Entertainment : Buzz

In a New York Times essay, the CEO of one Maryland company shares his love of the Baltimore Orioles, who made it to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years this season. 


Jack Dunn, CEO of FTI Consulting Inc., waxes nostalgic about the team that his family once owned when it was a minor league team. 

"My great-grandfather recruited Babe Ruth," Dunn tells Patricia Olsen of the New York Times.  "Babe’s parents had sent him, an unruly son, to an industrial school that served as an orphanage. After seeing him pitch when he was 19, my great-grandfather became his guardian and signed him to the team."

He also says he bought a stake in the Orioles in 1993.

FTI Consulting is based in West Palm Beach, Fla., and has offices in Baltimore and Annapolis. It employs 3,800.

Greater Baltimore breathed a sigh of relief when they missed the worst of Category 1 Hurricane Sandy. 

Schools and many offices closed, leaving residents confined to their homes. So how did folks in Baltimore cope with cabin fever?

Some turned to video streaming provided by Netflix, CNNMoney says. "Viewership doubled on the East Coast, with major spikes in cities including New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.," writes CNNMoney. 

So what movies are popular among Netflix subscribers in Baltimore? Charm City has diverse movie tastes, with "Tyler Perry's Laugh to Keep From Crying," "2001 a Space Odyssey," and the 2001 French horror flick "The Brotherhood of the Wolf" all ranking among the top 10 movies that are favored more in Baltimore compared with other cities. That's according to the Netflix site. 

As if Hurricane Sandy wasn't scary enough news during Halloween week...

Now Forbes and home-buying site Trulia say that Baltimore ranks No. 3 on its list of top places to find a haunted home in the South. 

Another Maryland city, Hagerstown, took the very top spot while New Orleans was No. 2. Huntington, West Virginia and Louisville, Ky., were No. 4 and No. 5. 

So what makes these areas so spooky? Regions of the country that have a higher share of old, vacant homes are more likely to have haunted houses, writes Forbes, which takes its data from Trulia. Roughly 3 percent of all Baltimore homes are both old and vacant. 

"Regions of the country that were settled later and have had recent growth have a much lower share of old, vacant homes," Forbes writes. "That means most of the South and the West."

Baltimore is also one of the top haunted cities, according to SmarterTravel.com.

You can read about buying a haunted Maryland home here. 

Baltimore residents who want to be spooked on Halloween have nothing to fear, according to SmarterTravel.com. 

The travel website named Baltimore one of the 10 most haunted cities. Charm City boasts plenty of ghostly destinations, including Edgar Allen Poe's final resting place, the Westminster Hall catacombs. Then there's Fort McHenry, where haunted apparitions have appeared. 

"Hundreds of years of lost lives and the spirits that remain make the Fells Point area popular among ghost trackers," SmarterTravel.com says. "Guided tours through the maritime neighborhood take you to taverns, shops, and restaurants where things go bump in the night."

Washington, D.C., Savannah, Ga., Chicago and San Francisco also made the list.

Maryland's haunted appeal got another boost recently whenTrip Advisor named Ellicott City one of the top 10 spooky American Getaways. 

And if SmarterTravel's suggestions aren't your cup of brew, there's also the Creative Alliance's annual Halloween Lantern Parade & Festival tomorrow. 

We just hope that "Frankenstorm" Hurricane Sandy doesn't scare everyone away from their Halloween plans. 

When Journey guitarist Neal Schon and "Real Housewives of D.C." cast member Michaele Salahi celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, they'll fondly remember Baltimore as the place that set the stage for their nuptials.

Schon proposed to Salahi — one half of the White House wedding crasher team — at a benefit concert at the Lyric Opera House for the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. 

"Salahi accepted the proposal with 'Open Arms,' according to [her manager] Gina Rodriguez," CNN.com writes. 

"Their relationship began under a cloud in September 2011 when the "Real Housewives of D.C." star was reported missing by her then-husband of nearly eight years Tareq Salahi."

You can read the whole story here. 

Centerstage has asked some of the nation's most prominent playwrights to create short films to answer the question "What is My America."

Neil LaBute, Baltimore-born Anna Deavere Smith and Lynn Nottage are some of the writers involved in the 50 films directed by 90s indie director Hal Hartley, Broadway World writes.

"From foreclosure to gay marriage, from the judiciary to the little-known circumstances surrounding the death of James A. Garfield, these monologues, with a wry mix of humor and heart, shine a light on our particular American moment—and tug at the seams of political rhetoric as only theater can," Broadway World writes. 

Centerstage, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, is releasing the videos weekly up until the Nov. 6 presidential election. You can read the entire story here. 

Pennsylvania brewer D.G. Yuengling & Son is putting the spotlight on Baltimore.

It's filming a number of TV ads in Baltimore that promote Yuengling Lager and Yuengling Light Lager in Baltimore, Shanken News Daily writes. Shanken in a daily email news service that covers the wine, beer and spirits industry. 

