Celeb Spotter

CELEB SPOTTER HAS AN EYE ON THE STARS

2008-10-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

ABOUT CELEB SPOTTER

Undercover…I work, live, breathe, and write entertainment...it's my life! I have to admit…at first glance one would assume that I am just “a typical business executive”...that job is the perfect cover.

I work in the non profit industry. I work with charities, this means that I travel a lot and I have access to the inside world of entertainment and the hearts of some of the top celebrities and stars.

So often, the news highlights the worst of us. Maybe I am idealist at heart, but I choose to give a platform to those bright stars amongst us who prove that being a star is more than that outward shimmer, shine and glimmer- but something that comes from inside out.

Some of the stars I write about, are still rising to the top, but mark my words…if they’re on this blog they will soon light up our skies.

What a celebrity does with their fortune and fame defines them and us as a culture for we clearly embrace them and those that we embrace define us.

Walk with me down the star studded paths we call fortune and fame as I spot the Celebs with the biggest names. (SCROLL DOWN TO SEE MY BLOGS)

An Amazing Interview

2008-10-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

I normally like to keep my day job out of my blogging life. I don't want the haze of the glitz and the glam of my job to cloud my words on this site; However this recent interview with a young starlet, moved me to the extent that I did the unthinkable...Post it on my blog.

The following is an interview with Teen Musician, Actress and Philanthropist,

Alexandra Rose Rieger

"A rose out of concrete bears the treasures of darkness."

-Alexandra Rose Rieger

I see Alexandra the second she walks in…her presence fills the room, the teen star is accompanied by her manager yet unlike many starlets, she is not corrupted by any affected airs. Even amongst the bustle, she maintains an air of grace. Even from her aura alone, one can see that her beauty is beyond skin deep. Moments later, she spots our team. As she smiles and makes her way towards us, it is clear that even her eyes seem to hold an immense wisdom well beyond her years.

Celeb Spotter:
Hi Alexandra It’s great to finally meet you in person…I’m a huge fan!

Alexandra Rose:
Great to meet you as well.

Celeb Spotter:
I understand that you are still in the studio…how that has been?

Alexandra Rose:
It’s really been an absolutely enchanting experience; of course, you’ve to get through the thorns in order to get to the palace. The whole process of taking a song that literally comes from inside of you, and putting that on a CD is extraordinary.

Celeb Spotter:
I understand that you wrote and composed all of your songs, would you ever consider doing collaboration?

Alexandra Rose:
It depends what you mean by that. If you mean a collaboration in the modern sense like hiring someone to write (your songs) and fabricate something you don’t stand for…(she pauses briefly then continues) or if you mean a true artistic collaboration. See, I’m all for those true collaborations that take two expressions of being and fuse it together into song form. In that way… I love them, and I believe that some of the greatest songs in history have been collaborations. (She smiles briefly and continues)What ever it is, I am a writer at heart I write about what I see, feel and what my experiences have been, because I know that there are millions of people that have gone through similar things. I stay true myself.

Celeb Spotter:
Why?

Alexandra Rose:
“Because smoke blows over and mirrors crack easily and all that’ll be left in the end is the truth, it can hurt but it isn’t gonna lie to you,” (she says this, with an air of confidence because she is the real thing…yet she also portrays a beautiful vulnerability because she has nothing to hide behind).

Celeb Spotter:
I’ve noticed some of your songs reflect that hurt, and cross over into that darker side… for example one of my favorites…your song “Wanted” talk about that concept…

Alexandra Rose:
(For a brief moment she is overcome with emotion, it is subtle but yet you can see the depth in her expression. She replies :)

We all go through hurt, pain…I myself have been through a heck of a lot…but it’s about gathering up those shards of glass and piecing them into a mosaic…
Taking the gold from the mountains in life and using that to make something beautiful… because in that, there’s healing…

Celeb Spotter:
Ahh the light at the end of the tunnel...

Alexandra Rose:
Mmm hmm( She nods then smiles slightly) , a rose out of concrete bears the treasures of darkness.

Celeb Spotter:
Wow…what were you like as a child…did people realize that you’d become this incredible force…When did you start?

Alexandra Rose:
Thanks…( She briefly pauses to remind me that in terms of age…she’s still a kid, but goes on to say )I have always had a love of words and of music, I started playing the piano when I was…I think about three ( she says surveying her hands) but my dad says I was around 2 ½.

Celeb Spotter:
Where did you go from there?

