Inqlings | Lane top attraction on the Net
CBS3's Alycia Lane might not have done anything for her station's on-air ratings last week - she's on vacation, right? - but she was big business on the Internet.
CBS3's
Alycia Lane
might not have done anything for her station's on-air ratings last week - she's on vacation, right? - but she was big business on the Internet.
Lane coverage has drawn nearly one million page views on Philly.com since last Sunday, when Phillygossip.com broke the news of the anchorwoman's arrest during a night on the town with Q102 radio host
Chris Booker
.
Add May's coverage of Bikini-gate - the imbroglio in which Lane's vacation photos, e-mailed to sports anchor
Rich Eisen
, were seen by his wife - and Lane was Philly.com's top attraction of 2007, generating about 1.5 million page views, according to stats from Omniture.
More than politics, more than war, more than crime, more than the mayoral election, more than the Eagles. Deep sigh.
Yahoo, which does not disclose raw numbers of queries, reports that Lane's traffic from Monday and Tuesday landed her in the week's top 300 searches nationally, beating Dallas Cowboys QB "
Tony Romo
" and even "Christmas trees." Hits on Booker's name rose 1,813 percent, while queries for those bikini photos - which have not surfaced - rose 3,000 percent, Yahoo says.
Spikes also were seen on "CBS3," "KYW TV" and anchor "
Chris Wragge
," a former Lane beau.
Presumably, Web traffic at their stations' sites shot up, too.
CBS3 has replaced Lane with meteorologist
Kathy Orr
to anchor New Year's Eve fireworks coverage with anchor
Larry Mendte
. That means reporter
Susan Barnett
will go out to Penn's Landing.
Cherie Bank mending
Veteran NBC10 medical reporter
Cherie Bank
probably has a story coming up - one she's in the middle of. She was watching
Today
in October when "I felt an explosion behind my right eye," she says. "I realized that something was terribly wrong." At Wills Eye, docs found a hemorrhage behind her retina. Ophthalmologist
Allen Ho
treated her Oct. 22, and she's awaiting a follow-up in late January to get a prognosis for her return. Bank, 57, says Ho told her that people who are very nearsighted are more suspectable to the condition. "The vision that's returning is very distorted for now," she says, adding that the worst part is behind her. For the first eight days, she says, "you have to lie down facedown 24/7." She's spending time with her daughter,
Emily
, and entertaining coworkers who visit.
Real estate watch
Two celeb-owned houses were on the market less than a month: Chef
Georges Perrier's
Haverford place was listed for $2.1 million; he and his wife are bound for Chestnut Hill. Former Phillie
Aaron Rowand's
McMansion in Garnet Valley (the nouveau-riche name for Delco's Bethel Township) was listed for $985,000; he and his wife are buying in the San Francisco Bay area. Sale prices are not known, pending closings. Star chef
Eric Ripert
, putting an eatery in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton in mid-'08, is making noise about buying an 18th-floor condo in the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, going up next door.
The Swiss Pastry Shop, a fixture on 19th Street south of Market, has closed suddenly. Public records identify the building's new owner as
Gary Erlbaum
, whose son
Jon Erlbaum
leads the Chevra, a group serving Jewish professionals and graduate students in their 20s and 30s. The Chevra will be based at 35 S. 19th St. after five years on the Main Line.
Tinseltown
I hear that just about every large building in the area is being scouted by
M. Night Shyamalan
, who needs four or five huge soundstages in mid-2008 when he starts shooting the first of three
Avatar
live-action films for Paramount.
Filmmaker
Natalie Paige Bentley
needs 100 extras, dressed in church clothes, for a scene for her film
The City of Motherly Love
at 7:30 a.m. Saturday at the Church of the Holy Trinity, near 19th and Walnut. E-mail
» READ MORE: cityofmotherlylove@gmail.com
to volunteer.
Media activity
Nothing official yet from WYSP (94.1), but the Chicago Sun-Times reports that
Gordon Mays
, promotion coordinator and weekend/fill-in at Windy City alt-rock outlet WKQX, will start doing evenings on the rock station Jan 14. WKQX was the former home of new WYSP midday host/assistant program director
Brett "Spike" Eskin
, whose shift follows
Kidd Chris'
. No decision yet, I hear, on afternoons; it's down to two candidates - one a woman, both from out of town.
Murdered by Mumia
, the book by
Maureen Faulkner
and
Michael Smerconish
, debuted at No. 20 on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction list, dated Dec. 30.
Philadelphia Magazine's
Robert Huber
credits editor
Larry Platt
for landing
Andy and Tammy Reid's
story of their sons' addiction crisis after lots of talks. Huber, who sat with the couple and their lawyer for two hours, says the Reids' story, in the January issue, should give pause to their detractors: "These parents have been dealing with it for five years, trying whatever seemed to make sense to help" sons
Britt and Garrett
. Because it's their first-person account, Huber says, they and attorney
Paul Rosen
were allowed to read it beforehand and made what he called minor changes. Also, the mag and Andy Reid acknowledge that the magazine will donate an unspecified amount to a charity.
The circuit
Promising to be a good boy, prankster idol
Bam Margera
got West Chester's green light for a liquor license at his new theater, under construction. The Borough Council voted, 5-2, Wednesday to drop its opposition after Margera and business partner
Don Moore
agreed to conditions including no takeout beer sales; adequate soundproofing, cameras and security workers; and background checks on prospective employees. "We want to work with this town," says their lawyer
Bill Shehwen
, who still must take the matter to the state Liquor Control Board.
Takeo Spikes
winced through shoulder pain at his birthday party at Swanky Bubbles in Cherry Hill on Monday, a day after the Eagles linebacker tore a rotator cuff. Many Eagles and girlfriend
Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins
showed up to mark No. 51's 31st. The party spilled out of the second-floor lounge into the downstairs area, where players signed autographs for the little people.
As Fox29's holiday party at GiGi Lounge in Old City wound down late Thursday, a farewell blast for meteorologist
Rob Guarino
began. Eagles QB
A.J. Feeley
happened to be there, prompting colleagues to tease Guarino that even
he
wanted to say goodbye. Guarino's contract was not renewed. His replacement was not at the party.
John Bolaris
will start Jan. 8.
The Sixers are charity-auctioning a No. 1 jersey signed by
Miley Cyrus
at
» READ MORE: http://auctions.nba.com
. Bidding Friday started at $180.
Painter to the stars
Nelson Shanks
was feted the other night on his 70th birthday at Studio Incamminati, the Center City art school he and wife
Leona
founded five years ago. On the guest list were Comcast founder
Ralph Roberts
(now sitting for a portrait) and lawyer
Dick Sprague
, who in his remarks dismissed any thoughts of comparing Shanks to
Rembrandt
because, he said, it was unfair to Rembrandt.