Inqlings | Kammerer switches channels
Sunny skies for meteorologist Doug Kammerer. Days after parting company from NBC10 after four years, he's joining CBS3. Kammerer, 32, plans to start Monday in the office at CBS3, but he cannot work on the air till his noncompete passes in mid-February. Get this: He says he's getting more money and he'll be able to walk to work from the Center City home he shares with his wife and baby son. Sounding like a car ad, Kammerer ebulliently intoned: "black Isuzu Rodeo, 2003, call Doug at . . ."
Sunny skies for meteorologist
Doug Kammerer
. Days after parting company from NBC10 after four years, he's joining CBS3.
Kammerer, 32, plans to start Monday in the office at CBS3, but he cannot work on the air till his noncompete passes in mid-February. Get this: He says he's getting more money and he'll be able to walk to work from the Center City home he shares with his wife and baby son. Sounding like a car ad, Kammerer ebulliently intoned: "black Isuzu Rodeo, 2003, call Doug at . . ."
Meanwhile, Philly is seeing a newsie shortage.
Kammerer's departure puts NBC10's EarthWatch team down two bodies, as Amy Freeze, who left for Chicago in January, has not been replaced. CBS3 let go Steve Bucci, leaving Beasley Reece and Don Bell in sports. At Fox29, Tom Burlington is off the air - suspended and likely not returning - and George Mallet is on his way to Milwaukee. And 6ABC will get two temporary shortages as Cecily Tynan is due in three weeks and Karen Rogers is expecting two weeks after her. (I hear that Tynan went into labor Monday, but contractions stopped.)
Cold cuts
Famous 4th Street Deli is closed through the weekend after a management shakeup. And it ain't chopped liver.
Back story: Two years ago, Brooklyn-born deli entrepreneur Russ Cowan bought the Queen Village landmark from longtime owner David Auspitz and renovated it. Earlier this year, Cowan handed the keys to two partners, Bill Shapiro and Harry Willner, who agreed to run it and pay Cowan under a contract. Money got tight, and the partners got in a pickle.
They're out their six-figure investment, and Cowan has stepped back in to run it. Cowan says he needs a few days to change inventory and should be behind the counter Monday.
Cowan, whose forte is setting up delis and selling them, most recently renovated (and quickly sold) Mr. Bill's in Winslow, Camden County.
One to go
Another restaurant is temporarily closed, but this one's all for Hollywood. G Lodge, the rustic diner near Phoenixville, yesterday accommodated filming for
M. Night Shyamalan's
new drama
The Happening
. Owner
Dennis Dreibelbis
, wife
Terri Nelms
and cook
Bob Quigg
all got cameos. In the scene, panicky people, including star
Mark Wahlberg
, burst into the "Filbert Restaurant." G Lodge is expected to reopen Saturday.
Making some extra d'oh
Terry Gross
, the WHYY-based
Fresh Air
host, fielded a most interesting caller recently: a casting director from
The Simpsons
. "He asked if I'd be willing to play myself," Gross says. She did just that last week, voicing five lines for a future episode. Gross could not quote chapter and verse, but she believes that she'll be heard over the radio in a car Marge rents after she cracks up the family car. During her read, she says, the director asked her to "make it a little more cartoonish." Gross' favorite
Simpsons
episodes: the one in which Homer goes to rock camp and the one in which
John Waters
plays the gay owner of a collectible shop.
Briefly noted
Two
Happening
-related sightings:
Zooey Deschanel
and two friends touring the Tut exhibition on Sunday at the Franklin Institute, and
Mark Wahlberg
and
M. Night Shyamalan
dining Tuesday at Barclay Prime.
Actors Kevin Dillon and Kevin Connolly (Entourage) are expected to dine Saturday at the House of Blues at Atlantic City's Showboat Casino-Hotel. After which, 10-ish, they'll host a public party at The Pool at Harrah's.