Rosie O’Donnell started in stand-up before landing roles on television movies. The Rosie O’Donnell Show won Emmys and launched her into the talk show circuit. She came out of the closet two months before the show ended its run. Rosie then became the moderator on The View she showing her strong opinions and causing some controversy. Since then she has been raising children, blogging and running Rosie Radio on Sirius XM Radio. She now starts a new endeavor on the OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network with The Rosie Show.
Jerry Nunn: Hi, Rosie. We love seeing you pop up around town and I wanted to welcome you personally to Lakeview and Boystown. I expect you to be at Sidetrack for Show Tunes Sundays.
Rosie O’Donnell: Honey, I didn’t even know about this. I’m jotting it down. Sidetrack Show Tunes, what time?
JN: It’s around four o’clock. It’s every Sunday. Sidetrack is the gay bar there with two hundred televisions. They reenact Broadway musicals, for example the crowd throws napkins when it’s the Titanic and everyone sings all the words.
RO: Oh my lord, I am so there. They’d better reserve me a table.
JN: (laughs) I can arrange that for you.
RO: Can you do requests? Do they ever do The Rink?
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Style guru Lloyd Boston has been giving advice for years on television shows such as NBC Today, Oprah Winfrey, Nate Burkess and Martha Stewart. He was recently on the Today Show with an Emmy recap.
Speaking of awards, he received an Emmy nomination for his HGTV show Closet Cases and was named one of Crain Magazine’s “Forty Under Forty.” After writing 4 previous books, the author’s new one has just arrived The Style Checklist: The Ultimate Wardrobe Essentials. We ran into Lloyd at Macy’s where his Jones New York tour was in full effect.
Jerry Nunn: Hi, Lloyd. Are you glad to be back in Chicago?
Lloyd Boston: I love it, always. I love the fact that the weather is good.
JN: You can wear that scarf out these days.
LB: Yes, just a touch. I split my time between New York and LA but coming here is nice because it is the best of both cities. It has the ease of the people in LA but it has that city vibe in New York without the traffic, the dirt and the pushing and shoving.
JN: Do you get to do anything fun while you are in town?
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Chef Art Smith has been frying up cuisine for some of the most powerful people in the world, from the Dalai Lama to Oprah Winfrey. Smith has proven he can work with a pressure cooker on Top Chef Masters for Bravo. Nunn on the Run dined with the man behind the sweet potatoes at his restaurant Table Fifty-Two. Jerry Nunn: Hello, Art. What have you been up to? Art Smith: Recently I have been working on my health. I lost a great deal of weight, in fact 110 pounds. I recently cooked for the Dalai Lama, his holiness. I did a vegan lunch because he is Buddhist and I thought it would be differentl. I wanted to stress that not every high profile dinner has to be chicken. Why not do vegetables? I am also launching a new restaurant down south. Where is that going to be? View Full Article »
Interior designer Nate Berkus is leaving Oprah behind and starting his own show in The Big Apple: New York City. Windy City Times spoke to him before his series debut about his new endeavor and reminded the decorator to not forget his roots.
Jerry Nunn: Hello, Nate. I was wondering with Oprah leaving Chicago, why did you decide to film the show in New York and not in the Windy City?
Nate Berkus: The truth is it just made sense business-wise for me right now. From the studio space to where my staff and where all the resumes were coming in from, the staff that I needed to hire were all in New York.
And ultimately, Jerry, you know, Oprah is in her 25th year and I’m launching a daily syndicated show. Oprah has one control room over there on Carpenter Street so I didn’t want to be the guy that said, “Yeah, just give me another 10 minutes. I’ll be out of here for you.”
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Rob Dauber is the executive producer for the Wendy Williams show. Already in its second successful season, Nunn on the Run traveled to New York for a Nunn on One with the man behind the curtain.
Jerry Nunn: Behind every great woman is a gay man, and you’ve had a successful run.
Rob Dauber: Yes, I’ve been lucky to work with some very amazing women, and my last three hosts were Rosie, Oprah and Martha Stewart. And I feel really lucky. You know, I grew up in a house with very strong women. When my mom met Martha, she was at that point in her mid 70’s and said to Martha, “You know why Rob can work with strong women like you? “ Martha kind of looked at her and my mother said, “Because I’m the original…” and she used the B-word, and my mom’s an older woman so it’s funny, and Martha’s like “uhhh”. But I guess I grew up in a house with very strong, smart, opinionated women, and so I’ve learned from an early age to respect women in a completely equal way. It’s like sometimes even weird for me to talk about that, because I don’t even think of it as an issue.
JN: How is marketing this show? It’s so different than Oprah.
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Cesar Millan has been whispering to dogs for years and now brings his live show to Chicago. Nunn on the Run dropped into his penthouse suite to interview him Nunn on One.
Jerry Nunn: Hola, Cesar. Look at the rooftop view from your hotel balcony.
Cesar Millan: Every once and a while go out there to pee. I am housebroken! [ Both laugh. ]
JN: I am sure everywhere you go people want you to help their dog.
CM: “Can you talk to my dog?” They hand me a cell phone sometimes. “Can I show you a picture of my dog?” I am not a dog psychic.
JN: I read your bio and you are from Sinaloa, Mexico. I went there on a trip one time. The border patrol looked at me and said, “There are no white people in Sinaloa!”
CM: There is not, and if there are white people they look different. We call them “Guerritos.”
JN: I drove to Mazatlan, Mexico, afterwards, which is where you grew up, correct?
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