Jelly Roll says he wishes he could talk to his dog … He says “If I could pick any animal on earth to start speaking, it would be Bussy the Bus Dog. For sure. We all want to know what the Bus Dog’s thinking. I think he would sound like my boy Sylvester Stallone. I think he would want to talk about belly scratches and food. Probably a lot of food talk if I had to guess. Bananas. It’d be big banana talk from Bussy. Bussy loves bananas.”

Ever wonder how Conway Twitty got his catchy name? He was born Harold Jenkins. Concerned that DJs might not find “Harold Jenkins” electrifying enough to hit the airwaves, he took a map, picked two towns he liked—Conway, Arkansas, and Twitty, Texas—and voila! Just like that, an icon was born. The rest, as they say, is music history!  (You can check out the clip from Letterman, here.  And here’s the song that my parents most likely listened to while making me . . . “Slow Hand“.)

What do you think it would be like to live with Joaquin Phoenix?  Words like CHAOS . . . MADNESS . . . and DISASTER come to mind.  But apparently, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Mark Ruffalo lived with Joaquin when they did the 2007 movie “Reservation Road” together.  And Mark says it was DELIGHTFUL.  He says he was neat, clean, super thoughtful, and a great cook. Taught him about vegan cuisine, and would call if he was out to see if Mark needed anything.

Dame Helen Mirren (79) recently spoke about losing people still experiencing their youth as part of a wide-ranging conversation about the experience of aging in public life. She thinks it’s so sad that Kurt Cobain died in 1994 because he never got to see GPS.  She said, “It’s the most wonderful thing to watch my little blue spot walking down the street.” She finds it completely magical and unbelievable.  Helen also talked about life at 79 years old.  Quote, “It’s kind of okay.  It’s not brilliant.  But it wasn’t that brilliant to be 25 either . . .

A follow-up to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is in the works.  Tarantino wrote the script, but he’s NOT directing it.

Tinsel Town Talk – Thu 05/29/2025