his stylishly gritty new film Saint Laurent to fill the gap.

Laser focused on what is arguably the most important decade of Yves Saint Laurent’s professional career (1967 -1976), Saint Laurent explores with extraordinarily exacting detail the world of 1970’s Paris, which was, for Yves Saint Laurent like most of the era’s luminaries, filled with contradictions. Weaving through the haze of a boozy, drug-fueled journey characterized by order and chaos, love and obsession, creation and destruction, sex and humiliation, the film recreates the hedonistic vibe of a Paris that no longer exists, while giving birth to a portrait of Yves Saint Laurent that is at once human and simultaneously otherworldly. Which is just as Bonello, the film’s co-writer and director, intended.

“The fact that [Yves] was so fragile and strong at the same time and so much burnt by the desire of creation…that was something that really hooked me,” a mildly jet-lagged Bonello explains over an espresso at The London Hotel in West Hollywood.

“My intention was not to tell the story of Yves Saint Laurent’s life. For that you have books, you have Wikipedia, you have documentaries, you have everything,” the director continues. “So you have to choose something very personal and say this is my piece of the puzzle. You cannot draw the whole picture. That would be very pretentious. So my puzzle is this…I decided to focus on [the question] –What does it cost every day for Yves to be Yves? — Rather than how Yves became YSL. What it costs him to be him every day is much more interesting for me.”

At the center of Bonello’s glorious puzzle is the film’s star, former Chanel model Gaspard Ulliel, who bears a striking resemblance to the film’s namesake – a fact that ironically nearly cost him the role. “I was very keen that his resemblance to Saint Laurent should not be the sole factor, so I met with Gaspard, as I did with another twenty or so actors,” Bonello says of his casting process. “For three months, we shot tests, mainly to see if we could work and communicate together.”

In the final analysis, Ulliel, prevailed in winning a role that his performance heralds as his destiny. That the Paris-born actor – a scion of fashion industry parents whose mother actually worked on one of YSL’s shows at the Pompidou Center in the 90’s – had previously been short-listed to star in a Gus Van Sant-helmed film about the life of Yves Saint Laurent that never happened, only confirms the foreshadowing of his selection for the part that he now says he initially found “daunting”.

“At first I was terrified,” the model turned actor says with a disarming humility that belies his boy-next-door charm. “It was a real challenge portraying such an iconic character who is still very present in today’s society and in people’s minds and memories.”

Ulliel’s fears were allayed, however, as he delved into his research and lived with the character of Yves Saint Laurent day in and day out for over nine weeks of shooting, refusing to break character even at home for fear that he might lose even an ounce of the energy he so deftly channels from the fashion maestro whose spirit he inhabits with such aplomb in the film. Along the way, Ulliel found similarities between his own life story and that of the myth he portrays.

“As an actor, when you’re offered a part, on the first reading of the script you immediately feel if there is some kind of connection with a character or not,” Ulliel says of his relationship with the film’s subject. “In this case, I could straight away feel that there was something echoing between the character and me. It’s about creation, art, relationship to the outside world, how we deal with celebrity…and there’s also this shyness that Saint Laurent can have – this idea of isolating yourself some time. I’m an only child and as a kid I could be very, very shy …kind of in my own bubble. I don’t think [Saint Laurent] was completely shy. Sometimes I think this was just a posture for him. [But] there were many themes [in the film] that were directly talking to me.”

Posture or not, Ulliel’s connection to Saint Laurent is evident in even the tiniest gestures and subtlest emotions he conveys in the glamorously decadent on screen world carefully crafted by Bonello to include everything from the meticulously reconstructed art-filled rooms of the famed Rue de Babylone apartment shared by the iconic designer and his long-time partner Pierre Bergé to the couture creations from YSL’s emblematic Liberation collection in 1971 and Russian Ballet collection in 1976, both of which had to be recreated over the course of several months by scores of craftsmen owing to the fact the filmmakers were not granted access to the collections for the film’s runway scenes.

Given the attention to detail in the film, it seemed only natural to ask Bonello whether his goal with Saint Laurent was to have moviegoers walk away from the film with a better understanding of the man he describes as “the last great designer for his kind” or a greater sense of the mystery behind the man. It is a query that the director responds without the slightest hint of hesitation.

“Mystery and understanding but not by having answers,” he states unequivocally. “Understanding by what you feel yes but answers no. For me mystery is always king, because mystery is the key to desire.”

That said, perhaps it is the film’s star who best sums up the message of the film and the legacy of the man who inspired it. “Saint Laurent is someone who maybe ended up doing what he was doing at the exact right moment in French history…[and] in fashion history,” Ulliel offers. “The film is about this world that is changing and this industry that is changing. In the end, I realized that maybe one of Yves Saint Laurent’s greatest abilities was being able to seize the essence of an era and respond to it in his fashion.”

Now you be the judge.

See the film and the next time you’re in Paris tripping along the Champs-Élysées, nip over and give the The Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent a second look. Beyond the fashionable and chic veneer of the manse and its elegant accoutrements, you might just glimpse an alternative vision of the grit and glamour behind the most historic of a fashion icons.

Saint Laurent is playing in theaters now.

For more information about visiting the The Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, click here.