Alexandra Rose:
I end up being one of the youngest ever admitted into the Heidelberg Music Academy.

Celeb Spotter:
Heidelberg, Germany?

Alexandra Rose:
Yes…I was born in Europe and have lived throughout there… and throughout the UK as well.

Celeb Spotter:
What was it like at the academy?

Alexandra Rose:
(Laughs)Well I can definitely say I certainly can say that I must have shocked the instructors when I’d wanted rock out the classics… you know Classical Music, (she says with a slightly mischievous air).

Celeb Spotter:
You’d make your own arrangements?

Alexandra Rose:
(Her eyes light up)Yes…I always loved to compose, (Piano or Guitar). I was never one for boundaries that hold back artistic expression.

Celeb Spotter:
What was the first song you have ever written and how old were you?

Alexandra Rose:
Well I won’t count all of the little ditties that I came up with in my earlier years, um I must have been around 6 when I wrote a song called “It’s Raining Tears” comparing my stinging tears to the polluted acid rain.

Celeb Spotter:
How did your parents feel about this?

Alexandra Rose:
(She pauses…as she tucks a long cascading “Fire Red” curl behind her ear) I have always surprised my parents (she smiles). Well let’s just say that they seemed to recognize my need to express myself through song. They really caught on however, when they saw that I found my voice in music and used that to make a positive difference.

Celeb Spotter:
It’s good to have someone real and talented in this day and age that is not only a voice that many can relate to but one that stands up to make a change!

I will be following this rising star so keep your eyes open and your spotlights on... because this girl is a powerhouse!

The Rolling Stone Interview: Bono

2008-10-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

I am finding myself merging my world of interviews with my blogs. I began to feel as if a puzzle piece was missing from my blogspot, a hole in the platforms of my words...through this I began to see, that interviews were the perfect fit.

So...alas, here is one of my favorites, an incredible interview from none other than Rolling Stones.

The Rolling Stone Interview: Bono
JANN S. WENNER

"By not encouraging me to be a musician, even though that's all he ever wanted to be, he's made me one"

-BONO

On the first weekend of October, I visited Bono in Cancun, Mexico, where U2 were on a weeklong break before the second North American leg of the band's Vertigo Tour. Bono and U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. were both there with their families -- in fact, it was Elvis Mullen's tenth birthday that weekend, and a barbecue was planned at the house Bono had rented on the beach, where he, his wife of twenty-three years, Ali, and their four children were staying.
With a storm gathering outside, Bono and I retreated to the bedroom, where we sat down to begin our conversation. We started at noon and talked into the evening, then started again the next morning. In all, we talked for more than ten hours. Anyone who has been to a U2 concert knows Bono's dramatic ability to tell a story and his sheer love of words.

What was your childhood in Dublin like?

I grew up in what you would call a lower-middle-class neighborhood. You don't have the equivalent in America. Upper working class? But a nice street and good people. And, yet, if I'm honest, a sense that violence was around the corner.
Home was a pretty regular three-bedroom house. The third bedroom, about the size of a cupboard, they called the "box room" -- which was my room. Mother departed the household early: died at the graveside of her own father. So I lost my grandfather and my mother in a few days, and then it became a house of men. And three, it turns out, quite macho men -- and all that goes with that. The aggression thing is something I'm still working at. That level of aggression, both outside and inside, is not normal or appropriate.
You're this bright, struggling teenager, and you're in this place that looks like it has very few possibilities for you. The general attitude toward you from your father -- and just the Irish attitude -- was "Who the fuck do you think you are? Get real." Is that correct?
Bob Hewson -- my father -- comes from the inner city of Dublin. A real Dublin man but loves the opera. Must be a little grandiose himself, OK? He is an autodidact, conversant in Shakespeare. His passion is music -- he's a great tenor. The great sadness of his life was that he didn't learn the piano. Oddly enough, kids not really encouraged to have big ideas, musically or otherwise. To dream was to be disappointed. Which, of course, explains my megalomania.
I was a bright kid, all right, early on. Then, in my teenage years, I went through a sort of awkward phase of thinking I was stupid. My schoolwork goes to shit; I can't concentrate. I started to believe the world outside. Music was my revenge on that.
I got the sense that it was kind of a dead-end situation.
Its blandness -- its very grayness -- is the thing you have to overcome. We had a street gang that was very vivid -- very surreal. We were fans of Monty Python. We'd put on performances in the city center of Dublin. I'd get on the bus with a stepladder and an electric drill. Mad s***. Humor became our weapon. Just stand there, quiet -- with the drill in my hand. Stupid teenage s***.

