Jennifer Hudson

Falling for ‘Smash’ Again in Season 2

Posted on 02/3/2013 by | AARP Blog Author | Comments

EntertainmentWhen Smash made its glittering premiere last season, complete with its Spielberg-Meron-Zadan imprimatur, many of us fell in love with the NBC serial that took us behind the scenes of a Broadway musical in the making. But as with many love affairs, somehow the little flaws turned into big disappointments, and the disappointments became less and less tolerable. The magic faded with clunky plot points, an unbelievable villain (Ellis, played by Jaime Cepero), and the show’s insistence that Karen (Katherine …

Eclectic Group of Stars in ‘Dust to Dreams’ Special

Posted on 09/16/2012 by | AARP Blog Author | Comments

EntertainmentI’ll admit it:  I still get a teenage-style thrill out of seeing favorite music stars performing together for the first time — like Carole King with Jennifer Hudson and Mavis Staples. Is that cool or what? The threesome are among the highlights of this Friday’s (9/21) From Dust to Dreams: Opening Night at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts special on PBS, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris. They’re part of a lineup of luminaries that ranges from John Fogerty …

Good TV This Week: July 4 With the Boston Pops

Posted on 07/3/2012 by | AARP Blog Author | Comments

EntertainmentIf you are like most TV-owning Americans of a certain age including myself, chances are you have spent at least one or two Independence Day nights with the Boston Pops on the tube  — either paying close attention to the magnificent musicianship and prodigious pyrotechnic pageantry on display, or using the broadcast as accompaniment to your own 4th of July revelry.  This is Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart’s 18th year of leading the July 4th charge, this time with the …