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David Beckham’s name is synonymous with many things. Football, or soccer as it is known on this side of the pond, is, of course, one of them. High style, as demonstrated by his frequent ranking as one of the world’s best dressed celebrities, is another. And, underwear, as evidenced by his ubiquitous and much commented upon line for H&M, is yet another. But whisky? Not so much. That is until now.

With his career as a professional footballer behind him, Beckham clearly has no intention of fading into the shadows of his vaunted career on the pitch. Hence the reason I found myself at an intimate, private cocktail party last week in West Hollywood where Beckham, along with his longtime business partner Simon Fuller, celebrated the U.S. debut of Haig Club, the new single grain Scotch whisky they developed in partnership with Scotland’s House of Haig– a venerable brand that traces its whisky producing roots back to the seventeenth century. Bold and unexpected though the move may be, the curiosity of his choice to embark on this new journey as a whisky entrepreneur at this point in his career is something that Beckham readily acknowledges.

“I’ve never been a big drinker in general,” Beckham, nattily dressed in a tailored blue suit, offered with a flash of his legendary smile as we sat down for a chat about his latest venture. “Obviously as an athlete and as a kid I was brought up to really be dedicated and to really be focused on what I needed to do to make me a professional player. So I never really drank throughout my career. Obviously I had certain brands come to me and say we’d like you to endorse our product but I never felt it was the right thing to do.”

“But when I was coming to the end of my career and Diageo came to me… I was honest. I said ‘I’ve never been a whisky drinker,’ and I admitted that I never knew much about whisky before I got involved [with Haig Club]. But the fact that single grain whisky is relatively untouched by the whisky world and that the versatility of it means that it can be enjoyed in numerous ways interested me.”

So interested was he in fact that, rather than simply endorsing Haig Club, Beckham decided that he wanted to form a partnership with the brand. With the stakes higher and his interest piqued, the iconic athlete turned spirits entrepreneur threw himself into the process of learning everything about whisky, touring Scotland and sampling the amber-colored elixir for more than two years with a small team of whisky aficionados.

“I am involved in every step. I didn’t just say ‘go take my name,'” Beckham says firmly to indicate his investment in learning about the category.

From working on the flavor profiles with the Master Distiller to selecting the elegant blue breakout bottle design, a nod to the blue hued whisky nosing glasses blenders use to assess a whisky on its nose and flavor rather than its color, Beckham has been engaged in every phase of the roll out of Haig Club, right down to personally touring the world to launch the brand with the full force of brand Beckham in tow. He even ran the final product by his equally famous and fashionable wife, Victoria Beckham, personally making a range of Haig Club cocktails for her to sample and approve. Though his wife was also not much of a whisky drinker until recently, she is now, according to David, an unabashed fan. So much so that pre-launch she apparently rang him up during his daily school run with the Beckham brood to request several bottles (presumably to share with friends). Converting his wife, who has also never been much of an imbiber of spirits of any kind, validated for Beckham that Haig Club was every bit as “accessible” as his instincts had suggested.

“Like I said, I’ve only become a real whiskey drinker over the last 2 or 2 ½ years,” Beckham says clearly amused by the recollection. ” And I think that’s a great thing because when you get to a certain age you start to value and enjoy things more and you want to learn about things more and I think that’s what’s been great about me becoming a whiskey drinker now. It’s the fact that I can really learn about this and really find out what’s great and what’s not great or what I love and that’s what I’ve enjoyed most about this process.”

Given that Haig Club is also an upscale brand, I asked Beckham what defined this new whisky as a luxury item. “I think luxury is the way we’ve approached Haig Club and the thought that’s gone into every step of the process — from the great liquid to the great packaging to the bottle and the cap,” he explained. “It’s not just about the liquid but the packaging as well. It’s fresh and there’s the history of the Haig family inside the bottle and the bottle itself is very striking and that, to me, exudes luxury. People see it and they want to taste it, they want to touch it. That is just the first reaction they have to it. People want to drink it because it’s a great bottle and then when they taste the liquid they’re sold.”

Speaking of being sold, as our conversation came to a close, I couldn’t resist cheekily querying the sports star about how he personally liked to enjoy Haig Club in hopes that he would he tell me how to ‘order it like Beckham’.

“I personally order it neat,” he responded with a laugh. “But the Clubman is something that is very easy to make. It’s sparkling apple juice with a few drops of the bitters, a slice of ginger and obviously Haig Club. It’s a very simple so if I wasn’t drinking Haig Club neat, I’d go into a bar say ‘Can I have a Clubman?’

Order up.

Signature Haig Club cocktails have been created by 2012 “Tales of the Cocktail” Bartender of the Year winner, Joaquín Simó, of New York’s Pouring Ribbons, Robert Ferrara of Miami’s newest hotspot, The Rum Line at the Loew’s Miami Beach Hotel, and Jason Bran of West Hollywood’s’ popular The Roger Room, among others.

Find out more about Haig Club at www.haigclub.com.

Recipe:

Haig Clubman

1.5 oz. Haig Club™
1 oz. Sparkling Apple Soda
6 dashes Ginger Bitters
Build over hand-cracked ice in either a highball or tumbler, garnished with a long slice of root ginger.

For more Haig Club recipes, click here.

Follow Duane Wells on Twitter: www.twitter.com/theduanewells

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