Just to provoke people? Performance art?

Performance art. We invented this world, which we called Lipton Village. We were teenagers when we came up with this, a way of fighting back against the prevailing bootboy mentality.

You were like the freaky kids?

Yeah. Gavin Friday -- who's doing the music for the 50 Cent movie now -- was the most surreal-looking. He had an Eraserhead haircut; he wore dresses and bovver boots. I mean, myself and my other friend Guggi -- we're still very close friends -- were handy enough. We could defend ourselves. But even though some of us became pretty good at violence ourselves, others didn't. They got the shit kicked out of 'em. I thought that was kind of normal. I can remember incredible street battles. I remember one madser with an iron bar, just trying to bring it down on my skull as hard as he possibly could, and holding up a dustbin lid, which saved my life. Teenage kids have no sense of mortality -- yours or theirs.

So that was your teen rebellion?

I don't know if that was rebellion. That was a defense mechanism. We used to laugh at people drinking. We didn't drink. Because people who spilled out of the pubs on a Friday night and threw up on the laneway -- we thought we were better than them.

You were the smart-kid clique?
We were a collection of outsiders. We weren't all the clever clogs. If you had a good record collection, that helped. And if you didn't play soccer. That was part of it. Now, when you look back, there's an arrogance to it; it's like you're looking down, really . . .

At the jocks?

At the jocks, at the skinheads, at the bootboys. Maybe it's the same arrogance my father had, who's listening to opera and likes cricket. Because it separates him.
You wrote an extraordinary song about your father, "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own." When I spoke to Edge this week, he said that you're turning into your dad.
He was an amazing and very funny man. You had to be quick to live around him. But I don't think I'm like him. I have a very different relationship with my kids than he had with me. He didn't really have one with me. He generally thought that no one was as smart as him in the room. You know that Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue" where he gives the kid a girl's name, and the kid is beaten up at every stage in his life by macho guys, but in the end he becomes the toughest man.

By not encouraging me to be a musician, even though that's all he ever wanted to be, he's made me one. By telling me never to have big dreams or else, that to dream is to be disappointed, he made me have big dreams. By telling me that the band would only last five minutes or ten minutes -- we're still here.

Celebs Like Nicole Richie, Joel Madden, Marcia Cross, Alexandra Rose Rieger & Courtney Cox, Came To Support The Elizabeth Glazer Foundation Carnival

2008-06-28T13:30:00.000-07:00

On a sunny, cloudless afternoon in Brentwood, California, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation hosted the A Time for Heroes Celebrity Carnival, presented by Disney. The June 8 carnival was a huge success, providing a day of family fun and raising nearly $1 million to help support the Foundation’s lifesaving programs for children and families. The carnival has been a tradition in Los Angeles since Elizabeth Glaser and her two friends, Susie Zeegen and Susan DeLaurentis, started the Foundation nearly 20 years ago.

Ticket-holders knew they were in for a treat before they even arrived: A massive Ferris wheel emblazoned with the Foundation’s logo was visible for miles. But that was just the beginning. The carnival offered a dizzying array of activities - games, crafts, food, musical performances, and dozens of celebrity “heroes” who attended the carnival to help fight pediatric AIDS and have some fun of their own.
“The Elizabeth Glaser Foundation is just so special because they have improved the lives of millions of children who have been sent on this medical journey,” said actor Henry Winkler.

The Disney activities were clustered under a grove of shady trees, where actors Robin Williams and Blair Underwood dueled against young warriors with foam-rubber swords in Disney’s Voyage to Narnia, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, and Marcia Cross hung out at Pixie Hollow, where children (and a few adults) designed their own fairy wings and wands, while teen actress, musician and youth ambassador Alexandra Rose Rieger was a celebrity reader in the fairytale inspired, Wonderland of Stories arena.

Guests with green thumbs had several activities to choose from: decorating bamboo pots at the “Grow Green, Grow Strong With Biolage” booth, staffed by several celebrity heroes, or making T-shirts and planting trees at Alternative’s Green Forest with actress Denise Richards and photographer Nigel Barker. Toddlers had a ball at the Sprouts Preschool Playzone, where they could pal around with Barney, design a card for a child in Africa, or practice yoga.

