When Keith Urban forgets his lyrics when he’s onstage, he just pretends that his microphone is shorting out and malfunctioning.  He’s so good at it, that one time a roadie tried to fix the “broken” microphone for him. He said he’s SO good at it, that one of his roadies actually ran to get a replacement once, thinking this one was glitching out.  (Here’s video.  It starts at 18 seconds in.)

Kristin Cavallari tells People magazine that she discovered an intruder in her bedroom while sleeping next to her son in the Bahamas. She got up and asked the masked man what he was doing. He was dressed in black and quickly fled. The intruder may have been part of an air conditioning crew that was fixing an HVAC problem earlier in the day. Kristin says,  “Because Cam was in the bed with me, I didn’t yell. I didn’t scream. You think in those moments that that’s what you’d do, but your instincts just kick in. I honestly felt like I was in Mission Impossible.” 

If you enjoy visiting movie locations, and you can afford a trip to Austria, the castle from “The Sound of Music” should be on your list.  Much like those famous hills, the Austrian palace that inspired the von Trapp family villa is still alive with the sound of music. Julie Andrews returned to the estate to film the 1987 holiday special “The Sound of Christmas” with Placido Domingo and John Denver.  She came back again a decade ago for a featurette included in a 50th anniversary DVD edition of the movie.

 Now George R.R. Martin doesn’t know if he’ll finish the “Game of Thrones” books… the Song of Ice and Fire series. Martin has seemingly stalled out with the sixth and second-to-last title, The Winds of Winter. If he’s stalling out on this one, the final planned book, A Dream of Spring may never be finished. Martin assured fans that completing the series of novels is “still a priority.” Nonetheless, he’s not making any guarantees. Part of the reason for the delay is Martin is keeping himself busy with plenty of things that aren’t The Winds of Winter, like participating in a lawsuit against OpenAI for copyright infringement and producing short films based on the works of his late, lifelong friend, the cult science fiction author Howard Waldrop.

Metro News says cans of “air” from Italy’s famous Lake Como are being sold to gullible tourists for $10 each. The cans can be purchased online, as well as from a bookstore and restaurant on the lake. Lake Como tourism has skyrocketed ever since George Clooney bought a villa there.

Tinsel Town Talk – Fri 01/03/2025