Arts & Entertainment

Becki Newton is thrilled to be home again. Back in New York to shoot the third season of the hit TV series Ugly Betty, Newton is in the midst of redecorating her new dressing room at Silvercup Studios in Queens. The personal touches are obvious — freshly painted plum walls, the sleek white leather couch, a framed photo of her with husband Chris Diamantopoulos — she has made the room her own, a well-designed reminder that she is back on the East coast.

A sugar fanatic all her life,
Dylan Lauren explains why candy is the gift that keeps on giving

Dylan Lauren is living the sweet life. Literally. Her candy empire, Dylan’s Candy Bar, is Willy Wonka’s fantastical dream realized, a three-floor paradise set on New York’s Upper East Side. The store caters to the kid in all of us (not to mention a number of A-List celebs that regularly pop by for a quick sugar fix) and is filled from top to bottom with candy and confections ranging from Whirly Pop lollipops to chocolate-filled cupcakes. But Dylan isn’t stopping there. The daughter of fashion icon Ralph Lauren, she has turned her candy store into a candy brand, complete with a clothing and jewelry line, and a just-released line of beauty products. Too much sugar? Dylan proves there’s no such thing.

Lipstick Jungle’s Kim Raver proves it is possible to have it all.

By Rachel Bowie

Kim Raver hearts New York. In fact, she loves it so much that she’s embraced the city’s most efficient way of getting around — taking the subway. But as Raver’s career reaches new heights, going incognito underground is becoming more and more difficult for the native New Yorker. “People come up to me on the subway and ask, ‘Do you know Kim Raver?’” she laughs. “This one guy was so persistent and kept saying, ‘But you look so much like her!’ Maybe they know and they’re just trying to get me to say, ‘It’s me!’ It’s really very funny.”

Jennie Garth returns to the small screen on the new 90210 and reprises the role that turned her into a television icon.



By Rachel Bowie


Kelly Taylor has been through a lot. During her time at West Beverly, the fictional high school she attended on the television series Beverly Hills, 90210, she saved her mother from a cocaine addiction, slept with her best friend’s boyfriend and overdosed on diet pills, all before graduation! But with age comes wisdom and Kelly is all grown up now. In fact, so is Jennie Garth, Kelly’s real-life alter ego. This fall, Garth returns to the zip code that made her famous, reprising the role she played for 10 years on the new (and much-buzzed-about) teen drama 90210, a spin-off of Aaron Spelling’s original series. Although her character is the same, this time, Garth roams the halls of West Beverly with a different purpose, playing a guidance counselor and helping her students through the challenges they will undoubtedly face growing up in L.A.’s wealthiest zip code. As gossip swirls around which cast members will be back from the original series and whether or not 90210’s second generation will be able to achieve what the first did, Garth makes one thing clear ­— she can’t wait to return to her roots.

You won’t find Bon Jovi, New Jersey’s most famous export, lounging at the Jersey shore this year. Instead, the rockers are headlining a world tour to promote their Grammy-nominated album Lost Highway. Front man Jon Bon Jovi describes the 2007 album — which features the hit “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” — as having an uncharacteristic Nashville flavor, but that hasn’t stopped fans from flocking to pick it up. The record is the band’s most successful album since they topped the charts with New Jersey in 1988.

By Rachel Bowie

Katie Lee Joel knows a thing or two about comfort food — and according to her new book, it goes way beyond just pleasing the palette. Her first cookbook, The Comfort Table, explains that success in the kitchen is rooted in the dining experience, and, most impor- tantly, the company you keep at the table. The wife of musician and long-time Oyster Bay resident Billy Joel and a celebrated culinary expert, Katie knows exactly what she is talking about.

By Royal Young

Dana Jennings might be one of the only editors at The New York Times who can proudly call himself a “redneck Jew”. His debut memoir, “Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death and Country Music” (Faber and Faber; 227 pp.) due out this May, is full of fascinating anecdotes from his underprivileged youth set to the throbbing beat of old-school country crooners.

Tales Meant to be Spun

By Rory Winston

Spinning a story — as though one’s life depended on it — is the subtext of “Scheherazade.” It is also the essence of the Kirov Ballet, the historically-renowned company of tale-spinners, leapers, and contortionists that have put their respective cabrioles, triple tours and jetés entrelacés at the service of this ballet classic.

By David Germain

The brainiacs of the gambling romp “21” are smart enough to expertly count cards at the blackjack table, identify hot betting tables and put on disguises so they can take Vegas casinos to the cleaners.

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” claws its way through dark, delicious family drama
By Sarah Protzman

Sometime in the 90 minutes before mayhem ensues, Lisa Arrindell Anderson likes to stand on stage in the Broadhurst Theatre, alone. No ushers, no audience.