Sports-minded kids raced Hot Wheels and putted golf balls at the Mattel Playground with Nicole Richie, musician Joel Madden, and Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan, among others. The athletically inclined could also shoot hoops with L.A. Clippers star Cuttino Mobley or play in the learning area with Kelly Hu and Lance Bass.Throughout the day, DJ Nate and his team from Radio Disney entertained the crowd on the main stage. Carnival attendees also had the chance to meet several children and young adults living with HIV, who spoke on stage about their experiences. “I consider myself lucky to be alive,” said 17-year-old Alee Meredith, who was born with HIV. “One thing I’ve learned from my parents is that we can all get involved and make a difference. Elizabeth Glaser is proof of that. Everyone here is proof of that.”

Today’s infected children have so much more hope because of the efforts of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation,” said Marty, who was attending the carnival for the first time without her son. “I know that if we keep working together in the spirit of Brett and Elizabeth and so many others, we will see a day when every child has the chance to grow up as a healthy, happy adult.”

Jake Glaser, Elizabeth Glaser’s son, was the final speaker of the day. Jake encouraged each person in attendance to perform one act of kindness each day. “Everything you see today started with one person. One act of kindness,” Jake told the crowd. “Now I look out at you and see hundreds, which could turn into thousands…We can change the world.”
The 19th A Time for Heroes then entered the history books, leaving fans wondering what the 20th year will bring.

Alexandra Rose Rieger and Marcia Cross at the the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation hosted the A Time for Heroes Celebrity Carnival

(Sources: The Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric Aids Foundation Website)

Rising Star, Musician Of The Month...Alexandra Rose Rieger

2008-06-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

In today’s blog I am finally announcing my favorite rising star/musician of the month.I recently attended one of her concerts and she is absolutely incredible! Look below for more pix and info… also, check out one of her fansites (it has a bunch of really cool updates and facts too) http://www.alexandraroseriegerfans.synthasite.com/ . Also, I want to say “thanks” to Edelweiss Rock Entertainment for providing additional pix & information.

European teen musician, actress and youth ambassador, Alexandra Rose Rieg er uses music to make a difference. From a young age she has given benefit concerts, and mentored disadvantaged youth in music. Because of her longstanding presence both nationally and internationally, she has been invited by U.N. Ambassadors on tours throughout the world.

Alexandra Rose is a true artist. The singer songwriter is also a skilled guitarist and piano player. Her captivating, vocally driven songs, honest lyrics and compelling music are complemented by soaring instrumentals. “She sings the thoughts I can’t put into words”, says one fan after a recent concert. Her old soul yet young spirit shines through every note and her passion for life is impressed upon every word. Keep your eyes peeled because this girl is gonna be BIG! "She’s got the beauty of roses and the edge of thorns!”

Hear and buy her new hit single"Harmony" on http://amiestreet.com/artist/31929

or click icons below for more information:

Jenny McCarthy's Son Beats Autism

2008-06-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

Jenny McCarthy – already the author of two bestsellers about pregnancy and motherhood – has another book in the works, this one about having an autistic child, which she vows will "give moms hope" about raising autistic kids. McCarthy said Thursday that her son, Evan Joseph Asher, who turns 5 this month, has been diagnosed with the disorder, but that he "has come a long way." "I did want to acknowledge and confirm the fact that my son does, indeed, have an autism diagnosis," McCarthy, 34, said on Thursday's edition of ABC's The View, on which she served as guest cohost. Evan is McCarthy's son with director John Asher. The couple divorced in 2005, after six years of marriage. McCarthy added that she has come to understand why she was given an autistic child, because, she said, "I am willing to talk about it, and go deep with the emotional feelings." McCarthy's book on the subject, Louder Than Words, is scheduled to published in September. (According to Amazon.com, where the book is available for pre-order, the complete title is Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism.) "I just want moms ... who have children out there with autism ... to know that I am coming back in a few months with this book, and I am planning on using my big, giant, controversial mouth to blow the lid off a lot of things related to autism to give people hope."

Nicole Richie and Joel Madden Start A Charity

2008-06-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are starting a charity called the Richie Madden Children’s Foundation. Tey have turned their baby shower into the first fundraiser! Instead of guests bringing them gifts, Nicole Richie, 26 — who told Diane Sawyer, “I want my child to look up to me and be proud of me” — and the Good Charlotte rocker, 28, are asking pals to give cribs, strollers and stuffed animals to the new Richie Madden Children’s Foundation, which supports mothers in need.
Next month, their charity will also donate 100 Mom-to-Be kits to the Los Angeles Free Clinic!