Inqlings: Queen of the Nile here for a while
Cleopatra, comin' atcha. Next year, the Franklin Institute will be the first stop in a traveling exhibition about the enigmatic Egyptian queen.
Cleopatra
, comin' atcha.
Next year, the Franklin Institute will be the first stop in a traveling exhibition about the enigmatic Egyptian queen.
"Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt," opening June 5, follows the FI's 2007 blockbuster "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," which National Geographic, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology also had a hand in.
Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.) was Egypt's last pharaoh before the Romans stepped in to conquer. The Romans later tried to rewrite history and destroy all traces of her existence. Remnants from her rule will be woven into the story of the search for her history and tomb by archaeologists Zahi Hawass, who's trying to find the tomb of lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony, and Franck Goddio, who uncovered her palace and two ancient cities that had been lost beneath the Mediterranean after earthquakes and tidal waves. The run's start in Philly is fitting, as Cleopatra and Antony's youngest child was Ptolemy Philadelphus.
After the exhibition's Philly run, in January 2011, the exhibition will head to four other cities.
Honoring Aunt Lizzie
Prince Albert
of Monaco was a pallbearer and recited from Chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes yesterday as he joined his Kelly relatives at St. Bridget's Church in East Falls for the funeral of
Elizabeth Kelly Le Vine
, his Aunt Lizzie. The youngest daughter of Philadelphia power broker
John B. Kelly Sr.
and sister of
Grace Kelly
died of cancer Tuesday at 76. "I had to share her with everybody," said son
Chris Le Vine
, an investment banker. "She was just a giving person." Former Navy Secretary
John Lehman
, a cousin, also was a pallbearer. A memorial has been set up at Religious of the Assumption in West Philadelphia, the order that ran her alma mater, Ravenhill Academy. Albert, 51, is the son of Grace Kelly and
Prince Rainier
.
That's 4 for 5
Eagles quarterback
Donovan McNabb
announced on his blog that wife
Raquel
delivered their fourth child, son
Devin James
, on Nov. 20. This is a handful. Devin is 353 days younger than the couple's twins,
Sariah
and
Donovan Jr.
Daughter
Alexis
was born in September 2004. "Roxi" McNabb had to miss the annual Donovan McNabb Fund Thanksgiving dinner at Stenton Family Manor in East Germantown. The QB's parents,
Wilma and Sam
, did the honors, with help from players' wives
Loretta Runyan
(
Jon
),
Tammi Trotter
(
Jeremiah
),
Maggie Jean-Gilles
(
Max
), and
Megaen Brown
(
Reggie
), plus
Cynthia Johnson
(
Darren Howard
's mother).
Grow leaving 'Action News'
Erica Grow
and 6ABC will part company at the end of her contract, which expires next month, as a station memo disclosed last week. The weekend meteorologist, a native of Bethlehem, Pa., and a 2002 Penn State grad, joined the station in January 2007. Grow's rise in the biz has been rapid. She started in 2003 at an ABC station in Odessa/Midland, Texas (market rank: 155), and soon after moved back East to join WHP, the CBS affiliate in Harrisburg (market rank: 39). Next stop was big-time: Philly (market rank: 4). At 6ABC, Grow replaced
SallyAnn Mosey
, who has been freelancing for Fox29.
Action News
will also lose evening weatherman
Dave Roberts
to retirement after Dec. 11.
A tailor-made fund-raiser
Gov. Rendell
, who says he's lost 56 pounds, donated four of his fat suits to the MenzFit campaign, which outfits disadvantaged men looking for jobs.
Brian Lipstein
, owner of Henry A. Davidsen Master Tailors & Image Consultants, picked them up from Rendell last week at the governor's office in the Bellevue. Rendell said the donation not only helps a food cause but "also allows me to put down a challenge to myself not to regain the weight that I have lost." Lipstein is collecting suits at his shop, 1701 Spruce St., second floor. Also participating are Pants (931 Lancaster Ave., second floor, Bryn Mawr), the Pyramid Club (1735 Market St.), and the Camden Riversharks (401 N. Delaware Ave., Camden).
Foodstuff
The Food Network has put new "Iron Chef"
Jose Garces
to work. Garces, winner of
The Next Iron Chef
, will be seen cooking against Seattle's Rachel Yang in his first competition on Jan. 17. But he can't win 'em all. A team fronted by chef
Marc Vetri
defeated Garces' squad, three touchdowns to two, in a Thanksgiving Day game of rough-touch football in Fairmount. "There were a lot of sore legs," said Vetri, whose sous chef at Osteria,
Dave Clark
, scored all touchdowns. Clark was a wide receiver in high school in Upstate New York.
Media notes
Twenty years ago, New Jersey Network launched the political show
Reporters Roundtable
, hosted by
Michael Aron
. For a special, it's assembled the panelists from the first season:
David Wald
, former political columnist for the Newark Star-Ledger;
David Blomquist
, former political reporter for the Bergen Record;
Jim Goodman
, former political columnist for the Trenton Times; and
Sal Paolantonio
, former political correspondent for The Inquirer, now with ESPN. Airs at 10 a.m. today.
John Mussoni has removed the word interim before his title, and now he's managing editor of WHYY's news operation in Wilmington. Before joining WHYY in June, Mussoni was a senior executive producer at the old CN8.
All hit, no field
Actor
Corbin Bernsen
takes issue with
Glen Macnow
and
Ray Didinger
's opinion of his athletic skills.
In the WIP sports talkers' book, The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies, they include Bernsen among the 10 worst actors as athletes ("reaches for every ground ball like it's a live grenade"), call Bernsen "the weak link" in the movie Major League, and rank the talent level of the sequel Major League: Back to the Minors as "less than your beer-league softball squad."
Last week, Bernsen posted this message on Macnow's Facebook page: "Hey Glen, was so excited to read your book but obviously hugely disappointed that you guys have such a low opinion of me. Thank God fans feel differently. You seem to take pleasure in jabbing at me at every turn. By the way, my buddy [and Major League costar] Dennis Haysbert . . . is now doing Allstate commercials and I have the show on the air with Psych. Come on, [the character] Dorn wasn't that bad!"
Macnow thinks Bernsen is taking it lightly, but to be sure, they're trying to get him to call in to their show.