"Yuengling’s upcoming set of ads includes five new spots currently in production in Baltimore, focusing on the brewery’s Yuengling Lager and Yuengling Light Lager brands," Shanken writes. "They will target the 21-34-year-old age group that represents the company’s core consumer. The new ads follow a recent push in Yuengling’s home market of Philadelphia, aimed toward reinforcing its status as a household name amid an 'influx of new, competitive beer brands.'" 

You can read the rest of the article here. 

And you can read about the commercials' filming in Canton here. 

Pabu, the Japanese restaurant inside the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore, is celebrating all things sake this week.

Free sake awaits happy hour patrons on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, writes Baltimore magazine. Thursday, the restaurant will hold a five-course dinner with sake pairings. 

You can read more about the sake celebration here. 

The reviews are in and, according to the Washington Post, Rain Pryor has boosted the profile of the Strand Theater Co.

"The person who just took over leadership of the Strand might ring a bell, though. Rain Pryor, Richard’s 43-year-old daughter, is now running the ship," the Post writes.

"And while Pryor is candid about volunteering “to pimp my name” to get the shoestring troupe a little more visibility, her theater bona fides are strong. Pryor is currently enjoying off-Broadway success with her solo show “Fried Chicken and Latkes,” an autobiographical monologue with jazz music featuring Pryor’s takes on her famous father, her Jewish mother, showbiz and more."

Pryor has been living in Baltimore since 2006, the Post writes. The New York Times also recently featured Pryor.

Founded by Jayme Kilburn, the Strand is located in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District and operates on a shoestring budget of $30,000. 

Pennsylvania has its groundhog Punxsutawney Phil to predict whether spring will come early. 

Now Baltimore has its own critter that can forsee future weather. Spice maker McCormick & Co. Inc. will rely on a crab to determine if we'll get an early winter, writes the News Journal of Wilmington, Del. On Sept. 26, the makers of Old Bay seasoning and other spices will make a crab walk the plank into the Inner Harbor, the paper writes.

"If he goes off the right side it will be an early winter. And if he goes off the left side it will be a warm fall," writes the News Journal. 

McCormick recently opened a Harborplace retail location, near which the event will take place. 

A Baltimore vocalist has caught the attention of Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera and other stars of NBC's "The Voice."

Nelson Emokpae, who goes by the band and stage name Nelly’s Echo, was a hit on last week’s episode, according to a recap in the Baltimore Sun. Nigerian born Emokpae fled to Baltimore 16 years ago after his father was wrongfully imprisoned but has since been reunited with the family in Charm City.

Levine and Aguilera both vied for Emokpae to join their teams after hearing the singer’s rendition of “Ain’t No Sunshine”, but Emokpae ended up choosing team Aguilera.

Read more here.

The Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore has one of the top 12 “head-turning” infinity pools, according to Conde Nast Traveler. From the complimentary sunscreen, private cabanas and sounds from the nearby Pier 6 Pavilion summer concerts, swimming is only one of the reasons guests should check out the pool, says the magazine.
 
Some of the other hotel pools on the list are located in Tanzania, Africa, Toronto, Turks & Caicos and Bali, Indonesia. 

The crew of The CW’s “The Next: Fame Is At Your Doorstep” searched for Charm City singers with potential, according to an episode recap in Baltimore City Paper. The episode highlighted four singers performing at the Hippodrome: country singer Jenny Leigh, choir director Shannon Ramsey, pop singer Jordan Baird and teenager Chris Bivins.
 
Baird’s charismatic rendition of Gavin Degraw’s “Not Over You” won over audience members, who voted for him to be the winner of the night who gets sent to semi-finals in Los Angeles.
 
Read how the other Baltimoreans fared here.

The Brandywine River Museum in Pennsylvania will be hosting an exhibit of art inspired by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, who lived for a time in Baltimore.

Antiques and Arts Online describes how Poe inspired abstract expressionist artists after his death.

“Poe's popularity soared in France shortly after his death, especially with avant-garde French writers and artists who appreciated his emphasis on the psychologically dark, perverse and strange.” The article also highlights two works from the Baltimore Museum of Art: Antonio Frasconi’s “The Raven IV” and Horst Janssen’s “Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe”.
 
Edouard Manet, Gustave Doré, Paul Gauguin, James Ensor, Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Rackham, Harry Clarke, Barry Moser and Robert Motherwell are among the artists featured in "Picturing Poe: Illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe's Stories and Poems,"   which runs Sept. 8 to Nov. 15. Read more about the exhibit and Poe’s take on illustrations here. 

We knew Michael Phelps would land a few more high-profile sponsorships after the London Olympics. First, the Rodgers Forge swimmer landed on the Wheaties box.

Now, the most decorated Olympian has wound up in the water again. No, not a swimming pool but a bathtub. Phelps joins Muhammad Ali and Angelina Jolie by becoming the latest face to grace ads for the French luxury line Louis Vuitton. 

"In a new ad for Louis Vuitton, Phelps can be seen partially submersed in a tub while wearing a suit and a pair of goggles with a duffle bag from the French fashion house sits conveniently beside him on a towel," E online writes. "The campaign was reportedly shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz."

The ad could get Phelps in hot water with the International Olympic Committee, which has a new rule that prohibits Olympic athletes from appearing in ads that aren't promoted by official sponsors, NBCNews.com writes.