Spacey, Stack trade acting stories
Actor Kevin Spaceys banter with Lt. Gov. Mike Stack has audience in stitches.
Kevin Spacey was the keynote speaker at Monday night's annual Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry dinner at the Hershey Lodge (325 University Drive) in Hershey, where about 1,800 people were in attendance.
Sources say that Spacey shared a table with Lt. Gov. Mike Stack, and the two got to talking about acting.
Stack is no hack when it comes to the craft. In fact, he played a detective in an episode of the 2009 online series "Finders Keepers," which made him a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild. He's done several commercials, appeared on the PBS show "Christina Cooks" and has done live theater with the King of Prussia Players and Footlighters Theatre, in Berwyn.
My spies at the table say Spacey joked that he would sign Stack up for a guest appearance on a future episode of Spacey's hit Netflix series, "House of Cards," but that his character, the ruthless and Machiavellian President Frank Underwood, would have to make certain that Stack didn't survive.
During his speech, Spacey reportedly noted that he had a choice between coming to Pennsylvania for the dinner and attending the Emmys with a bunch of actors in California.
As he chose the former, he hinted - tongue-in-cheek - that he might be giving a new role to "someone in the audience . . . but that's between me and the lieutenant governor."
New DJ for 'XPN Morning Show'
WXPN, the University of Pennsylvania's adult alternative radio station, has a new host for its "XPN Morning Show." She's Kristen Kurtis, originally from Downingtown, more recently from Austin, Texas.
Although her on-air start date hasn't been set, her first day in the building is Oct. 1.
Kurtis replaces 25-year radio veteran Michaela Majoun, who retired to focus on writing screenplays.
Kurtis, an avid lover of the band No Doubt, comes to us from KGSR (93.3 FM) in Austin, where she was midday host, assistant program director and music director. Before that, she had a stint at KEZE (96.9 FM) in Spokane, Wash.
"Spokane was a great place to make mistakes because it was a smaller market," Kurtis said. "I'm glad to have gotten that out of my system."
Kurtis said she's spent a lot of time on stages in front of large crowds doing improv, sketch and stand-up comedy.
Growing up in Downingtown, Kurtis said, her mom religiously listened to WBEB (101.1 FM) and her dad was a WMGK (102.9 FM) fan. "Radio has always been a staple in my life," she said. "And the goal was always to come back to Philadelphia."
Just like the one they play at the Vatican
A piano manufacturer from Germantown is providing the organ for the papal Mass on the parkway this weekend.
Cunningham Piano Co. (5427 Germantown Ave.) will transport the 1,200-pound organ from the Pennsylvania Convention Center - where a Mass took place yesterday - to the Ben Franklin Parkway for Sunday's huge Mass and Pope Francis' homily.
Piano experts at Cunningham claim that theirs is a traditional digital organ exactly like the one used at the Vatican.
