Tag: THESWITCHEDQUESTIONNAIRE

You may not have heard of the name Mark Mancina, but you've definitely heard one of his scores. Mancina has been tickling the ears of moviegoers for years, composing the soundtracks for such blockbusters as 'Training Day,' 'Bad Boys,' 'Con Air,' 'Twister' and 'Tarzan.' He's won three Grammy awards for some of his work and even dabbles in Broadway musicals where he's picked up a Tony award and ...

If it weren't for the Internet and YouTube, Dutch rock sensation Racoon would probably never be as popular as they are in the U.S. After more than 200,000 views of their video for "Close Your Eyes" on YouTube, the band was picked up by not just a label, but by the Dutch Government. Yes, a joint project of Buma Cultuur and the Dutch Rock & Pop Institute have teamed up to market Racoon in the ...

R&B songstress Keyshia Cole made a big splash with her debut album 'The Way It Is' and songs like "Love" in 200. Now, after some appearances on songs by P.Diddy ("Last Night") and R. Kelly, Cole is back with a new album, 'Just Like You, which features collaborations with Missy Elliott and Lil' Kim, among others. Working with so many artists means keeping in close communication, which Cole ...

Much to the delight of fans, daytime TV actors tend to stay on shows a long time, but actor James Reynolds's 22 years of playing Commissioner Abe Carver on 'Days of Our Lives' is a record. The Emmy-winning Reynolds has logged more hours on television than any other African-American actor on any show, much less a soap. Of course, all that time on the away from home on the set means he's ...

Perhaps the most famous rock groupie of all time, Pamela Des Barres in the 1960s and 1970s had affairs with everyone from Mick Jagger and Keith Moon to Jim Morrison, went on tour with Led Zeppelin, and even played in a band created by Frank Zappa (the GTOs). Nowadays, she's more of a writer, having penned 'I'm With the Band' a few years back. Her new book, 'Let's Spend the Night Together,' ...

What do you get when you combine Mötley Crüe's 'Kickstart My Heart' with a helping of non-stop violence so epic, it's nearly laughable? You get the amazing trailer for 'Shoot 'Em Up,' an action flick that also features funnyman Paul Giamatti, the beautiful Monica Bellucci and serious actor-cum-action staple Clive Owen. All of this balanced ever so carefully on what appears to be a ...

As a longtime veteran of sitcom scriptwriting and telenovela directing, Joe Menendez knows a thing or two about technology (computers, cameras), so it's no surprise that he was pretty much at one with his BlackBerry while directing his new film, the all-Spanish-language 'Ladron Que Roba a Ladron," which means, literally, "Thief Who Steals from Thief." That's right, it's a new-Spangled heist ...

We're not sure if the Kiss revival is still cool or not, but we couldn't resist having Peter Criss answer our latest Switched Questionnaire. The founding member and drummer of the make-up- and costume-clad 1970s band -- the one who adopted the "cat" persona and wrote the hit song "Beth" -- recently came out with a solo album, 'One for All.' Maybe not surprisingly for someone who was big in the ...

The Switched Questionnaire: Alan Alda Whether he's on TV (M*A*S*H, The West Wing), in a movie (an Oscar-winning performance in The Aviator), or writing books (his upcoming tome, 'Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself,' is out September 4), Alan Alda is one of the busiest men in show business. To pull all this off, he makes full use of the latest tech supplies, from laptops and iPods ...

The Switched Questionnaire: Darren Hayes Not a lot of artists have made the switch from old world of music-label-driven marketing and promotion for CDs to the new world of self-released albums, track giveaways, and MySpace pages, but Darren Hayes, the former lead singer of late-'90s dance-pop duo Savage Garden, has entered the world of Music Web 2.0 with flying colors. In the months before ...

Did you know Eddie Money was, at one time, training to be a police officer in the early 1970s? Yup. Before writing "Two Tickets to Paradise," Money was going to be a New York City cop just like his dad. We all know Eddie Money as the rocker who sprinkled the '70s and '80s with plenty of top-ten hits. Turns out Eddie Money is no stranger to tech, either -- he's addicted to his cell phone and is ...

You may not know Jesse Harris, but you've probably heard his music. The singer-songwriter is best known for his songs, which have been recorded by everyone from Norah Jones and Pat Metheny to Madeleine Peyroux. Now, a star-studded list of music luminaries -- everyone from Willie Nelson and Cat Power to Bright Eyes and Feist -- is paying tribute to this artist on the soundtrack for 'The Hottest ...

The Switched Questionnaire Corey Reynolds got his start in the original Broadway production of 'Hairspray' (on which the new eponymous movie is based) and now plays that straight-talking, buttoned-down LAPD detective David Gabriel (along with Emmy-nominated Kyra Sedgwick) in TNT's critically-acclaimed summer series, 'The Closer.' Though he calls himself 'old school,' Reynolds impressed us ...

The Switched Questionnaire: Def Leppard Def Leppard: Rock legends who sold more than 65 million records and -- apparently -- nerds. We took some time with the British band to get an idea of what they have in their back pockets, and it's not always picks drumsticks: These guys love iPhones, Macs, and even super high-speed Internet. Def Leppard hits US shores this summer with a huge tour, by the ...

Versatile actor Parker Posey is best known for her hilarious turns in Christopher Guest's semi-improvised ensemble comedies such as Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. In Zoe Cassavetes's debut feature, 'Broken English,' Posey gets a little more serious, playing a lonely New Yorker who finds love on a break in Paris. Though she's obviously not into ...